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Grade levels: Senior High (10-12)

  • FRONTLINE: Inside Obama’s Presidency

    As Barack Obama is sworn in for his second term, FRONTLINE takes a probing look at the first four years of his presidency. With inside accounts from his battles with his Republican opponents over health care and the economy to his dramatic expansion of targeted killings of enemies, FRONTLINE examines the president’s key decisions and the experiences that will inform his second term.

  • FRONTLINE: The Untouchables

    Are the CEOs of mega-banks too big to jail? Though fraudulent practices at banks contributed to America’s financial meltdown, to date no Wall Street titan has been convicted of a crime connected to the crisis. FRONTLINE investigates why Wall Street’s leaders have escaped prosecution.

  • FRONTLINE: Cliffhanger

    This February, as the nation faces yet another round of fiscal crises, FRONTLINE investigates the inside history of how Washington has failed to solve the country’s problems of debt and deficit. Drawing on interviews with key players in Congress and the White House, FRONTLINE goes behind the scenes to show how a clash of politics and personalities has taken the nation’s economy to the edge of the “fiscal cliff,” and now to a second round of standoffs over the debt ceiling and sequestration. The film explores the deep ideological divide inside the Republican Party and the struggle between House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Speaker John Boehner as they take on President Obama and the Democrats.

  • FRONTLINE: Raising Adam Lanza

    In the wake of the mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, FRONTLINE investigates a young man and the town he changed forever. Adam Lanza left behind a trail of death and destruction, but little else. He left no known friends, no diary. He destroyed his computer and any evidence it might have provided. His motives, and his life, remain largely a mystery. In collaboration with The Hartford Courant, FRONTLINE looks for answers to the central-and so far elusive-question: who was Adam Lanza? Also this hour: In the aftermath of the tragedy, President Obama called for a national conversation about guns in America. Nowhere is that conversation more intense than in Newtown, where FRONTLINE finds a town divided and explores how those closest to the tragedy are now wrestling with our nation’s gun culture and laws.

  • FRONTLINE: The Economic Meltdown

    Includes Five Programs: Cliffhanger: As the nation faces yet another round of fiscal crises, FRONTLINE investigates the inside history of how Washington has failed to solve the country’s problems of debt and deficit. The Warning: In the midst of the 1990s bull market, one lone regulator warned about the dangers of derivatives-and overnight, became the enemy of some of the most powerful people in Washington. Breaking the Bank: Frontline goes inside the saga of Ken Lewis and Bank of America. From the start, the Merrill deal was troubled. Then the government took over. Ten Trillion and Counting: FRONTLINE tracks the politics behind America’s mountain of debt. Is this crisis far bigger than our current financial mess? Inside the Meltdown: FRONTLINE investigates how the economy went so bad, so fast, and what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson didn’t see, couldn’t stop, and weren’t able to fix.

  • Frontline: Obama’s Deal – inside the Battle for Healthcare -Home Use

    Health care reform was the first big policy deal taken on by the Obama administration. Many say the young president has bet the mid-term elections, possibly his presidency, on the outcome. In a new investigation FRONTLINE goes behind closed doors at the White House, in Congress and the boardrooms of the giant health-care lobby to examine the political battles and costly compromises that defined Barack Obama’s endeavor. From early positive efforts, through the bitter battles with the Tea Party, the elation of apparent success at Christmas, to the crushing failure in the Massachusetts Senatorial election, FRONTLINE follows the story and reveals the first in-depth look at how the Obama administration operates. In Obama’s Deal, FRONTLINE veteran producer Michael Kirk (Bush’s War, Dreams of Obama, Inside the Meltdown, The Warning) provides a sobering expose’ of the realities of American politics, the power of special interest groups, and the role of money in policy making.

  • Frontline: The Vaccine War – Public Performance

    Public health scientists and clinicians tout vaccines as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But for many ordinary Americans vaccines have become controversial. Young parents are concerned at the sheer number of shots-some 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6-and follow alternative vaccination schedules advocated by gurus like Dr. Robert Sears. Other parents go further. In communities like Ashland, Oregon, up to one-third of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids at all. And some advocacy groups, like Generation Rescue, argue that vaccines are no longer a public health miracle but a scourge; they view vaccines as responsible for alarming rises in certain disorders, including ADHD and autism. This is the vaccine war: On one side sits scientific medicine and the public health establishment; on the other a populist coalition of parents, celebrities (like Jenny McCarthy), politicians and activists. It’s a war that increasingly takes place on the Internet with both sides using the latest social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter, to win the hearts and minds of the public.

  • Frontline: The Vaccine War – Home Use

    Public health scientists and clinicians tout vaccines as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But for many ordinary Americans vaccines have become controversial. Young parents are concerned at the sheer number of shots-some 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6-and follow alternative vaccination schedules advocated by gurus like Dr. Robert Sears. Other parents go further. In communities like Ashland, Oregon, up to one-third of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids at all. And some advocacy groups, like Generation Rescue, argue that vaccines are no longer a public health miracle but a scourge; they view vaccines as responsible for alarming rises in certain disorders, including ADHD and autism. This is the vaccine war: On one side sits scientific medicine and the public health establishment; on the other a populist coalition of parents, celebrities (like Jenny McCarthy), politicians and activists. It’s a war that increasingly takes place on the Internet with both sides using the latest social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter, to win the hearts and minds of the public.

  • Frontline: College Inc. – Public Performance

    The business of higher education is booming. It’s a $400 billion industry fueled by taxpayer money. But what are students getting out of the deal? Critics say a worthless degree and a mountain of debt. Investors insist they’re innovators, widening access to education. FRONTLINE follows the money to uncover how Wall Street and a new breed of for-profit universities are transforming the way we think about college in America.