Martin Kaste
Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.
In addition to criminal justice reporting, Kaste has contributed to NPR News coverage of major world events, including the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2011 uprising in Libya.
Kaste has reported on the government's warrant-less wiretapping practices as well as the data collection and analysis that go on behind the scenes in social media and other new media. His privacy reporting was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 United States v. Jones ruling concerning GPS tracking.
Before moving to the West Coast, Kaste spent five years as NPR's reporter in South America. He covered the drug wars in Colombia, the financial meltdown in Argentina, the rise of Brazilian president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and the fall of Haiti's president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Throughout this assignment, Kaste covered the overthrow of five presidents in five years.
Prior to joining NPR in 2000, Kaste was a political reporter for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul for seven years.
Kaste is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
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As states re-open under new pandemic rules, enforcement often falls to the police. But some people — including some police — think that's a bad idea. -
Police departments are facing a new reality in the era of coronavirus. As familiar categories of crime fade, officers are being asked to handle unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable new assignments.
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Police and paramedics are at high risk of contracting COVID-19, and some say public health departments should help protect them by providing the addresses of people with the virus.
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Public health experts say finding and isolating coronavirus patients will be key to reopening public life. That's going to take a lot of work. -
States and hospitals aren't just counting on the federal government for personal protective equipment. They're wading into the import business themselves, sourcing their own supplies from China.
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He was the unnamed doctor in his 40s reported to be clinging to life, one of the earliest cases of an American health care worker laid low by COVID-19. He says timely medical interventions saved him. -
State has decided that other parts of the country need the 250-bed facility more, but the governor said this doesn't mean Washington is "out of the woods."
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Many states are projected to have excessive demand for ventilator machines in the coming weeks, but no state government has formally asked hospitals to prepare for difficult and complex crisis triage. -
Washington State reports dropping hospitalizations, and hospitals in San Francisco seeing less patient load than feared. But those facts require context.
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Governors in New York and Washington have pointed to early signs that the increase of new coronavirus cases is flattening. How to look up — and interpret — the progress in your state.
