Jennifer Ludden
Jennifer Ludden helps edit energy and environment stories for NPR's National Desk, working with NPR staffers and a team of public radio reporters across the country. They track the shift to clean energy, state and federal policy moves, and how people and communities are coping with the mounting impacts of climate change.
Previously, Ludden was an NPR correspondent covering family life and social issues, including the changing economics of marriage, the changing role of dads, and the ethical challenges of reproductive technology. She's also covered immigration and national security.
Ludden started reporting with NPR while based overseas in West Africa, Europe and the Middle East. She shared in two awards (Overseas Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists) for NPR's coverage of the Kosovo war in 1999, and won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for her coverage of the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When not navigating war zones, Ludden reported on cultural trends, including the dying tradition of storytellers in Syria, the emergence of Persian pop music in Iran, and the rise of a new form of urban polygamy in Africa.
Ludden has also reported from Canada and at public radio stations in Boston and Maine. She's a graduate of Syracuse University with degrees in television, radio, and film production and in English.
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Voters in several cities approved ballot measures to cap rents, part of a larger resurgence of rent control. Economists warn that such caps can actually reduce affordable housing overall. -
Gas prices got a lot of attention in the midterms, but high housing costs are a bigger chunk of people's budgets. In cities around the country, voters approved more spending on affordable housing.
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Skyrocketing rents and home prices have been a major part of voters' economic pain. New spending will go toward building and subsidizing more housing, and helping people avoid homelessness.
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A Cincinnati agency says large investors are taking some of the most affordable homes off the market, exacerbating the racial wealth gap. It's now helping its new tenants buy the homes themselves.
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Given record high rents and low vacancy rates, housing providers are offering to match people up as roommates to get them off the streets. But it can be a tough sell for both renters and landlords.
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Experts say the federal child tax credit was a big reason for the drop. The expanded child tax credit ended in December, just as inflation was starting to climb to historic highs.
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Child poverty is at a historic low, according to Census bureau data, and the rate of those without health insurance dropped in 2021. But the good news may be short-lived, as policy measures expire.
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Residents accuse the largely white state government of neglecting the needs of a city that's 82% Black. White flight in the 1970s devastated the tax base, posing a major challenge to any solution.
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Some 180,000 people in and near Mississippi's capital have not been able to use their tap water since Monday. It's the latest in a string of crises due to the city's aging water infrastructure.
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Jackson, Miss., is still without access to safe drinking water, and it's not clear when it will be available. The government is trying to navigate getting bottled water to 150,000 residents.
