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.
-
COVID cases are down, half of the country is at least partially vaccinated and the wanderlust has struck. But the rebound could also mean new challenges for your getaway. Here's how to avoid them.
-
The department says the new advisories will "better reflect the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's science." Americans are urged not to travel to nearly 80% of countries around the globe.
-
"A healthy person subjected to what Mr. Floyd was subjected to would have died," pulmonary specialist Dr. Martin Tobin told jurors on Thursday.
-
Paramedics who treated George Floyd as he lay motionless in the street, testified at then-officer Derek Chauvin's trial on Thursday. They said Floyd was in cardiac arrest and "limp" when they arrived.
-
The 17-year-old described then-Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin as "kind of angry," adding that "he was digging his knee into George Floyd's neck" and he threatened bystanders with a can of Mace.
-
Officials said one male suspect is in custody. The attack comes less than a week after a series of shootings in Atlanta.
-
Robert Aaron Long, 21, who was arrested within hours of the attacks at three massage businesses, has been charged with murder and assault.
-
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office and Atlanta Police Department are investigating attacks at three spas. Authorities say many of the victims appear to be of Asian descent.
-
President Biden is visiting Texas one week after he officially declared a major disaster in the state, which has been reeling from record cold, power outages and a water crisis.
-
The announcement comes as part of a wave of pardons and commutations in the final weeks of Trump's presidency.