BUNS Podcast

Good morning, and welcome to your Friday Five, a weekly newscast from the Boston University News Service. Today we’ll take a look at our top stories from this week, including virtual yoga, how colleges are approaching SATs and ACTs, and a look at this year’s uncharacteristically quiet “Marathon Monday.” Let’s get started so you can start your day.

“Friday Five” is a weekly podcast from the Boston University News Service hosted by the BUNS Editorial Board where we tackle the week’s top stories. Tune in to stay up to date on all things Boston.

FULL COVERAGE:

Virtual Yoga: http://bunewsservice.com/?p=52997

Contact Tracing MA: http://bunewsservice.com/despite-initial-concerns-contact-tracing-thrives-in-massachusetts/

COVD-19 Homelessness: http://bunewsservice.com/where-do-homeless-go-when-advised-to-stay-home-attleboro-area-lawmakers-back-bill-to-address-problem/

SAT and ACT: http://bunewsservice.com/?p=53400

Marathon Monday: http://bunewsservice.com/marathon-monday-empty-streets-on-bostons-iconic-day/

Good morning, and welcome to your Friday Five, a weekly newscast from the Boston University News Service. It’s Friday, April 17th. Today we’ll take a look at our top stories from this week, including a potential transportation bill, med students on the frontlines of COVID-19, and the future of telehealth access. Let’s get started so you can start your day.

“Friday Five” is a weekly podcast from the Boston University News Service hosted by the BUNS Editorial Board where we tackle the week’s top stories. Tune in to stay up to date on all things Boston.

FULL COVERAGE:

Berkshire Taxes: http://bunewsservice.com/berkshire-lawmakers-say-transportation-bill-would-be-beneficial-despite-gas-tax-increase/

Weekly Wonder: http://bunewsservice.com/weekly-wonder-how-prepared-were-different-countries-for-covid-19/

Medical Grads: http://bunewsservice.com/medical-students-volunteer-on-the-frontline-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

Telehealth: UPCOMING

Gaga Songs: http://bunewsservice.com/just-dance-ranking-lady-gagas-best-songs/

Good morning! We're now in our fourth week putting together the show from several different time zones and broadcasting on Zoom, and now that we've begun to settle into the new normal, we're starting to ask what the future holds. What major changes are we likely to see as a result of this crisis? That's a question we'll be trying to answer as we cover the many impacts of the pandemic.

Today, your News Brunch crew tackles a glimmer of hope in COVID-19 numbers, curfews in Boston and Puerto Rico, primaries in Wisconsin, unexpected impacts of stay-at-home measures, financial consequences for millennials, the impacts of remote work and remote education, COVID-19 and climate change, a potential cure, and more.

Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next week. This edition of WTBU News Brunch was produced by Sofie Isenberg, Ina Joseph, Emily Wilson, Frank Hernández, Hannah Harn, Katherine Swindells, and Kendall Tamer. Our Technical Producer is Danny Roa.

Good morning, and welcome to your Friday Five, a weekly newscast from the Boston University News Service. It’s Friday, April 10th. Today we’ll take a look at our top stories from this week, including pandemic responses from local cultural organizations, how Hollywood has been put on hold, and what your editors are streaming in quarantine. Let’s get started so you can start your day.

“Friday Five” is a weekly podcast from the Boston University News Service hosted by the BUNS Editorial Board where we tackle the week’s top stories. Tune in to stay up to date on all things Boston.

FULL COVERAGE:

Massachusetts Culture: http://bunewsservice.com/massachusetts-cultural-organizations-waiting-to-see-the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-amid-closures/

COVID and Climate: http://bunewsservice.com/markey-fonda-see-parallels-between-pandemic-and-climate-change/

Hollywood on Hold: http://bunewsservice.com/hollywood-interrupted/

Good morning, and welcome to your Friday Five, a weekly newscast from the Boston University News Service. Today we’ll take a look at our top stories from this week, including a new Latino group bringing a voice to East Boston, and our latest coverage of COVID-19. Let’s get started so you can start your day.

And be sure to check out our next episode of Between the Bylines, where we sit down with our contributors to discuss our top stories through the lens of student journalism. Visit us online at bunewsservice.com/podcasts for more information.

