Martin Kaste
Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.
In addition to criminal justice reporting, Kaste has contributed to NPR News coverage of major world events, including the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2011 uprising in Libya.
Kaste has reported on the government's warrant-less wiretapping practices as well as the data collection and analysis that go on behind the scenes in social media and other new media. His privacy reporting was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 United States v. Jones ruling concerning GPS tracking.
Before moving to the West Coast, Kaste spent five years as NPR's reporter in South America. He covered the drug wars in Colombia, the financial meltdown in Argentina, the rise of Brazilian president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and the fall of Haiti's president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Throughout this assignment, Kaste covered the overthrow of five presidents in five years.
Prior to joining NPR in 2000, Kaste was a political reporter for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul for seven years.
Kaste is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
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The Supreme Court ruled that seizing a $42,000 Land Rover was an "excessive fine" in a recent landmark decision on civil asset forfeiture. Future rulings will have to further define that term.
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Two Boeing 737 Max crashes are raising questions about whether the convenience of software has made it easier to miss the seriousness of possible flaws.
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The probe of two Boeing plane crashes is focused, for the moment, on software. We examine how software has become a common fix for problems with hardware across industries, and how it can go too far.
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The measure seeks to close the so-called "Charleston loophole" that allowed an avowed white supremacist to buy a gun he used to kill 9 people at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston. S.C., in 2015.
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Some sheriffs in Washington state say they won't enforce a new gun law. It's the latest example of sheriffs exercising what some regard as their duty to resist "government overreach."
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By refusing to enforce the gun-control law, it's the latest example of sheriffs who claim they have a special duty to resist "bad" laws in the name of the people who elected them.
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Germany is seeing the return of wolf packs, and with them growing political tension over whether the animals pose too much of a threat.
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New regulations will bar the sale of the accessories that enable rifles to fire faster, and will require current owners to turn them in or destroy them.
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A hot job market and skepticism about law enforcement are making it harder for police departments across the country to replace officers who are retiring.
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Ten times a day, on average, Facebook's AI-driven self-harm detection system alerts authorities to people who may be about to hurt themselves.