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Gas tax is back up for debate, and Boston goes to the Oscars

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A gas pump in Massachusetts. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
A gas pump in Massachusetts. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

This is the rundown for Radio Boston for Thursday, March 24. Tiziana Dearing is our host.

  • AAA reports gas prices are down six cents a gallon since last week, but that doesn't mean they aren't still high, and Republicans in the Massachusetts State Senate want you to pay less, at least for a while. Today, the Senate debates amendments to a $1.6 billion mid-year spending bill. One of those amendments proposes we temporarily stop paying a 24-cent per gallon gas tax. A similar proposal failed in the Massachusetts House earlier this month. Other such proposals have popped up across the country in recent weeks, and some have passed. We speak to Republican State Senator Ryan Fattman, who's sponsoring the amendment and similar legislation, and Evan Horowitz, executive director at the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University.
  • The first train on the Green Line Extension to Somerville completed its maiden journey on Monday. The Extension is a project that was years and billions of dollars in the making. Current and former elected officials celebrated the feat Monday, but new transit brings both new opportunities and familiar problems. For every story about a better commute to the city, for example, there's a story about someone's rent going up. The question is always one of balancing the trade-offs. Zachary Baum, president of the board for Union Square Main Streets, and co-owner of Bow Market, an outdoor mall in Union Square, joins us to give the business perspective. Plus, WBUR reporter Simón Rios joins us to share what residents are saying about the project
  • CODA is an award season darling this year. In it, Rubi, a high schooler from a Gloucester fishing family, is auditioning at the Berklee College of Music. Cambridge-born Sian Heder directed it, and the film is up for multiple awards at the Oscars this Sunday, including best picture, adapted screenplay, and first-ever best actor in a supporting role nomination, for favorite Troy Kotsur. It's the latest in a long tradition of Boston going to the Oscars, and not the only film where the city's well represented. So in preparation for our watch parties this weekend, we welcome back former Boston Globe film critic and author of the movie recommendation newsletter "Ty Burr's Watch List" to talk about Bay State films looking to bring home the statue.

This program aired on March 24, 2022.

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