Even as spending is being slashed across the military, a battle over billions of defense dollars is underway at Bedford’s Hanscom Air Force Base, where Waltham-based Raytheon and Maryland’s Lockheed Martin are fighting to win the right to create a first-of-its-kind “space fence” to track orbital junk.

US Air Force officials, with the help of engineers at nearby MIT Lincoln Labs and the government-funded, Bedford-based Mitre Corporation, expect to pick one of the companies’ designs this summer for a powerful radar system to track more of the estimated half a million pieces of man-made debris that imperil weather forecasting, navigation, and communication satellites. Even the International Space Station recently had a pair of close calls with space debris, requiring astronauts to scramble to escape pods.

Students participating in the “Louder Than a Bomb” poetry slam competition find words — even raw, emotional words — can heal.

I’m riding in a red Tesla Model S, the stunning all-electric vehicle from PayPal founder Elon Musk, and realize that this is less a car than a piece of philosophy. In a world beset by environmental pessimism, where many believe we must lower our expectations, downsize our lives, and adjust to the notion that tomorrow will be worse off than today, Tesla offers a rip-roaring, 120-mph riposte. It turns out we can have it all.

Kurt Schwitters was one of the most fascinating of modern artists, and this large work is his most commanding in the United States.

The 23d Headquarters Special Troops, which served during World War II, is the subject of the documentary “The Ghost Army.”

On darkened Jack Barry Field at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “UP: The Umbrella Project” was beautiful and a bit goofy.

Oscar-winner Geena Davis returns to Boston to raise awareness of gender disparity in media programming aimed at young children.

There’s definitely an epic heft to the album, aided by a deep, varied bench of guest talent.

Frontman and songwriter Matt Berninger conveys a lot of emotion in his laconic delivery, which creates a nervous tension in the music.

Give credit to Rucker for jumping from mega-selling Hootie & the Blowfish to take a stab at a country music career.

This release — Strait’s 40th! — should reassure his fans that he’s not departing the studio anytime soon.

French Montana’s long-delayed debut finally arrives, and much of it lands with blunt force without quite demonstrating a fully-formed vision.

The beloved author of “The Kite Runner” returns to the rugged landscape of his home country, Afghanistan.

Liza Cherney and Brittany Loring were side-by-side at the Boston Marathon finish line when shrapnel tore through their bodies, leaving them hospitalized for days. On Monday, the two 29-year-old friends, still with some visible wounds and bandages, came together once more to proudly walk across the stage to receive diplomas from Boston College’s Carroll Graduate School of Management. To the sustained applause of classmates, they marched without crutches, a goal they had set.

“I definitely didn’t think I’d be able to walk” unaided in time for graduation, said Loring, a native of Ayer who sustained three leg wounds and a fractured skull. “It’s wonderful.”

The two were among the 4,395 BC students to receive degrees on a sunny day on the Chestnut Hill campus.

Can NBC’s “The Michael J. Fox Show” and CBS’s Robin Williams sitcom, “The Crazy Ones,” work this fall? Matthew Gilbert chats with readers.