Full Coverage:

Mass Legislation: https://bunewsservice.com/some-mass-legislators-persist-in-calling-for-shelter-in-place/

California Discrimination: https://bunewsservice.com/?p=52874

Marijuana Non-Essential: https://bunewsservice.com/marijuana-industry-stakeholders-want-gov-charlie-baker-to-reconsider-the-classification-of-adult-use-marijuana-as-a-non-essential-service/

East Boston: http://bunewsservice.com/all-we-have-left-is-to-unite-the-latino-group-trying-to-give-east-boston-a-voice/

Coronavirus Body: http://bunewsservice.com/weekly-wonder-remote-work-had-many-benefits-long-before-it-was-meant-to-slow-a-pandemic/

Good morning, and welcome to your WTBU News Brunch. We're on week three of zoom broadcasting, or what we like to call zoom-casting, and while we haven't been coming to you from our typical studio space, we've been making the most of, and having fun with, this virtual adventure. Thanks for sticking with us, and we hope you enjoy today's show.

New York City remains the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with confirmed cases of COVID-19 reaching more than 37,000. In some good news, Governor Cuomo also said more than 4,200 people in New York State have been discharged from hospitals, and that while the number of hospitalizations continues to grow, the rate at which it is growing is tapering off.

Across Europe, countries are bringing in lockdowns and other extraordinary measures to try and control the spread. WTBU reporter Sofie Isenberg spoke to Carol Kemble, who had been sailing around the world before getting stuck in the port of Cartagena, Spain. Spain has been one of the hardest-hit countries by the coronavirus outbreak, now with over 54,000 cases and over 5,000 dead.

More than fifty volunteers have stepped up to help the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Boston University's Medical Campus to help develop and implement a unique coronavirus test that can return results in less than 24 hours. And the Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for a five-minute test from Abbot Labs. The medical device company plans to supply 50,000 tests per day, starting Wednesday.

345 employees at four of Boston's largest hospitals have tested positive for the coronavirus, adding strain to the system as the city approaches the peak in its coronavirus curve. In anticipation of healthcare needs, some medical students will be granted temporary licenses to help manage the influx of patients.

In an email to the Class of 2020 and their families, Boston University announced that the ceremony in May would be postponed until late August or early fall. WTBU’s Frank Hernández talked to some grads about what this means for them.

While the transition to online classes for college students is underway, many elementary school teachers have had to make even bigger adjustments to how they interact with their students. WTBU's Hannah Harn spoke to elementary educators about how distance learning has affected their classrooms.

As people in the UK begin what may be several months of nationwide lockdown, they're figuring out how to translate social activities online, whether that be beers over Zoom or YouTube workouts in the living room. WTBU London reporter Katharine Swindells talked to members of the gaming community, to find out how social isolation is impacting them.

Social media has been essential during this global pandemic. Shared videos and recirculated posts keep us connected and entertained with our family and friends. According to WTBU commentator Ina Joseph, we still need to be mindful of its drawbacks.

3.3 million people have filed for unemployment after workplaces across America shut down to ease the spread of the Coronavirus. A CNBC report predicts the unemployment rate in the U.S. will skyrocket to 32%. Thousands of businesses have closed, and small businesses are particularly at risk of closure turning permanent.

Marijuana shops across Massachusetts fear they could go out of business after Governor Charlie Baker deemed recreational purchases of marijuana non-essential. Some agree with the decision, arguing against smoking during a pandemic that attacks the respiratory system, while others see marijuana as a necessity, especially during trying times filled with anxiety and stress. California, Washington, and Oregon deem marijuana as essential. 

This edition of WTBU News Brunch was produced by Emily Wilson, Frank Hernández, Hannah Harn, Katherine Swindells, Kendall Tamer, Sofie Isenberg, and Ina Joseph. Our Technical Producer is Danny Roa.

Good morning, and welcome to your WTBU News Brunch. Like last week, we’re running our show on Zoom and will be for the rest of the semester. This week, we’ve got reporters in Puerto Rico, London, New York, Boston, and California.

The Tokyo Olympics are officially being postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. This morning, the International Olympic Committee and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe SAY that the Tokyo Olympics will now take place no later than Summer 2021 but will still be called the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Twenty US states have stay-at-home orders, all varying in scope. California Governor Gavin Newsom has strictly limited Californians' ability to socialize and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced yesterday that their public schools would be closing.

The Philippine Congress has approved a bill declaring a national emergency. They also are authorizing the president to launch an $18 million aid plan for families and to tap private hospitals and ships to help fight the outbreak.

All eyes are on the United States Senate to see if they can finally agree on a coronavirus spending deal. The proposal will support those affected by layoffs and unemployment during the coronavirus outbreak. Yesterday's vote on a $2 Trillion virus aid package failed, and Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen says that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should have waited until a more firm agreement Was reached.

Pandemonium hit the supermarkets of Puerto Rico this past weekend after widespread rumors on social media said there would be a shortage of food due to the island's shelter-in-place and overnight curfew. Puerto Rico governor Wanda Vasquez was quick to deny those rumors on a Facebook livestream, scolding those who spread the rumors and calling irresponsible those who violated the shelter-in-place.

