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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Jacques Yves Sebastien Duroseau, 34, was found guilty of five counts related to gun smuggling charges. Court filings say he wanted to "train the Haitian police, and run for president of Haiti."
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Kenosha County Circuit Court Commissioner Loren Keating said he found enough probable cause for the case to go forward.
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The team is led by Janet Yellen, a former Fed chair who Biden nominated for treasury secretary. Other nominees, like OMB nominee Neera Tanden, may face stiff Republican opposition.
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While some details remain, it looks like the new season will start on Dec. 22. It will be a 72-game season that will allow for the league's traditional slate of games on Christmas Day.
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Forecasters say Hurricane Eta is rapidly gaining strength as it churns towards the coast of Nicaragua. The storm is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, flash flooding and landslides.
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Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said the footage as well as 911 tapes would be released once Wallace's family has reviewed the materials. The Fraternal Order of Police supports the move.
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Police shot and killed Walter Wallace, a 27-year-old Black man, in a confrontation Monday. National Guard troops will be deployed, at the county's request, amid protests following the shooting.
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Waukegan's mayor said the release of the video is expected before Thursday. An unnamed officer who shot and killed Marcellis Stinnette and injured Tafara Williams has been terminated.
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Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was captured on cellphone video kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes, still faces a higher charge of second-degree murder.
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The former police officer faces charges of murder and manslaughter in George Floyd's killing in May. Demonstrators took to the streets Wednesday after he posted a $1 million bond.
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Brett Hankison, who was terminated in June, has been charged with three counts of wanton endangerment. None of the three men faces state charges directly over Taylor's death.
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Tamika Palmer says she wants the officers who killed her daughter to be charged. "Even in the very beginning of this year, she kept saying 2020 was her year," she said. "And she was absolutely right."