Infrastructure Investments, Chess Champions, Denouncing Fidel Castro

Coming up on today’s show:

• Infrastructure was one of the main promises Donald Trump made on the campaign trail, but will the president-elect be able to get support from Republicans and Democrats in the first 100 days? Ronald A. Klain, an assistant to President Obama who oversaw the team implementing the American Recovery and Renewal Act from 2009-2011, an adviser to 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, weighs in. 

• On Monday, the Michigan Board of Canvassers certified Donald Trump’s victory, thereby paving the way for Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2016 presidential candidate, to request a recount in the state. Stein has already officially requested recounts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and the Clinton campaign is backing her efforts. Brandon Dillon, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, explains what’s next.  

• On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Moore V. Texas, a case that centers on the death penalty and people with intellectual disabilities. For details on this case we turn to Jordan Steiker, the Judge Robert M. Parker endowed chair at the University of Texas School of Law and the director of the school’s Capital Punishment Center.

• President-elect Donald Trump has picked Congressman Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia, to head the Department of Health and Human Services. If confirmed by the Senate, Price will have an annual budget of $1 trillion and would be in a position to help dismantle one of President Obama’s signature achievements: The Affordable Care Act. Mary Agnes Carey, a senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News, explains what HHS may look like under Rep. Tom Price. 

• The 2016 World Chess Championship is going into its final game on Wednesday between number one defending champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, and Sergey Karjakin of Russia. The two players, both in their mid-twenties, are the youngest to meet for the world championship, and could be a sign of a new age of chess. Chess grandmaster and author Maurice Ashley explains. 

• Jury selection has resumed in the federal case of Dylann Roof, who is standing trial for the fatal shooting of nine black parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina last year. Jennifer Berry Hawes, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Post and Courier in Charleston, is currently working on a book about the Emanuel AME Church massacre and joins The Takeaway for an update on the trial. 

• How are Cubans processing the death of Fidel Castro, and how does his passing resonate in their country? Carlos Eire, professor at Yale University and author of “Waiting for Snow in Havana,” which won the national book award in 2003, weighs in.