The United States is cutting $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan and is threatening even more. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo paid a visit to Kabul Monday to meet with political rivals, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah. The two Afghan politicians both declared themselves the president after last year's election.

Pacific Gas & Electric will plead guilty for 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in 2018's Camp Fire in California. The fire destroyed three Northern California towns and has led the utility company to bankruptcy. Residents of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover who were affected by the Merrimack Valley gas explosions in September of 2018, will soon be receiving compensation for their suffering. Payments from the class-action Columbia Gas settlement have been expedited as a result of economic downfall from the coronavirus. The first round of payments will go out in mid-May.

The official Census Day is April 1st, but data for the 2020 census has already started being collected by mail from every household in America. But In the time of the coronavirus, a lot of students are not residing where they typically would be which may be a problem for student-heavy states like Massachusetts.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, today we look back to the last global outbreak of this scale: the 1918 influenza pandemic, which hit Boston particularly hard. More than a thousand Bostonians died, many of them soldiers returning from World War one in Europe. But there are big differences between 1918 and today.

The last few weeks have been pretty stressful for Boston University students. However Liquid Fun, one of BU's improv comedy groups is looking to provide a humorous escape from it all. This Friday, the troupe will perform an improv show directly on Zoom, the same platform we’re using for our News Brunch. 

This edition of WTBU News Brunch was produced by Emily Wilson, Frank Hernández, Hannah Harn, Katherine Swindells, Kendall Tamer, Sofie Isenberg, and Ina Joseph. Our Technical Producer is Danny Roa.

Good morning, and welcome to your WTBU News Brunch.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we are putting this show together online, via zoom. We've got people in Puerto Rico, London, Barcelona, New York, and Boston. As they say, "The show must go on!"

Fans across New England are in shock after Tom Brady announces just hours ago, that he will not be returning to play for the New England Patriots. After Brady's contract expired this season, fans had been anticipating his next move. Although he did say in interviews that he was unsure what was in store for him, one Superbowl advertisement convinced fans that he would not be leaving New England.

As of yesterday, the United States is reporting more than 3,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with a total of 68 deaths, and the White House is emphasizing the importance of is self-isolation and hygiene to help protect Americans during the global Coronavirus outbreak. They advise older individuals to stay at home, and for people of all ages to avoid crowds and large events.

And perhaps a bit of good news on the virus front: human testing has begun on a coronavirus vaccine clinical trial. The first injections of the vaccine, called mRNA-1273, took place yesterday at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

After a brutal sell-off that gave the U.S. stock market its worst loss in more than three decades, the stock market opened slightly higher today. The White House is also proposing an emergency economic rescue package, totaling around 850 billion dollars, while Democrats have proposed their own $750 billion package.

Italy has become the country hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic after China. There have been almost twenty-eight thousand cases and over two thousand dead since the outbreak was first discovered on February 21, and there are worries that the U.S. may be next in line if appropriate precautions aren't taken.

Speaking of responses to COVID-19, In addition to all Mass. public schools closing, many colleges are also shutting down. But Boston University is doing a balancing act: moving classes online while allowing some students to stay on campus. While campus may feel like a ghost town, about a third of the student population - 4,000 students - stayed on campus at the start of spring break, even though the university is encouraging them to stay home.

Last night Ohio Governor Mike Dewine announced the cancelation of the Ohio primary, originally held for today, due to the current health crisis. Initially, a judge refused to delay the Ohio primary but in the wee hours of the morning, Ohio declared a state of emergency that nixed the judge's order.

Puerto Rico has become the first among the US territories and states to enforce a curfew that essentially keeps people in their homes 24 hours a day in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus. WTBU reporter Frank Hernández says this is only the latest in a long list of reasons the island is demanding not to be treated like a second class citizen.

Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next week. This edition of WTBU News Brunch was produced by Frank Hernández, Hannah Harn, Katherine Swindells, Kendall Tamer, Sofie Isenberg, Ina Joseph, Emily Wilson, and Danny Roa.

Good morning, and welcome to your WTBU News Brunch.

After ending their campaigns this weekend, former Democratic hopefuls Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar are both endorsing former vice president Joe Biden ahead of today’s primaries.

Fourteen states will host their primary elections today, with one-thousand-three-hundred fifty-seven delegates at stake. However, after candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have suspended their campaigns, there’s a question of where those votes will go. WTBU’s Hannah Harn spoke with Professor Bruce Schulman, the William Huntington Professor of History at Boston University, who says early voting in primaries can be difficult.

