Regional Roundup – December 13th

Uproar at Penn after a controversial figure is invited to be a visiting scholar. A new grant to help medical workers cope with stress. And - Murphy's Pinelands picks: a shock.

Governor Phil Murphy’s recent nominees for the Pinelands Commission have been met with shock and confusion by NJ environmentalists for ties to chemical companies and political lobbying. Guest: Jon Hurdle, freelance environmental journalist and contributor to NJ Spotlight

Students recently protested a controversial Ecuadorian political figure who was invited to the University of Pennsylvania Penn as a visiting scholar. Guest: Sigal Ben-Porath, education professor and author of Free Speech on Campus

A grant for an interesting kind of therapy has been awarded to local hospitals to help ease the pandemic’s terrible toll on healthcare workers. Guests: Einstein Chief Nursing Officer AnnMarie Papa and music therapist Laura Thomae

NJ Spotlight News: After Protests, Murphy Drops Pinelands Nominee “Montero was an unsuitable candidate because he works for the Chemistry Council, which ‘routinely’ opposes new regulations designed to protect human health and environmental quality from chemical contamination.”

The New York Times: M.I.T.’s Choice of Lecturer Ignited Criticism. So Did Its Decision to Cancel. “…professors drew an analogy between today’s climate on campus and Germany of the 1930s and warned of what happened when an ideological regime obsessed with race came to power and what it did to free thought.”