Vanessa Romo
Vanessa Romo is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers breaking news on a wide range of topics, weighing in daily on everything from immigration and the treatment of migrant children, to a war-crimes trial where a witness claimed he was the actual killer, to an alleged sex cult. She has also covered the occasional cat-clinging-to-the-hood-of-a-car story.
Before her stint on the News Desk, Romo spent the early months of the Trump Administration on the Washington Desk covering stories about culture and politics – the voting habits of the post-millennial generation, the rise of Maxine Waters as a septuagenarian pop culture icon and DACA quinceañeras as Trump protests.
In 2016, she was at the core of the team that launched and produced The New York Times' first political podcast, The Run-Up with Michael Barbaro. Prior to that, Romo was a Spencer Education Fellow at Columbia University's School of Journalism where she began working on a radio documentary about a pilot program in Los Angeles teaching black and Latino students to code switch.
Romo has also traveled extensively through the Member station world in California and Washington. As the education reporter at Southern California Public Radio, she covered the region's K-12 school districts and higher education institutions and won the Education Writers Association first place award as well as a Regional Edward R. Murrow for Hard News Reporting.
Before that, she covered business and labor for Member station KNKX, keeping an eye on global companies including Amazon, Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft.
A Los Angeles native, she is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, where she received a degree in history. She also earned a master's degree in Journalism from NYU. She loves all things camaron-based.
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Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he was investigating leaked materials, including a video published by the Los Angeles Times in an article by reporter Alene Tchekmedyian that detailed inmate abuse. -
Prashant Baid created halfloafnear.me for himself; he hates throwing out bread that's gone bad. But now, he says, the program has struck a chord with other people seeking to reduce food waste. -
Depp has testified that Heard severed his finger with a shattered vodka bottle. On Thursday, her attorney used Depp's own words to suggest he did it himself. Depp is suing Heard for defamation. -
Depp's attorneys on Tuesday sought to bolster his claims that the actress escalated their altercations, playing a series of audio recordings. -
Depp says in court: "Never did I myself reach the point of striking Ms. Heard in any way, nor have I ever struck any woman in my life." -
Authorities are not officially releasing their names, but several people have already stepped into the spotlight, claiming credit for their role in helping NYPD officers capture the alleged gunman. -
It's not exactly easy to get in, but if you book in advance, it's once again possible to get a close-up view of the historical paintings, furnishings and knickknacks in the People's House. -
The comedian's husband has been a primary source of her popular specials. But when writing about the Asian American couple's split, some news outlets used photos of Asian American actor Randall Park.
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Officials have linked a set of keys to an abandoned U-Haul van found blocks from the Brooklyn shooting. Investigators say the van was rented by Frank R. James in Philadelphia. -
Over six months, the Atlanta-based group bought hundreds of firearms from local retailers only to resell them to Philadelphia-based brokers. Now the weapons are showing up at crime scenes.
