NPR News, Author at Northwest Public Broadcasting

James Levine conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2007. CREDIT: Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images

James Levine, the immensely accomplished conductor who wielded power and influence in the classical world, and whose singular tenure at the Metropolitan Opera ended in a flurry of accusations of sexual abuse, died on March 9 in Palm Springs, Calif. His physician of 17 years, Dr. Len Horovitz, confirmed his death to NPR, saying that Levine died of natural causes. He was 77 Read More

Asian American Community Responds To Georgia Shootings As Victims Are Identified

Mourners visit and leave flowers on Wednesday at the site of two shootings at spas across the street from one another in Atlanta. CREDIT: Megan Varner/Getty Images

Six women of Asian descent are among the dead, raising suspicions of a hate crime. Long claims race did not play a role in his decision to target the businesses, police said, relaying details from questioning the gunman.Read More

White House Announces $10 Billion For COVID-19 Testing In Schools

A student gives her coronavirus swab to Helenann Civian, the principal of South Boston Catholic Academy in Boston in January. The White House announced $10 billion to expand testing in K-12 schools. CREDIT: Suzanne Kreiter/Boston Globe via Getty Images

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will spend $10 billion to expand testing for schools, to aid in the president's goal to get schools open once again.Read More

8 People, Most Asian Women, Shot Dead At Atlanta-Area Massage Parlors; Man Arrested

At least eight people were killed and several others injured in a series of shootings at three spas in the Atlanta metro region Tuesday. A suspect has been taken into custody in connection with all three shootings, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Read More

U.S. Intelligence Report Says Russia Tried To Help Trump In 2020 Election

By NPR News March 16, 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a campaign to help former President Donald Trump and undermine President Biden in last year's election, according to U.S. intelligence. Putin is shown here on March 12 at a residence outside Moscow. CREDIT: Alexei Druzhinin/AP

A new report by the U.S. intelligence community on Tuesday says Russia sought to help former President Donald Trump in last year's presidential election. But the document also emphasized there was no indication Russia or any other country attempted to alter actual votes.Read More

Moderna Gives 1st Vaccine Shots To Young Kids As Part Of COVID-19 Study

By NPR News March 16, 2021

Moderna is testing its COVID-19 vaccine in young children; its vaccine is currently authorized for people ages 18 and up. Here, third-grade children attend school this month in Berlin, as classes were allowed to meet in person at 50% capacity. CREDIT: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Children have now received their first doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, as the company studies the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine for kids ages 6 months to less than 12 years old.Read More

Young Migrants Held By Border Patrol Far Longer Than Allowed, Document Shows

By NPR News March 16, 2021

Border Patrol agents apprehend a group of migrants near downtown El Paso, Texas, on Monday. The Department of Homeland Security is struggling to manage a growing number of unaccompanied minors at the border. CREDIT: Justin Hamel/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. government had 4,276 unaccompanied migrant children in custody as of Sunday, according to a Department of Homeland Security document obtained by NPR. The children are spending an average of 117 hours in detention facilities, far longer than the 72 hours allowed by law.Read More

Vatican Says Catholic Church Cannot Bless Same-Sex Marriages

Pope Francis holds a mass to mark 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, on March 14, 2021 at St. Peter's Basilica in The Vatican. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / POOL / AFP) (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The Roman Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex marriages, no matter how stable or positive the couples' relationships are, the Vatican said on Monday. The message, approved by Pope Francis, came in response to questions about whether the church should reflect the increasing social and legal acceptance of same-sex unions.Read More

Idaho Lawmakers Continue Push To Ban Local Governments From Imposing Mask Mandates

Republican state Rep. Karey Hanks addresses the House State Affairs Committee, Monday, March 15, 2021, in the Statehouse in Boise, Idaho. The committee approved legislation to prohibit mask mandates by government entities in Idaho. CREDIT: Keith Ridler/AP

The Idaho House State Affairs Committee voted 10-2 along party lines with both Democratic representatives opposed to advance the measure that’s a reworked version of previous legislation that banned mask mandates at medical facilities. The new bill allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to require masks.Read More

