Brakkton Booker
Brakkton Booker is a National Desk reporter based in Washington, DC.
He covers a wide range of topics including issues related to federal social safety net programs and news around the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
His reporting takes him across the country covering natural disasters, like hurricanes and flooding, as well as tracking trends in regional politics and in state governments, particularly on issues of race.
Following the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Booker's reporting broadened to include a focus on young activists pushing for changes to federal and state gun laws, including the March For Our Lives rally and national school walkouts.
Prior to joining NPR's national desk, Booker spent five years as a producer/reporter for NPR's political unit. He spent most to the 2016 presidential campaign cycle covering the contest for the GOP nomination and was the lead producer from the Trump campaign headquarters on election night. Booker served in a similar capacity from the Louisville campaign headquarters of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2014. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he produced pieces and filed dispatches from the Republican and Democratic National conventions, as well as from President Obama's reelection site in Chicago.
In the summer of 2014, Booker took a break from politics to report on the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
Booker started his career as a show producer working on nearly all of NPR's magazine programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and former news and talk show Tell Me More,where he produced the program's signature Barbershop segment.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University and was a 2015 Kiplinger Fellow. When he's not on the road, Booker enjoys discovering new brands of whiskey and working on his golf game.
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An affidavit says Amir Riep and Jahsen Wint allegedly raped a woman. The affidavit says Riep began filming her, pressing her to say the encounter was consensual.
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The site weleakinfo.com is now down. The Justice Department says that for a fee, users could access stolen personal data names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses. Two people were arrested in Europe.
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The Transportation Security Administration said 87% of the guns taken at U.S. airport checkpoints in 2019 were loaded. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International had the most firearms confiscated: 323.
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HUD says it is releasing more than $8 billion in aid to Puerto Rico. The deadline to do so was in September. The aid is for rebuilding after devastating Hurricanes Maria and Irma struck in 2017.
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The company builds parts including wing components, engine pylons and the entire fuselage for Boeing's troubled 737 Max jets. The planes have been grounded worldwide in the wake of two fatal crashes.
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Slovenia's Dalila Jakupovic was trying to make the first round of the tournament set to open next week. She had trouble breathing and later told reporters, "I was really scared that I would collapse."
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Some 2,000 people have been displaced, according to one humanitarian group's estimate. But there are hopeful signs. Puerto Rico's utility says roughly 80% of its customers have their electricity back.
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Lawmakers say Trump administration officials have evaded questions about the president's ability to attack Iran. In an interview with NPR, Robert O'Brien said officials can't discuss "hypotheticals."
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the plane crash in Tehran that killed 176 people "heartbreaking." One newspaper reported that nearly half of the Canadians who died are from the Edmonton area.
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The president and some of his top lieutenants stated and restated on Tuesday that they feared a new attack was imminent and that they were justified in hitting the Quds Force leader.