NPR News, Author at Northwest Public Broadcasting

Alexandra Sasha Grieb and Kyleigh Dabler, both 19, from Kennewick, waved at passing cars driving by Richland’s John Dam Plaza. Grieb said it will be up to younger generations to fight climate change now with their votes. “The earth will survive climate change. Humans won’t,” she said. CREDIT: Courtney Flatt/NWPB

The U.S. officially withdrew from the accord to limit climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions late last year, after President Donald Trump began the process in 2017. It is the only country of the nearly 200 signatories that has withdrawn. Biden vowed to sign on Inauguration Day the documents needed to rejoin the agreement.Read More

ALS Patients To Gain Quicker Access To Disability Benefits And Medicare

Cropped shot of a nurse holding hands with a senior man in a wheelchair

ALS, often called Lou Gehrig's disease after the New York Yankees first baseman who died of the disease in 1941, destroys motor neurons, causing people to lose control of their limbs, their speech and, ultimately, their ability to breathe. It's usually fatal in two to five years, though about 10% of people survive ten years or more.Read More

Voice of America CEO Pack, Defined By Scandal, Resigns At Biden’s Request

Michael Pack resigned Wednesday as the CEO of the federal agency over the Voice of America and other federally funded international broadcasters, after a turbulent seven-month tenure. He leaves the U.S. Agency for Global Media with a Trumpian legacy of ideological strife, lawsuits, and scandal, his departure effective just two hours after the swearing-in of President Read More

‘Not Broken But Simply Unfinished’: Poet Amanda Gorman Calls For A Better America At Inauguration

Poet Amanda Gorman speaks at the inauguration of U.S. President Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. CREDIT: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Amanda Gorman echoed, in dynamic and propulsive verse, the same themes that Biden has returned to again and again and that he wove throughout his inaugural address: unity, healing, grief and hope, the painful history of American experience and the redemptive power of American ideals.Read More

Order From President Biden Blocks Keystone XL Pipeline

A 2014 file photo of the White River in South Dakota near where the Keystone XL pipeline would have passed. President Biden plans to block the pipeline in one of his first acts of office. Andrew Burton/Getty Images

As part of his ambitious plan to address climate change, President Biden is revoking a key, cross-border presidential permit needed to finish the controversial Keystone XL pipelineRead More

From Brooklyn, 10th Grader Nora Brown Channels Appalachia For A Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Thirty feet below the surface in Brooklyn, 10th grader Nora Brown brings incredible, surprising depth to the Appalachian music she plays. Over the course of her Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST concert, surrounded by innumerable globes and instruments, she infuses new life and energy into the traditional songs of Addie Graham, Virgil Anderson and Fred Cockerham.Read More

‘This Is America’s Day’: Inauguration Of Joe Biden And Kamala Harris

Joe Biden is sworn in as president as his wife, Jill, looks on during his inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. CREDIT: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, having defeated Donald Trump in an acrimonious, divisive election last November. Biden will be sworn in alongside Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in an unusual inauguration ceremony, conducted amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis and heightened physical security risks.Read More

Art Project Of Seesaws Built On U.S. Border Wall Win Prestigious Design Prize

American and Mexican families play with a see-saw installation at the border near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in July of 2019. The project has been recognized by a prestigious design award. Luis Torres/AFP via Getty Images

An art project that turned the border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border into the temporary base for pink seesaws – inviting children on each side to come play together – has won the London's Design Museum award for best design of 2020.Read More

Now Is A Good Time To Talk To Kids About Civics

If you've been riding an emotional, politics-fueled rollercoaster in 2021 (not to mention 2020), believe us: Your kids have noticed. Here's a quick primer from Life Kit on how to talk with your kids about politics — and, even get them thinking about civics.Read More

In Historic 1st, Biden To Nominate Transgender Doctor As Assistant Health Secretary

Dr. Rachel Levine has previously won state Senate confirmation in Pennsylvania, including a unanimous vote in 2015 to endorse her as Pennsylvania's physician general. Courtesy of Biden transition team

Joe Biden is nominating Pennsylvania health expert Dr. Rachel Levine to be assistant secretary for health in the department of Health and Human Services, in a move that could make Levine the first openly transgender federal official to win Senate confirmation.Read More