Deb Haaland Confirmed As U.S. Interior Secretary, First Native American In Any Cabinet Post

Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., is sworn in before her Senate confirmation hearing to be Interior Secretary last month. Her confirmation makes her the country's first Native American cabinet secretary. CREDIT: Jim Watson/AP

The Senate voted 51-40 Monday to confirm the Democratic Congresswoman to lead the Interior Department, an agency that will play a crucial role in the Biden administration's ambitious efforts to combat climate change and conserve nature.Read More

U.S. Arrests 2 Men, Saying They Sprayed Police, Including Brian Sicknick, During Capitol Attack

The U.S. and U.S. Capitol Police flags were flown at half-staff after the death of officer Brian Sicknick. On Sunday, the FBI arrested two men who are accused of spraying chemicals on Sicknick and others. CREDIT: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Two men have been arrested for allegedly spraying a chemical on Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick and two other law enforcement officers, during the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Sicknick died one day later; officials have recently said they're still determining what factors might have led to his death.Read More

On A Remote Island, A Music School Flourishes

As pianist Mahani Teave was poised to launch her international career, she remembered the moment when the first piano arrived on her remote island. It was 1992, she was nine years old and the instrument landed on Rapa Nui, or Easter Island as it was named by Europeans. Best known for its mysterious, sentinel-like stone statues, the island lies some 2000 miles off the coast Read More

BOOK REVIEW: Story Collection Puts A Ghostly Spin On Digital ‘Reality’

By NPR News March 14, 2021

In John Lanchester's collection, Reality and Other Stories, the supernatural manifests itself through cell phones, social media, computers, reality tv shows, and smart houses. "Signal," the opening story, was originally published in The New Yorker and it's a standout: an eerie homage to Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.Read More

A Year After Breonna Taylor’s Killing, Family Says There’s ‘No Accountability’

By NPR News March 13, 2021

A makeshift memorial in downtown Louisville, Ky., for Breonna Taylor in September 2020. Taylor was killed a year ago in her home during a botched narcotics raid carried out by Louisville police. CREDIT: Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Exactly one year ago, Louisville police gunned her down in her home. Now, her name is a ubiquitous rallying cry at protests calling for police reforms, and many social justice advocates point to her story as an example of how difficult it can be to hold police accountable for violent acts.Read More

DOJ Says At Least 100 More People Could Be Charged Over Capitol Attack

By NPR News March 13, 2021

Rioters clash with police and security forces as people storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Federal investigators say they expect even more people will be charged in connection with the insurrection. CREDIT: Brent Stirton/Getty Images

The Justice Department says it expects to charge at least 100 more people in connection with the storming of the Capitol, describing the investigation into the deadly attack as one of the biggest in U.S. history.Read More

Minneapolis Reaches $27 Million Settlement With Family Of George Floyd

By NPR News March 13, 2021

A makeshift memorial in Minneapolis honors George Floyd as jury selection begins in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin. CREDIT: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously on Friday to approve the record settlement, which stems from a federal civil rights suit filed in July against the city and four former police officers over Floyd's fatal arrest.Read More

Children Spend Days In Crude Facilities As U.S. Border Resources Overwhelmed Again

By NPR News March 12, 2021

A U.S. Border Patrol station in Texas is seen in 2019. Customs and Border Protection is now holding a record number of minors in warehouse-like facilities as the Biden administration struggles with an illegal migration surge. CREDIT: Mario Tama/Getty Images

BY FRANCO ORDOÑEZ & JOHN BURNETT A record number of migrant children and teenagers are being held in warehouse-like detention facilities run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection near the […]Read More

President Biden Sets Goal Of July 4th To ‘Mark Independence’ From Coronavirus

By NPR News March 11, 2021

President Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House Thursday, March 11, 2021. Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Biden is aiming for the country to begin to find a degree of normalcy and begin to move on from the coronavirus pandemic by the July 4th holiday, Biden announced in his first prime-time address Thursday night from the White House on the one-year anniversary of the pandemic.Read More

