Vanessa Romo
Vanessa Romo is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers breaking news on a wide range of topics, weighing in daily on everything from immigration and the treatment of migrant children, to a war-crimes trial where a witness claimed he was the actual killer, to an alleged sex cult. She has also covered the occasional cat-clinging-to-the-hood-of-a-car story.
Before her stint on the News Desk, Romo spent the early months of the Trump Administration on the Washington Desk covering stories about culture and politics – the voting habits of the post-millennial generation, the rise of Maxine Waters as a septuagenarian pop culture icon and DACA quinceañeras as Trump protests.
In 2016, she was at the core of the team that launched and produced The New York Times' first political podcast, The Run-Up with Michael Barbaro. Prior to that, Romo was a Spencer Education Fellow at Columbia University's School of Journalism where she began working on a radio documentary about a pilot program in Los Angeles teaching black and Latino students to code switch.
Romo has also traveled extensively through the Member station world in California and Washington. As the education reporter at Southern California Public Radio, she covered the region's K-12 school districts and higher education institutions and won the Education Writers Association first place award as well as a Regional Edward R. Murrow for Hard News Reporting.
Before that, she covered business and labor for Member station KNKX, keeping an eye on global companies including Amazon, Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft.
A Los Angeles native, she is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, where she received a degree in history. She also earned a master's degree in Journalism from NYU. She loves all things camaron-based.
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Twenty-four executions have been carried out in 2023, according to the Death Penalty Information Center says. Four of those happened in Missouri, including the first known execution of an openly transgender woman. Meanwhile, 50% of Americans say the death penalty is applied unfairly. -
The charges, which are expected to be released in coming days, make Trump the first former president in United States history to be criminally indicted. -
The german shepherd mix went missing in October 2021. Now, the friendly pooch is on a cross-country road trip from Louisburg, Kansas to West Sacramento, California, back to the family who adopted him as an abandoned puppy. -
A statue honoring the aviation pioneer — who was born in Atchison, Kansas — is now part of the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and her statue is one of two representing Kansas in the collection. -
A gunman killed at least 19 children and 2 adults at a Texas elementary school. The 18-year-old gunman is also dead, police said. -
Missouri and Kansas are two of the 15 states that have enacted or are currently considering laws that would restrict medical treatments to more than 58,000 transgender youth. -
Building on SB 8 in Texas, some Republican lawmakers — including in Missouri — are trying a new strategy: pushing bills that would attempt to limit what residents can and can't do even beyond state lines. -
The final evacuation flight brought to a close the longest war in U.S. history. The withdrawal leaves the future of Afghanistan in disarray and uncertainty under renewed Taliban rule. -
As employees in Topeka, Kansas, enter a new round of negotiations, they are calling for the public to resist the urge to indulge in Doritos and Cheetos until a new deal that includes less forced overtime is reached. -
"Come enjoy the outdoor activities and the beautiful fall decorations," First Lady Teresa Parson said days after her diagnosis. The event is on Oct. 3, the final day of a 10-day quarantine window.
