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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Wisconsin does not have automatic recounts, but a losing candidate can file a sworn petition requesting one if the margin of victory is less than 1%. Democrat Joe Biden leads by roughly 21,000 votes. -
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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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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"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.
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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."
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The "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" march comes as frustration over police brutality and use of force have sparked national protests following the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd.
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Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The shootings took place on the third night of protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
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Attorney Benjamin Crump tweets the news of Jacob Blake's condition Tuesday — and adds he is praying it is not permanent. Blake was shot in the back by police in Wisconsin on Sunday.
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The Big Ten, which includes Michigan and Ohio State, and the Pac-12, which includes Stanford and USC, put off playing college sports this fall as confirmed virus cases in the U.S. rise.
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"He, as much as anyone in our history, brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals," former President Barack Obama said of the longtime congressman and civil rights legend.
