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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An anonymous group is independently painting crosswalks at intersections in Los Angeles, arguing "The city doesn't keep us safe, so we keep us safe."
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After attending court proceedings on Tuesday, James Howard Jackson was released from custody the next day "due to a clerical error." Authorities are working to rearrest him. -
As bombed rained down on the streets of Kyiv, Aleksandra Makoviy wanted to make sure that her 2-year-old would be safe. The only way to do that was by writing her phone number on the girl's back. -
Workers were forced to abandon the shelter for weeks as Kyiv was bombarded by Russian troops. Now that the occupying forces are gone, volunteers returned to find hundreds of dead dogs. -
The USDA's latest report found that nearly all major food groups are going up in price. -
"We've been met with delays, excuses, and inaction from our city government," says the Crosswalk Collective LA. Now, the group has taken matters into its own hands and hopes to spread a DIY message. -
A Peruvian historian and an American archaeologist say Hiram Bingham was given bad information when he arrived at the ancient Incan ruins — and we've all been going along with it. -
State Department spokesman Ned Price said consular officials were granted access to the basketball star on Wednesday. He added that she is in good condition. -
The former secretary of state said Tuesday that she is experiencing "some mild cold symptoms but am feeling fine." -
The company warned consumers of several tainted lots of Accuretic and two other versions of the drug because of the presence of a nitrosamine above the acceptable daily intake level.
