Week In Review: Minimum Wage, Newtown Tapes, PISA

We discuss the week's top stories — from demonstrations over the state's minimum wage, to the release of 9-1-1 calls made during the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting last year, to Massachusetts' performance in the Program for International Student Assessment.

Callum Borchers, business reporter for The Boston Globe.

Jim Stergios, executive director of The Pioneer Institute.

Radio Boston, "The average fast food worker earns just below $9 an hour and few of them get healthcare or other benefits. As a result, many say they depend on food stamps and other public benefits to make ends meet. But the fast food industry argues that a minimum wage hike would mean lay-offs and higher prices for consumers."

Radio Boston, "Prosecutors and the families of the Sandy Hook victims did not want the tapes to be released to the public. Prosecutors had argued that the tapes could be painful for the victims’ families, hurt the investigation and subject the witnesses to harassment. A state judge dismissed those arguments last week and ordered the tapes be released Wednesday unless the state appealed. Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III decided to end his appeal on Monday."

Radio Boston, "The state’s 15-year-olds had the 4th best scores in reading, behind Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore.
And Massachusetts was 7th in science and 10th in math — finishing behind countries like Finland, South Korea and Switzerland."