Andrew Cuomo Aide Says Governor Groped Her In Executive Mansion

By NPR News March 11, 2021

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the subject of new misconduct allegations, after a female aide accused him of groping her. Cuomo is seen here earlier this week, speaking at a vaccination site in New York City. Seth Wenig/Pool / Getty Images

A woman who works as an aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the governor aggressively groped her in the governor's official residence late last year, making her at least the sixth woman to accuse him of inappropriate sexual conduct.Read More

What Started In Idaho Is Now A National Political Dispute Over Transgender Rights And Youth Sports

By NPR News March 11, 2021

Danbury High School sophomore Alanna Smith at the Connecticut State Capitol on Feb, 12, 2020. Smith is among three girls who sued to block a state policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in girls sports. CREDIT: Pat Eaton-Robb/AP

This year, state legislators have introduced 35 bills restricting transgender girls and women — that is, girls and women who were not assigned as female at birth — from playing on girls' and women's sports teams, according to LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom for All Americans. That's up from 29 bills last year and only 2 in 2019.Read More

Whistleblowers Allege Improper Hiring At Justice Department During Trump’s Last Days

Jeffrey Bossert Clark during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2017. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Two whistleblowers assert that a Justice Department official improperly injected politics into the hiring process during his waning days in the Trump administration, according to a new filing obtained by NPR.Read More

Antibiotic Use Ran High In Early Days Of COVID-19, Despite Viral Cause

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic antibiotics were frequently prescribed to seriously ill patients, even though the disease is caused by a virus. CREDIT: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Doctors treating COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic often reached for antibiotics. But those drugs were not helpful in most cases, and overuse of antibiotics is a serious concern.Read More

5 Lesser-Known, Late-In-Life Works By Frida Kahlo Now On View In Dallas

Frida Kahlo, Diego and Frida 1929 – 1944, 1944, oil on masonite with original painted shell frame, private collection, courtesy Galería Arvi © 2021 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, CREDIT: D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

What more is there to say about Frida Kahlo? She died in 1954 at age 47. By now she's a cottage industry. Her face (that unibrow, the red lips, the scores of self portraits) reproduced on mugs, matchbooks, pandemic masks, of course tote bags.Read More

Merrick Garland Confirmed As Attorney General 5 Years After Thwarted Supreme Court Bid

A new chapter of Merrick Garland's long career in the law has opened after the Senate voted to pave the way for him to serve as attorney general.Read More

U.S. House Gives Final Approval To $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill, No Republicans Support

The U.S. House passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic relief bill on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 with no Republican support in the U.S. House or Senate. CREDIT: CSPAN

The House voted 220-211 with no Republicans voting in favor of the bill, despite calls for bipartisan support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democratic leaders. One Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, voted against the bill.Read More

Some Faith Leaders Call Equality Act Devastating; For Others, It’s God’s Will

An LGBTQ+ flag flies over Union United Methodist Church in the South End of Boston on Jan. 5, 2020. On Epiphany Sunday, as local Methodists celebrated the visit of the Magi and marked the end of the Christmas season, they were also grappling with the possibility their church could split over a disagreement about LGBTQ participation in the faith. A group of United Methodist Church leaders made headlines Friday when they announced a proposal that would allow conservative congregations opposing same-sex marriage and the ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer clergy to leave the UMC, form a new denomination, maintain their church assets, and get $25 million in the divorce. (Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The Equality Act, which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, has twice passed the House. Republicans in the Senate have until now blocked its consideration, but Democratic control there should finally ensure at least a hearing.Read More

Interior Department Moves To Make It Illegal (Again) To Accidentally Kill Migratory Birds

Thousands of snow geese take flight near Conway, Wash. in 2019. The Biden administration is reversing a policy under President Trump that drastically weakened protections for most U.S. bird species. CREDIT: Elaine Thompson/AP

The Interior Department rescinded a controversial Trump-era legal opinion Monday that limited the scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It also said it will soon propose a rule to replace one enacted at the end of the Trump administration that did the same.Read More

George Floyd Case: Jury Selection Begins In Derek Chauvin’s Trial

By NPR News March 9, 2021

A screenshot from Minnesota Public Radio's live Facebook video feed of jury selection in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. CREDIT: MPR News/Screenshot by NPR

