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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Demonstrators took to the streets of Atlanta overnight in the wake of the decision not to charge officers directly in Taylor's death. Candidates for a Georgia Senate race weighed in.
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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. -
"We understand the inequities that were associated with the name and face of the Uncle Ben's brand and ... we have committed to change," the parent company said in a statement. -
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is poised to announce whether his office will bring charges against the police officers who shot and killed 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in March. -
"The timing seemed perfect as NASCAR is evolving and embracing social change more and more," Michael Jordan, the basketball icon and majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets NBA franchise said. -
Jake Gardner was on the West Coast when a grand jury indicted him last week for the May killing of James Scurlock in Omaha, Neb. Gardner died "at his own hand," his lawyers said Sunday. -
There's only been one other year — 2005 — that Greek names have been needed. The National Hurricane Center on Friday announced storms called Alpha and Beta have formed in the Atlantic. -
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." -
Officials also announced a series of police reforms to be adopted by the Louisville Metro Police Department. Taylor was killed by police in March. -
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed a 55-year-old man on a rural stretch of road Saturday night. State authorities are investigating.
