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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In the plan, service providers will provide technology to combat a practice known as spoofing to aid state attorneys general in locating and prosecuting the fraudulent robocallers. -
The group says its plan could prevent 200,000 gun deaths over 10 years. It calls for creating a national registry and starting a buyback program and creating a national gun czar. -
Michael Drejka who is white, says he feared for his life after Markeis McGlockton, who is black, pushed him to the ground in a dispute over a handicapped-accessible parking space in 2018. -
Colorado Springs police say De'Von Bailey reached for a firearm prior to running from officers. Bailey's family says newly released body camera footage disputes that version of events. -
Last month, the president bemoaned the grime and litter in Baltimore on Twitter. Now activists, some with conservative leanings who live outside Maryland, are hosting cleanup efforts in the city. -
Authorities are still struggling to find a motive in the Dayton, Ohio shooting that killed nine and injured dozens; meanwhile, the governor is set to discuss gun control and mental health proposals.
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In Dayton, Ohio, police stopped a mass shooting early Sunday within a minute, but not before nine people were killed, including the gunman's sister. Victims were remembered at a vigil Sunday night.
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Because Puerto Rico's Senate has not approved Pedro Pierluisi yet, legal challenges are expected. Protesters gathered outside the governor's mansion Friday to see his disgraced predecessor leave. -
His trip to Baltimore comes as the city and its long-time Rep. Elijah Cummings D-Md., have been the targets of a series of disparaging tweets by President Trump. -
Speaking on Fox News, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, said he faced a "horrible dilemma" as a doctor in the city and hesitated to send some young patients back to their Baltimore homes after procedures. -
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman ordered the 66-year-old multimillionaire to remain in jail until trial. Federal prosecutors had called Epstein a flight risk. -
The financier's lawyers want him on house arrest at his mansion. Prosecutors say he should stay in a Manhattan jail. Epstein faces sex trafficking charges and 45 years in prison if convicted.