Jury selection in the highly anticipated trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin began in district court on Tuesday, even as the judge in the case awaits higher courts' rulings that could halt the proceedings. Chauvin faces charges in the killing of George Floyd last Memorial Day.Read More

With Her Recording Series ‘Rising Sun,’ Lara Downes Re-Centers Black Composers

By NPR News March 9, 2021

Lara Downes. Her recent album, Phenomenal Women, featured recordings of compositions by Black female composers whose legacies have been overlooked by the classical establishment. CREDIT: Max Barrett/Courtesy of the artist

Lara Downes will release a mini-album every month, for as long as she can keep it up, to highlight overlooked and forgotten compositions by Black artists in the classical music tradition. In honor of Women's History Month, its latest entry focuses on some overlooked and under-appreciated bodies of work by women composers and performers.Read More

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Once Upon A Quinceañera’ Has Fairy Tale Charm

By NPR News March 9, 2021

Once Upon a A Quinceañera, by Monica Gomez-Hira

Once Upon a Quinceañera opens in Miami, the summer after Carmen Aguilar's senior year. Due to an incomplete internship credit, Carmen has yet to graduate high school. So she's working for an event company called Dreams Come True, where she dresses up as a singing, dancing Disney Princess for birthday parties. She's at one of these parties (dressed as Belle) with her best Read More

Author Explores Preacher Father’s Silence On Racial Injustice In 1960s Alabama

Shaking the Gates of Hell: A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution, by John Archibald Deckle Edge

Decades later, Birmingham News Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist John Archibald is trying to do just that. Archibald comes from a long line of Methodist preachers in the South; his father had a pulpit at a critical time and place in American history — 1960s Alabama.Read More

Undocumented Venezuelans Given Protected Status In United States

A Joe Biden supporter with a Venezuelan flag cheers during a Biden campaign event at Camping World Stadium on October 27, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. CREDIT: Octavio Jones/Getty Images

The Biden administration said Monday that it will allow many Venezuelans who are already in the country illegally to remain because of the humanitarian and economic crisis in the socialist South American nation that is an adversary of the U.S.Read More

John Roberts Accuses Fellow Supreme Court Justices Of ‘Turning Judges Into Advice Columnists’

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts broke with his colleagues on the court, filing a solo dissent for the first time in his nearly 16 years on the bench. CREDIT: Win McNamee/Getty Images

For the first time in his nearly 16 years on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts has filed a solo dissent. In it, he bluntly accused his colleagues of a "radical expansion" of the court's jurisdiction.Read More

CDC Says It’s Safe For Vaccinated People To Do These Activities, Should Continue Masking In Public

Kristin May, an EMT with the Seattle Fire Dept., gives the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to a patient at a City of Seattle community COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinic in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood in February 2021. CREDIT: Ted S. Warren/AP

The new guidance is specific to freedoms that vaccinated people can resume in their own homes, but the agency warns that everyone – even those who are vaccinated – should continue to follow recommended guidelines in public settings, including masking.Read More

A Sign Of Hope After ‘Winter Hibernation’: Employers Add 379,000 Jobs

By NPR News March 7, 2021

A man walks past a "Now Hiring" sign in front of a store in early December in Arlington, Va. U.S. employers added 379,000 jobs in February, as hiring picked up sharply from the previous month. CREDIT: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Hiring picked up steam in February as a winter wave of coronavirus infections eased and consumers spent more freely. U.S. employers added 379,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate dipped to 6.2%.Read More

Army Chaplain’s Remains Identified After 70 years

By NPR News March 6, 2021

Then 2nd Lt. Emil Kapaun, U.S. Army chaplain, circa 1943. CREDIT: U.S Army

Department of Defense investigators have identified the remains of U.S. Army chaplain and Catholic priest Emil Kapaun among the unknown Korean War soldiers buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.Read More

Hold That Drill: Why Wall Street Wants Energy Companies To Pump Less Oil, Not More

By NPR News March 6, 2021

Oil pump jacks operate at dusk in Long Beach, Calif., on April 21, 2020. After getting burned by the oil industry's previous boom-and-bust cycles, Wall Street now wants energy companies to pump less crude, not more. Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images

