On-air challenge: Every answer today is the name of a famous person in which the first two letters of the first name are the same as the last two letters of the last name. I’ll give you the repeated letters and categories of the people. You tell me who they are.
 

Ex. GE, Oscar winner for Best Actress  –>  Geraldine Page (winner for the 1985 movie “The Trip to Bountiful”)

1. RO, Oscar winner for Best Actor (in “Raging Bull”)
2. SA, Seven-time M.L.B. All-Star (primarily with the Chicago Cubs)
3. EL, Writer and Peace Nobelist (author of “Night” and other works on the Holocaust)
4. MA, Former White House daughter
5. AN, Woman who taught Helen Keller
6. [one name:] BA, queen consort in the Bible (wife of David, mother of Solomon)
7. LO, Comic actor of old Hollywood (partner of Bud Abbott)

Last week’s challenge: Last week’s challenge comes from listener Michael Schwartz, of Florence, Ore. Think of a classic American author, whose first and last names are each one syllable. The last name, when said aloud, sounds like part of the body. Insert the letters AS into the first name, and you’ll get the location of this body part. Who is the author?

Challenge answer: Bret Harte (breast, heart)

Winner: Stan Durey of Anacortes, Washington

This week’s challenge:  This week’s challenge comes from listener Greg VanMechelen, of  Berkeley, Calif. Name a state capital. Inside it in consecutive letters is the first name of a popular TV character of the past. Remove that name, and the remaining letters in order will spell the first name of a popular TV game show host of the past.  What is the capital and what are the names?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Wednesday, November 27th, 2024 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Brooke Rollins, president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, to oversee the Department of Agriculture, one of the most sprawling federal agencies. 

Rollins was previously the director of the Domestic Policy Council during the first Trump administration. She has a long history in conservative politics, including also running the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Originally from Texas, she graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development. She then got her law degree at the University of Texas school of Law.

During the first Trump administration, Rollins also served as assistant to the president for intergovernmental and technology initiatives. After leaving the White House, Rollins was among a group of senior advisers to create the new nonprofit group aimed at promoting Trump’s policies.  

As the new head of USDA she would oversee nearly 100,000 employees, and would oversee the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which makes up over half of its nutrition budget, as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and school meal regulation. She would be the second woman to lead the department, following Ann Veneman who served under President George W. Bush.

The department could be at the front lines of Trump’s efforts to trim what he calls the “deep state” of federal bureaucracy and his efforts to implement tariffs on foreign goods — though it also provides crucial assistance to farmers and rural areas.

The department distributes agricultural subsidies and is the first stop for farmers to receive financial assistance for their operations. USDA is also the only agency with a rural development branch that distributes federal broadband, housing and utilities programs to rural communities.

The first Trump administration had to address the consequences of Trump’s trade war with China and others, which resulted in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural products leading to decreased farmer profits. The federal government did step in with some assistance to boost incomes due to the trade war, and then the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is possible Trump could also sign a second farm bill into law, a potentially trillion-dollar bill reauthorized every five years to provide farmer safety nets, programing, rural development and government nutrition assistance. The last farm bill was signed by Trump in 2018 and Congress has since failed to reauthorize it.

SNAP is estimated to serve 42 million participants each month with food benefits, and WIC serves about 40% of all infants in the United States. Making changes to the safety-net programs has been one of the sticking points for the legislation, in addition to its funds for conservation programs.