What Is The Sound Of Grief? Composer Osvaldo Golijov Puts It To Music

Composer Osvaldo Golijov (second from right) and three of his colleagues on Falling Out of Time: vocalists Wu Tong, Nora Fischer and Biella da Costa. CREDIT: David O'Connor/Courtesy of the artists

Osvaldo Golijov is a MacArthur "genius" composer who's written for Yo-Yo Ma, Kronos Quartet and soprano Dawn Upshaw. But in 2012, he was accused of plagiarism, and he disappeared from the scene. Only now, nearly a decade later, is Golijov reemerging — with a work that could not have a more timely subject: it's a meditation on grieving and loss.Read More

Census Director To Quit After Trying To Rush Out ‘Indefensible’ Report

Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham, a Trump appointee who wore a "2020 Census" mask while swearing in to testify before a congressional hearing last year, is set to leave on Jan. 20, months before his term ends on Dec. 31. Andrew Harnik/AP

The Trump-appointed director of the U.S. Census Bureau is stepping down close to a week after whistleblower complaints about his role in attempting to rush out an incomplete data report about noncitizens became public.Read More

After Capitol Riot Backlash, Sen. Josh Hawley’s Book Will Hit Shelves In May

Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020. Democrats get their first crack at questioning Amy Coney Barrett today during her U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearing, where they plan to focus on how she might move the court in a more conservative direction on issues such as health care and abortion. Photographer: Patrick Semansky/AP Photo/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Washington-based Regnery Publishing, which aims to spread the message of "prominent and lasting voices in American conservatism," announced on Monday it will publish the title in May.Read More

For Many Areas, Count Of Homeless Population Is Canceled, Or Delayed

The Tri-Cities are preparing to count the homeless population. CREDIT: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Every January, in the middle of the night, thousands of volunteers and outreach workers spread out across the country to count the nation's homeless population. They search highway underpasses, wooded areas, abandoned buildings and sidewalks to locate those who are living outside. But this year, because of the pandemic, the annual street count has been canceled or modified Read More

3 Questions And The Emerging Answers About COVID-19 Vaccine Protection

A COVID-19 vaccine being administered in Washington state

As the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, three big questions loom. First, can someone who has been vaccinated still spread the disease? Second, will the vaccine remain effective as the virus itself evolves? And third, how long will the vaccine's protection last?Read More

NASA’s 8-Minute Rocket Test Shuts Down After 67 Seconds

In this image provided by NASA, the core stage for the first flight of NASA's Space Launch System rocket is seen at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The four engines fired for a little more than one minute. CREDIT: NASA/Getty Images

The test, at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, was part of NASA's Artemis program, a plan to return to the moon in the coming years. NASA's test called for four engines to fire for eight minutes — roughly the time it will take for NASA's long-delayed Space Launch System (SLS) to generate the thrust needed to send the rocket to space.Read More

Poetry Challenge: Honor Martin Luther King Jr By Describing How You Dream A World

Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the March On Washington D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963. CREDIT: CNP/Getty Images

As we enter 2021, we can all draw inspiration from both King and Hughes. Morning Edition resident poet Kwame Alexander and host Rachel Martin suggest we write our way out of the unprecedented events of the past year and into a space of possibility.Read More

Betto Arcos Shares The Power Of Community In ‘Music Stories From The Cosmic Barrio’

Music journalist Betto Arcos gathers his favorite reports from prolific career in Music Stories from the Cosmic Barrio. Erik Esparza/Courtesy of the author

For over a decade, arts journalist Betto Arcos has been a familiar voice to public radio listeners, bringing them the sounds of the world — be it from a samba school in Rio or an amphitheater in Colombia, profiling artists who play unusual instruments or create cross-cultural mashups. More than 140 of those reports are collected in his new book, Music Stories from the Read More

On Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day, Donald Trump Will See Himself Out

By NPR News January 16, 2021

President Donald Trump waves while boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews before a Jan. 12 trip to Texas. He's planning a departure ceremony there on Wednesday, while skipping the traditional send-off at the Capitol. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

President Trump plans to leave the White House and Washington on Inauguration Day with a departure ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, a senior administration official said on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement is not yet official.Read More

Labess Shows Music Has No Boundaries With This Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

By NPR News January 16, 2021

This Algerian and Canadian band proves that music has no boundaries even in times of isolation. Recording its set from France and Colombia, Labess blends flamenco and Gypsy jazz-influenced North African chaabi into energetic soul music with a nonstop beat.Read More

