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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A string of Jehovah's Witnesses have been convicted since Russia's Supreme Court banned the Christian denomination as an "extremist organization" in 2017. -
Michael McKinley says he quit his job and then testified to House investigators because of the use of ambassadors "to advance domestic political objectives." -
Dr. Joel Smithers was convicted in May of more than 800 federal counts of illegal drug distribution. He was facing life in prison and a $200 million fine. The court ordered him to pay $86,000. -
Major broadcasters say ads for vaping will no longer be accepted on their airwaves. Meanwhile, in Washington, there's growing consternation and calls for action over youth vaping. -
A dozen patients' deaths were ruled homicides. They died after Irma knocked out power to the air conditioning system at the South Florida center in 2017. -
Researchers want new activists to lean on decades of public health research when engaging in work with policymakers and candidates seeking elective office.
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While the reopening of the government is welcome news for many federal workers, some express trepidation that they'll face the same predicament after Feb. 15. -
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who has been quiet since the shutdown began, now says he's worried about housing programs and federal employees working without pay. -
The Agriculture Department wants to limit states' ability to apply for exemption waivers. It wants more able-bodied people to work in exchange for federal food benefits. -
The Federal Lead Action Plan is a framework rather than a call for new regulations. The plan seeks to bolster efforts to communicate the dangers of lead exposure. Critics say it doesn't go far enough.
