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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"All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game's finest players, innovations and triumphs against the backdrop of injustice," said the MLB commissioner. -
The district attorney's office said police "acted in lawful self-defense and defense of others." It added the officers won't be held criminally responsible in the death of Melyda Corado. -
Hogan, a Republican, will co-chair with former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Together they will push centrist political ideas as a new Congress is set to convene early next year. -
Dr. Fauci said once the vaccine becomes widely available, if by "April, May, June, July, we get as many people vaccinated as possible, we could really turn this thing around" by the end of 2021. -
Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of TheWall Street Journal, writes, "There's nothing like playing the race or gender card to stifle criticism." -
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." -
The new DA in Los Angeles County will not seek the death penalty, excessive criminal sentences or cash bail. He said his experiences as a young police officer 40 years ago shaped his approach. -
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office said a deputy shot and killed 23-year-old Casey Goodson on Friday. Law enforcement recovered a gun. His family's attorneys say he was licensed to carry a firearm. -
Congressional Democrats seek to remove the "punishment" clause from the 13th Amendment which allows members of prison populations to be used as cheap and free labor. -
The teenager is accused of killing two people and injuring another during demonstrations over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was left paralyzed.