Oil prices have risen sharply over the last few months. Normally, that's a recipe for a drilling frenzy from U.S. oil producers. But something strange is happening, or rather, not happening.Read More

1 Shot Or 2 Shots? ‘The Vaccine That’s Available To You — Get That’

Boxes containing vials of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine sit in a container before being transported to a refrigeration unit at Louisville Metro Health and Wellness headquarters on March 4 in Louisville, Ky. The FDA approved the third COVID-19 vaccine on Feb. 27. CREDIT: Jon Cherry/Getty Images

As the newest coronavirus vaccine makes its debut, the American public has a new set of deliberations before walking into their vaccine clinic — go with the new arrival or stick with the two vaccines that have already gone into the arms of more than 50 million Americans?Read More

Gustavo Dudamel And L.A. Philharmonic Reunite For Socially Distanced Virtual Concert Series

Gustavo Dudamel during a press conferece on Sept. 30, 2009 in LA, around the time he was named the music director of the LA Philharmonic. Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images

The concerts the LA Phil recorded last summer and fall are featured on the Sound/Stage series, which streams on its website. The first season opened with an episode called "Love in the Time of COVID," complete with overhead shots of the lonely Hollywood Bowl and Los Angeles, and a reading of a Pablo Neruda poem.Read More

‘I Come As A Pilgrim’: Pope Francis Begins Historic Visit To Iraq

Pope Francis arrives at Baghdad International Airport on Friday for the first-ever papal visit to Iraq. CREDIT: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images

Pope Francis has touched down in Iraq for the first-ever papal visit to the predominantly Muslim country, beginning a four-day visit in Baghdad, where yellow and white Vatican flags and likenesses of the pontiff flutter above hastily weeded traffic circles.Read More

Former State Department Aide Charged In Connection With Capitol Riot

U.S. Capitol Police push back rioters trying to enter the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6. CREDIT: Jose Luis Magana/AP

The FBI has arrested a former mid-level State Department aide in the Trump administration for allegedly assaulting police officers while storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Federico Klein, who also worked on the 2016 Trump campaign, was taken into custody on Thursday in Virginia. He is facing several charges, including obstructing an official proceeding, obstructing law Read More

OPEC And Allies Keep Oil Production Steady As Saudi Arabia Urges ‘Caution’

A pumpjack operates in the desert oil fields in southern Bahrain on April 22, 2020. Bahrain and other members of the OPEC+ alliance decided Thursday to keep output largely unchanged as they hope to push crude prices even higher after a recent rally. CREDIT: Mazen Mahdi/AFP via Getty Images

OPEC and its allies said Thursday they are keeping oil production largely steady, even as crude prices stage a remarkable recovery, betting that a restrained approach will lay the groundwork for prices to climb even more.Read More

Supreme Court Makes It Harder For Undocumented Immigrants To Fight Deportation

National Guard troops keep watch Thursday, March 4, 2021 at the Supreme Court. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday made it more difficult for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for a long time to fight deportation. The court's 5-to-3 ruling came in the case of a man who had lived in the U.S. for 25 years but who had used a fake Social Security card to get a job as a janitor.Read More

BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Committed’ Remains Uncommitted — And That’s Its Strength

With smoke-and-mirrors panache, The Committed -- Viet Thanh Nguyen's sequel to The Sympathizer -- continues the travails of our Eurasian Ulysses, now relocated to France and self-identified as Vo Danh (which literally means "Nameless"). Having survived a communist reeducation camp, a perilous sea crossing, and a long sojourn in an Indonesian refugee center, he arrives in Read More

Senate Democrats, White House Agree To Tighter Income Limits For Stimulus Checks

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is working to keep both moderates and progressives inside his caucus on board with the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and pass it this week. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Senate Democrats have reached an agreement with the White House to tighten the limits on who can receive the next round of stimulus checks as part of President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, according to several Democratic sources.Read More

Some U.S. Faith Leaders Express ‘Moral Concerns’ About Johnson & Johnson Vaccine