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Apple Podcasts •

Investigation Sheds New Light On What May Have Sparked Eaton Fire

KQED talked with me about my findings from our recent investigation: Almost nine months have passed since the Eaton Fire ripped through Los Angeles County. It destroyed more than 9,000 buildings and left billions of dollars in damages. At first, attention focused on Southern California Edison's transmission lines as the likely cause. But a new NPR investigation shows there may have been other failures, too.
NPR •

Hours before the Eaton fire, distribution lines failed and fire started in Altadena

Distribution lines that power individual homes malfunctioned in Altadena as early as 11 a.m., NPR found, and at least one fire linked to a problem with a distribution line started in Altadena hours before the sparks near Eaton Canyon. Throughout that morning and afternoon, firefighters were dispatched to different parts of Altadena to respond to problems with power lines. And although SoCal Edison can prevent the damage electrical fires can cause by shutting off the power that flows through power lines, the utility did not turn the power off to most of the circuits in Altadena on Jan. 7, NPR found.
NPR •

Hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan children can stay in the U.S. for now, judge says

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expelling hundreds of Guatemalan children who crossed the U.S. border alone. Although the government had not obtained legal permission to remove the children, some of their lawyers said, Guatemalan children were already loaded on planes on a tarmac while the judge conducted a hearing about the situation on Sunday, a U.S. attorney confirmed.
NPR •

Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin summit

Papers with U.S. State Department markings, found Friday morning in the business center of an Alaskan hotel, revealed previously undisclosed and potentially sensitive details about the Aug. 15 meetings between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Anchorage. Eight pages, that appear to have been produced by U.S. staff and left behind accidentally, shared precise locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S. government employees. At around 9 a...
Taylor Lorenz •

The Public Health Internet Is Crumbling

The internet has become the primary way that people get public health information. Especially since the pandemic began in 2020, millions of people have turned to platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and newsletters to keep up to date on things like food recalls, infectious disease reports, and more.

But now, CDC social media channels have gone dark, and the agency's public health communication across the internet is being cut off and dismantled. Chiara Eisner is an investigative reporter at NPR and she's been covering the fiasco at the CDC. We talk about the crucial role that the internet plays in public health and why what's happening right now under Trump and RFK and why it might set us back decades.
NPR •

NPR has a small investigative reporting unit. Here's how they decide when to dig in

With recent congressional scrutiny on NPR and the broader public media system, many people are asking how and why NPR news stories come to be. The NPR investigative reporting unit is a small group of journalists, and their stories often take a long time to report. The work is unique. It's rare that another newsroom will report on the same issues. I spoke to NPR"s Public Editor about my work for the team.
NPR •

Diseases are spreading. The CDC isn't warning the public like it was months ago

To accomplish its mission of increasing the health security of the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that it "conducts critical science and provides health information" to protect the nation. But since President Trump's administration assumed power in January, many of the platforms the CDC used to communicate with the public have gone silent, my investigation for NPR found.
NPR •

In the middle of a hepatitis outbreak, U.S. shutters the one CDC lab that could help

The kind of genetic tracing that the CDC's lab performs is not conducted by any other lab in the United States or the world, experts interviewed by NPR said. While the lab remains shuttered, ongoing investigations of current hepatitis outbreaks have been stalled, not just in Florida, but also in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Georgia, according to CDC employees who work closely with the Division of Viral Hepatitis. The five CDC employees NPR spoke with requested that their names not be shared for fear of retaliation.
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