NPR • 16th April 2025

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.

NPR • 5th April 2025

'Your RIF notice is not cancelled.' Inside a chaotic week of massive layoffs at HHS

Chaos and confusion dominated the restructuring affecting thousands of workers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week. A team of reporters at NPR spoke to dozens of them.

NPR • 4th March 2025

South Carolina plans to carry out a firing squad execution. Is it safe for witnesses?

South Carolina plans to execute a man by firing squad on March 7, the first such execution in the state and the first in the nation in 15 years. But my reporting showed firearms experts are questioning whether South Carolina's indoor execution setup is safe for the people who will shoot the prisoner and for the witnesses who will watch.

NPR • 4th March 2025

As Trump shrinks other parts of government, immigration task forces grow

The Trump administration is taking the novel step of turning to other agencies to quickly bolster its immigration enforcement workforce as it prioritizes arrests and deportation, an email I exclusively obtained from DHS helps show.

NPR • 17th February 2025

Power lines sparked new fires in LA after the Eaton Fire began, radio traffic shows

Days after the Eaton Fire in Los Angeles first ignited, firefighters observed that power lines operated by Southern California Edison were live and starting new fires, radio traffic obtained we obtained revealed.

NPR • 21st January 2025

Trump's executive order resumes executions, after Biden dialed them back

The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty for capital crimes “committed by an alien illegally present in this country.” Lawyers say the order could be difficult to enforce.

NPR • 18th January 2025

'The hydrants up here are dead.' Radio traffic shows how LA firefighters lost water

NPR transcribed more than 2,000 hours of radio communications from the LA fires. The analysis shows hydrants going dry and first responders fighting fires despite scarce resources.

NPR • 20th December 2024

Advocates want Biden to spare the lives of the 40 prisoners on federal death row

After I interviewed one of the 40 men on death row about how excruciating it was to wait for Biden to decide whether he would commute his sentence, the next business day, Biden commuted that man's sentence and the sentence of 36 others on federal death row.

NPR • 12th December 2024

An update from southern Arizona at the most rural section of the southern U.S. border

President-elect Trump campaigned on promises to take on the border crisis. I traveled to the most rural section of the border with Mexico — a section in Arizona — to talk to Customs and Border Protection and migrants on the ground to report on what had changed since the election.

3rd December 2024

My Best Backup: A Tiny Love Story in the New York Times

The New York Times published a Tiny Love Story I submitted in December.

NPR • 10th October 2024

'That’s a bloodbath': How a federal program kills wildlife for private interests

Wildlife Services officials say that with the exception of invasive species, employees only kill wild animals that attack livestock or cause damage. But data obtained by NPR indicates that's not true. The program often kills native wildlife that didn’t kill or injure livestock.

NPR • 26th September 2024

“Governor, don’t kill me for the heck of it”: Oklahoma prisoner asks for clemency

Hours before he was executed, I interviewed Emmanuel Littlejohn in his last conversation with the press.

NPR • 10th July 2024

Unmarked cars and secret orders: How a pharmacy prepared drugs for Texas’ executions

The state of Texas, blocked from purchasing lethal injection drugs by major pharmaceutical companies that refuse to participate in executions, bought them instead from an in-state compounding pharmacy with a history of more than a dozen safety and cleanliness violations, NPR has learned. Rite-Away Pharmacy and Medical Supply in suburban San Antonio produced injectable pentobarbital from 2019 through at least late 2023 for Texas to use in executions, records from the state Department of Crimin...

NPR • 15th May 2024

Limited testing of raw milk for bird flu leaves safety questions unanswered

I went to Texas — ground zero for the bird flu spreading across the U.S. — to buy raw milk and test it for the flu. Here's what happened.

NPR • 18th April 2024

States botched more executions of Black prisoners. Experts think they know why

Studies of the death penalty have long shown racial inequality in its application, but a new report has found the disparity extends inside the death chamber itself. I spoke with race scholars and execution workers who collectively witnessed more than 20 executions across the country to understand the mechanics of how that may be happening.

NPR • 4th April 2024

Concrete structures meant to protect Baltimore bridge appear unchanged for decades

Seconds before the container ship Dali hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last week and tore it down, killing six construction workers, it sailed past a structure designed to prevent that kind of disaster.

Although Maryland has invested in repairing the Key Bridge, records reviewed by NPR indicate the dolphins have not been substantially changed since they were built in the 1970s.

NPR • 29th March 2024

'We got workers in the water': Audio reveals new details of Baltimore bridge rescue

NPR's Investigations Team analyzed more than 1,000 radio messages exchanged between first responders from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, Baltimore City Fire Department and Baltimore City Police on the day of the collapse, downloaded from Broadcastify.com. The communications, most of which have not been published by any other outlet, reveal new details about the response from police and firefighters and highlight what those first responders did and did not know about the construction crew before and after the collapse.

NPR • 26th January 2024

Alabama executes man by nitrogen gas for the first time in the U.S.

For NPR, I reported on the nitrogen gas execution from Atmore, Alabama. We delivered a feature length radio story about the historic event the day after the execution, which can be heard here.

NPR • 17th January 2024

Kenneth Smith could be the first person executed with nitrogen gas. He spoke with NPR

Kenneth Smith Smith rarely speaks with journalists. But he called me from the prison last year on Dec. 7, where he's being housed in Atmore, Ala. He discussed what it was like to experience the failed execution, and how he felt about the prospect of undergoing another attempt, this time by nitrogen gas, in January.

NPR • 20th December 2023

Families of executed prisoners want death penalty tapes made public

NPR spoke to four families of people whose executions were recorded by the Virginia Department of Corrections. All said that Corrections had not informed them of the tapes, and that they wanted the state to release the recordings publicly so they could know what happened to their relatives as they died.

NPR • 12th December 2023

Alabama's upcoming gas execution could harm witnesses and violate religious liberty

The state of Alabama plans to execute a prisoner in January using nitrogen hypoxia, a process so novel and untested that state officials required the man's spiritual adviser to sign a waiver that said he could be exposed to the gas. The acknowledgment form, exclusively obtained by NPR, also reveals that the spiritual adviser, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, is required to stay at least three feet away from the prisoner, which may violate both their religious liberties.

Spotify • 8th December 2023

The American Whale

Collaborated with NPR member station in New Orleans, WWNO, on this podcast episode by Carlyle Calhoun for Sea Change, to go in depth on the investigation we published into why more action isn't being taken by the U.S. to protect severely endangered whales in the Gulf of Mexico.

NPR • 16th November 2023

Only 51 of these U.S. whales remain. Little has been done to prevent their extinction

My investigation used analysis of public documents and AIS data to show how little has been done by NOAA to prevent the extinction of Rice’s whales by limiting their know man made risks.

NPR • 23rd September 2023

Vaccines are still tested with horseshoe crab blood. The industry is finally changing

After NPR published my investigation into the national horseshoe crab bleeding industry, changes were made nationally and locally to allow companies to have easier access to synthetic alternatives to horseshoe crab blood, a key ingredient used to test vaccines and medical devices for contamination, and limit the horseshoe crab harvest.