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Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Wade Goodwyn

Wade Goodwyn is an NPR National Desk Correspondent covering Texas and the surrounding states.

Reporting since 1991, Goodwyn has covered a wide range of issues, from mass shootings and hurricanes to Republican politics. Whatever it might be, Goodwyn covers the national news emanating from the Lone Star State.

Though a journalist, Goodwyn really considers himself a storyteller. He grew up in a Southern storytelling family and tradition, he considers radio an ideal medium for narrative journalism. While working for a decade as a political organizer in New York City, he began listening regularly to WNYC, which eventually led him to his career as an NPR reporter.

In a recent profile, Goodwyn's voice was described as being "like warm butter melting over BBQ'd sweet corn." But he claims, dubiously, that his writing is just as important as his voice.

Goodwyn is a graduate of the University of Texas with a degree in history. He lives in Dallas with his famliy.

  • Dorothy Flood, now 75, has vivid memories of not being allowed in a train dining car as a young black girl. Now, an organization that grants wishes to seniors has sent Flood on an all-expenses paid trip through the Rocky Mountains, in a gourmet dining car.
  • Timothy Cole was accused of rape in 1985. His conviction was based on the victim's testimony, but there was no physical evidence tying him to the crime. He died in 1999, before DNA evidence proved he was not the rapist.
  • The three American military contractors who were among the 15 hostages rescued from Colombian leftist rebels have returned home safe. The rescue operation was assisted by quick thinking, acting skills and Che Guevara T-shirts.
  • Child welfare officials in Texas say they'll take immediate steps to comply with a state Supreme Court ruling that children removed from a polygamist compound be reunited with their parents. The court said welfare officials overstepped their authority.
  • Jurors convict Warren Jeffs on charges of accomplice to rape. The leader of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints forced a 14-year-old follower to marry her 19-year-old cousin.
  • Energy giant TXU agrees to be acquired by a group of private-equity firms in a deal worth $32 billion. If approved, it would be the largest leveraged buyout in U.S. history. The bidders are making concessions to environmentalists to help push the deal through.
  • A federal grand jury charges a Mississippi man in the 1964 killings of two black men in one of the few remaining unsolved cases from the civil rights era. James Ford Seale pleaded not guilty today in Jackson, Miss. Seale, a former sheriff's deputy, is believed to have been a Klansman.
  • Enron's former finance chief, Andrew Fastow, is sentenced to six years with an additional two years under supervised release. Fastow had worked out a plea deal with prosecutors back in 2004 under which he agreed to a prison term of up to 10 years. However, Fastow asked Federal Court Judge Kenneth Hoyt for a shorter sentence.
  • The Pentagon has publicly named two soldiers who have been missing in Iraq since Friday. An umbrella group of Iraqi insurgents claims that it is holding the two hostage. U.S. officials are trying to determine what happened.
  • After finding former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling guilty on several counts in their conspiracy and fraud trial, the jury of eight women and four men met with reporters to explain their thinking.