Boston University's Film and Television program has cracked down on equipment check-outs, enforcing students to only use the gear for current in-class projects. WTBU reporter Ina Joseph says students are not happy with the change

Octave of Light, a music album that combines music and science, comes out in November, but you can get a taste of the album now with the couple songs that have been released. The album explores the concept of turning light into sound. Emily Wilson chatted with the composer of the album, David Ibbitt, to get more insight on how this project came to be.

March is International Women’s Month, and in this country, many people are talking about women’s position in politics. a new book challenges the notion that Muslim women have no role in political life. WTBU reporter Katherine Swindells sat down with Shall Haeri, an Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, here at Boston University, and author of the new book "The Unforgettable Queens of Islam: Succession, Authority, Gender," who says women have had powerful roles for hundreds of years.

Boston University’s students studying abroad in Italy will be returning to the United States. The novel coronavirus is making its way through Northern Italy after the outbreak has begun to slow in China. It’s also spreading to other countries like Australia, Thailand, and even France, who closed the Louvre to prevent further spread. Italy is one of the worst outbreaks at present, and many universities, as well as BU, have students studying abroad in these areas, such as Rome, Venice, and Padua. WTBU’s Kendal Tamer spoke with abroad students about their experiences as coronavirus spreads.

This edition of WTBU News Brunch was produced by Hannah Harn, Katherine Swindells, Kendall Tamer, Sofie Isenberg, Ina Joseph, Emily Wilson, Frank Hernández. Our Technical Producer is Danny Roa

Good morning, and welcome to your WTBU News Brunch.

We start with a look at the primaries in South Carolina, where candidate Joe Biden is hoping for a boost in the polls. Super Tuesday is just one week away, where 14 states will go to the polls. WTBU reporter Ina Joseph went to city hall to talk with Boston’s early voters.

Harvey Weinstein is in a prison hospital this morning after being convicted of rape yesterday. WTBU reporter Kendall Tamer spoke with Gina Scaramella of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center to talk about how the verdict may mark a change in the way juries view rape cases.

Stocks opened slightly higher today on Wall Street after fears about the coronavirus led the market to plummet over 1000 points yesterday, but they soon dropped another 300 points. markets in Europe and Japan are not very much better. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Mark Esper held a joint news conference last night with a South Korean counterpart announcing changes to the country's joint military training exercises.

Despite widespread concern about the virus, the World Health Organization's chief has so far declined to declare a global health emergency a pandemic and is urging countries not to close their borders using the word pandemic.

Back here in Boston, Chinese students at BU are trying to get on with the semester, but it's not always easy. WTBU reporter Sofie Isenberg spoke with some international students to gauge their experiences over the last few weeks.

Sparks and smoke on a Red Line train raised concern for MBTA riders. Last night, the Red Line experienced delays after a train caught fire coming into the Broadway station. A cell phone video taken off Reddit displays the scene of the incident.

The City of Boston is launching a new effort to change all that with a new urban planning project called Connect Downtown. WTBU reporter Sofie Isenberg chatted with locals to get their thoughts on street safety.

Students at the University of Pittsburgh are entering their fifth day of protest. WTBU’s Hannah Harn spoke to a core organizer of the Fossil Free Pitt Coalition about students’ hopes for the sit-in and how the university administration has responded.

The warm weather and minimal snowfall is making the black bears from New England states like Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts incredibly active this winter. WTBU reporter Frank Hernández spoke to experts on how climate change is affecting the bears’ patterns.

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson is remembered for her lasting contributions to space exploration. Johnson died yesterday at 100 years old. Johnson was represented in the film "Hidden Figures."

Business seems to be thriving at Darryl’s Corner Kitchen and Bar in Boston. People are coming in for food and live music in the midst of Black history month and the Black Restaurant Challenge, an annual initiative to get people to explore Black-owned restaurants and bars in Boston. This is the third year, and Darryl’s kicked off the challenge February 1. WTBU reporter Kendall Tamer, sat down with the owner, Nia Grace, to discuss the event and what it does for business before and after.

Thousands gathered at the Staples Center yesterday to commemorate the death of Kobe Bryant. Pro-basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan was one of many well-known figures in attendance. Jordan gave a heartfelt speech on his connection to Kobe and how he affected Jordan’s life.

Today the Boston Red Sox will continue their Spring training in Florida, against the Baltimore Orioles, but after trading valuable players fans are skeptical but hopeful for what’s to come this season. WTBU reporter Emily Wilson caught up with fans to see what they think is ahead for the Red Sox.

This edition of WTBU News Brunch was produced by Katherine Swindells, Kendall Tamer, Sofie Isenberg, Ina Joseph, Emily Wilson, Frank Hernández, and Hannah Harn. Our Technical Producer is Danny Roa.