Robert Benincasa
Robert Benincasa is a computer-assisted reporting producer in NPR's Investigations Unit.
Since joining NPR in 2008, Benincasa has been reporting on NPR Investigations stories, analyzing data for investigations, and developing data visualizations and interactive applications for NPR.org. He has worked on numerous groundbreaking stories, including data-driven investigations of the inequities of federal disaster aid and coal miners' exposures to deadly silica dust.
Prior to NPR, Benincasa served as the database editor for the Gannett News Service Washington Bureau for a decade.
Benincasa's work at NPR has been recognized by many of journalism's top honors. In 2014, he was part of a team that won an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, and he shared Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards with Investigations Unit colleagues in 2016 and 2011.
Also in 2011, he received numerous accolades for his contributions to several investigative stories, including an Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, an Investigative Reporters & Editors Radio Award, the White House News Photographers Association's Eyes of History Award for multimedia innovation, and George Polk and George Foster Peabody awards.
Benincasa served on the faculty of Georgetown University's Master of Professional Studies program in journalism from 2008 to 2016.
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More than 250 people have died since 2013 when trenches they were working in caved in. In most cases, the employers failed to follow basic government regulations for making trenches safe. -
An NPR investigation finds that many people with VA loans who got a COVID forbearance are at risk of losing their homes. The VA has a fix, but it could be too late unless it halts foreclosures. -
Miners and their advocates testify in favor of new silica regulations aimed at preventing black lung disease -
At a hearing miners asked regulators to crack down on silica dust which causes lung cancer. They want rules to require more air monitoring and contain specifics about citations and fines.
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The Labor Department has proposed a new rule limiting miners' exposure to silica — a toxic dust linked to a recent epidemic of severe black lung disease among coal miners. -
More than half of the counties in the nation's so-called Diabetes Belt - which includes parts of north Florida - also have high rates of medical debt among their residents, an NPR analysis found. -
A 2017 NPR investigation found that many funeral businesses failed to disclose prices to consumers. The FTC may modernize the existing rule to make such information more transparent. -
Elderly homeowners in Florida are suing the billion dollar company that owns their mobile home park. Big companies are buying up parks around the country, but critics say residents pay the price. -
Hundreds of cities and towns are seriously short of housing, both homes to buy and rentals, according to a new study. It's the main reason that home prices and rents are so high. -
A new study links the epidemic of severe lung disease among coal miners to toxic silica dust. The findings echo a 2018 investigation by NPR and the PBS show Frontline.
