It's the Brian Lair show on WNYC. I'm David First, WNYC's weekend edition host, filling in for

Brian today. Happy Friday, everybody. Coming up on today's show, we're going to

hear about an investigation into how interest rates are calculated during foreclosure proceedings in New York.

It turns out that inconsistencies there means that often people who were already struggling

got less cash than they may have been owed after their

foreclosed homes were sold at auctions while the banks got more.

Plus, a former poet laureate of the United States, Tracy K. Smith will join us to talk about

her new book, and it's not just a collection of poems.

It is an invitation to invite poetry into our lives. She'll explain why

she thinks anyone can read poetry and how poems might help us with life. And we're going to wrap

up today's show with some advice on the do's and don'ts of holiday tipping. Every year this seems

to trip people up, me included, how much do I give my super, my babysitter, my

child's teachers, the people who deliver our packages? And is it more about the amount of cash,

or is it the thought that counts? We will talk holiday season tipping at around 1140 this morning.

But we start with a roundup of public health policy issues in the news and new threats to cut funding for the SNAP Food Assistance Program.

We're also going to get to the news surrounding the RFK Jr. agenda for the childhood vaccine

schedule, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization

Practices, which was handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy,

Jr. has been set to vote on a new schedule for the Hepatitis B vaccine. The vote was

again delayed yesterday. It is now scheduled for today. We will have the latest.

Beyond that, Senate Democrats are looking to force a vote next week to extend expiring subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. So there was a lot to cover.

Here with a roundup of the latest, we're joined by two reporters who have

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