With A Leap Across Gender Norms, Northwest Ballet Student Looks To Rewrite Rules Of Dance

By NPR News January 16, 2021

The way that ballet dancer Ashton Edwards leaps through the air is pure art. The fact that he does it in pointe shoes is a rare feat. Edwards is an 18-year-old ballet student with the Pacific Northwest Ballet's elite Professional Division in Seattle. He has been studying classical ballet since he was 4 — but always in male roles.Read More

NRA Files For Bankruptcy Amid Fraud Suit In New York

The National Rifle Association's annual meeting in 2019 in Indiana. The NRA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday, saying it aims to reincorporate as a nonprofit in Texas and leave New York, where the state has filed a fraud suit against it. Michael Conroy/AP

The National Rifle Association filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas on Friday as its current home, New York, pursues a fraud case against the organization. The NRA was founded in New York in 1871 and has since presented itself as a defender of Second Amendment rights. The NRA attributes the move to Texas to a "corrupt political and regulatory environment" in New York.Read More

COVID-19 Supply Deal Lets Vaccine Maker Earmark Doses For Employees And Their Families

People line up on Thursday for the first day of Clark County's pilot COVID-19 vaccination program at Cashman Center in Las Vegas. CREDIT: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's push to make a COVID-19 vaccine available in record time, added $628 million to a federal contract with Emergent BioSolutions, a Maryland-based contract manufacturer, "to advance manufacturing capabilities and capacity for a potential COVID-19 vaccine as well as therapeutics," the Department of Health and Human Services Read More

Retail Spending Dips For 3rd Straight Month As Infections Surge

Shoppers walk past a "Sale" sign outside a store at the Easton Town Center Mall in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 7. CREDIT: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Even as people continue to splurge on shopping, they cut back on going out to eat and shop. Plus, the earlier-than-usual holiday shopping season meant online shopping as well sales of electronics and appliances dipped in December. Gas stations saw the biggest jump in spending last month, up 6.6%, as people traveled for holiday visits despite health warnings.Read More

Amazon Warehouse Workers To Decide Whether To Form Company’s First U.S. Union

A man works at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. The retail giant faces a major labor battle with a unionization vote planned at a similar warehouse in Alabama. CREDIT: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

Some 6,000 workers at Amazon's warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, will begin voting next month on a groundbreaking possibility: whether to form the first union in the company's U.S. history.Read More

‘I Just Followed My Interests’: Garry Trudeau On 50 Years Of ‘Doonesbury’

By NPR News January 14, 2021

Garry Trudeau is shown at his office on Dec. 22, 1972. AP

The ground-breaking comic strip Doonesbury has been with us for a half-century. It was the first daily comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize for tackling social issues, politics and war. It's also been censored for some of those same reasons.Read More

$1,400 Checks And Help For The Jobless: What’s In Joe Biden’s Plan To Rescue The Economy

By NPR News January 14, 2021

Then presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a "Build Back Better" Clean Energy event on July 14, 2020. On Thursday, Biden unveiled an ambitious economic plan just days before he's set to be inaugurated as president. CREDIT: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

President-elect Joe Biden has long pledged he would deliver an aggressive plan to address the raging coronavirus pandemic and the painful recession it spawned.Read More

New Charges In Flint Water Crisis, Including Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder

Now Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, (R-MI), listens to Congressional members remarks during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, about the Flint, Mich. water crisis in 2016. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was charged Wednesday for his role in the Flint water crisis, an environmental disaster that contaminated the majority Black city's drinking water with lead nearly seven years ago.Read More

NPR’s Classical Music Editor Previews 2 Albums You’ll Want To Hear

Baritone Will Liverman's upcoming album is devoted to Black composers past and present. CREDIT: Cedille records

In 2021, I'm looking forward to, fingers crossed, live music. I really miss the roar of a symphony orchestra in concert or a soaring soprano on the opera stage. But artists are still making albums, even in lockdown, like British composer Max Richter. His upcoming album is a follow-up to last year's Voices. This new one is Voices, Part 2 which will be released in April.Read More

Census Bureau Stops Work On Trump’s Request For Unauthorized Immigrant Count

A demonstrator holds a sign about the U.S. census outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in 2019. The Census Bureau has stopped all work on President Trump's directive to produce a count of unauthorized immigrants that could be subtracted from a key set of census numbers, NPR has learned. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The U.S. Census Bureau has halted all work on President Trump's directive to produce a state-by-state count of unauthorized immigrants that would have been used to alter a key set of census numbers, NPR has learned.Read More

About 20,000 National Guard Members To Deploy For Inauguration, Officials Say

Hundreds of National Guard troops hold inside the Capitol Visitor's Center to reinforce security at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. It comes a week after an insurrection at the Capitol and as the House of Representatives is pursuing an article of impeachment against President Trump. CREDIT: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Local and federal security officials expect about 20,000 National Guard members to be involved in securing the capital for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration next week.Read More

Court Says Former Officer Who Kneeled On George Floyd’s Neck To Stand Trial Alone

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was captured on cellphone video kneeling on George Floyd's neck for several minutes, still faces a higher charge of second-degree murder. Brommerich/AP

BY BRAKKTON BOOKER A Minnesota judge has ruled that the former Minneapolis police officer seen in cellphone video kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for several minutes last summer, will stand […]Read More

House Passes 25th Amendment Resolution As Pence Says He Won’t Back It. Impeachment Vote Looms

U.S. House vote for the 25th Amendment resolution was 223 in favor, 205 opposed

The House of Representatives is expected to vote Tuesday evening on a resolution calling for Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment against President Trump, days after violent insurrectionists breached the U.S. Capitol.Read More

Roots Of U.S. Capitol Insurrectionists Run Through The West And Northwest

Ammon Bundy riding a horse at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Occupation in 2016

As the violent mob broke into the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday, and livestreams showed pro-Trump insurrectionists defacing property and posing in the House Speaker's chair, here in the West, feelings of shock quickly faded to familiarity. "There are years of warning signs," said Eric Ward of the Western States Center, which tracks extremism in Oregon and the West.Read More

Capitol Police Officers Suspended For Actions During Rioters’ Attack On Capitol

Several Capitol Police officers have been suspended in connection with last week's fatal riot at the U.S. Capitol by protesters loyal to President Trump, Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman announced Monday evening.Read More

‘Ambitious Girl’ Book Reminds Kids: Your Dreams Are Not A Drawback

When now Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris was "accused" of being "too ambitious" on the campaign trail, it spurred her niece, activist and author Meena Harris, into action.Read More

Tracking Down Antibody Treatment Is A Challenge For COVID-19 Patients In Washington

Nurse Salina Padilla prepares an infusion of a COVID-19 antibody treatment at Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville, Calif., in December. CREDIT: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Monoclonal antibody drugs are supposed to help people with mild to moderate COVID-19 avoid the hospital, but it can be a challenge to find out where the treatment is offered. NPR has heard from people across the country who have been frustrated by this. They include Shirley Wagoner, an 80-year-old who still hits the ski slopes and helps run the family plumbing business in Read More

Democrats Unveil Legislation To Abolish The Federal Death Penalty

Protesters gather near the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., in August ahead of the scheduled execution of Keith Dwayne Nelson, who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering at 10-year-old Kansas girl. Democrats are pushing new legislation to outlaw federal executions. CREDIT: Michael Conroy/AP

The Democratic proposal, shared first with NPR, comes as the party will have unified control of Congress after victories in two Georgia Senate races, a change in fortunes for Democratic legislative priorities. The legislation would end capital punishment at the federal level and require the resentencing of all federal inmates on death row.Read More

U.S. Puts Cuba Back On List Of State Sponsors Of Terrorism

An empty street near the Havana Capitol, in Cuba in May 2020. The Trump administration plans to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. CREDIT: Yamil Lage/AFP viaCGetty Images

The Trump administration is designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, in a move that will return the island nation to the pariah list from which it was removed nearly five years ago.Read More

Car Concerts Offer Choirs A Way To Rehearse And Perform During The Pandemic

Tim Shantz conducts Luminous Voices' first car concert on Oct. 4, 2020. Kenton Smith

For members of Luminous Voices, a professional choir ensemble in Alberta, Canada, rehearsing and performing safely during the pandemic has meant getting into their cars, driving to an empty parking lot and singing with each other's voices broadcast through their car radios.Read More

Pope Prays For U.S. Capitol Victims, Urges Americans To Protect Democratic Values