Author: Matt

President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that he says can keep more guns out of the hands of dangerous people by increasing the number of buyers who have to submit background checks.

The White House says that’s the closest the U.S. can get to universal background checks without additional legislation from Congress, where Democrats and Republicans remain divided on any new actions aimed at reducing gun violence.

NPR’s Deepa Shivaram reports on the order, which Biden announced during a visit to Monterey Park, California, where a gunman killed 11 people and injured nine more in January, one of over 110 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year.

And NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice about the order’s potential impact and where gun legislation goes from here.

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A group of volunteers is braving artillery barrages to evacuate residents from Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine.

NPR’s Frank Langfitt profiles one of them, a 29-year-old who used to work as a journalist in Poland.

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A new documentary called Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic has gained attention at screenings hosted by universities, police departments and even the Pentagon. But many of the claims made in the film are poorly supported and overhyped.

The film warns parents about the dangers of sexually coercive crimes online and suggests that strangers are targeting potentially millions of minors – pressuring them into sharing revealing content and, often, extorting them for money.

But NPR has found the documentary could leave viewers with an incomplete and exaggerated sense of the risk by relying upon statistics that lack context. Experts fear it could hinder harm reduction efforts by skewing public perception.

NPR’s Lisa Hagen, who covers how false and misleading information spreads, shares her reporting into the documentary and its filmmakers.

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The Biden administration took extraordinary measures to protect the accounts of customers at two banks that failed over the past few days: Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Federal regulators said Sunday that they were taking the emergency measures to prevent contagion at other small and regional banks in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s implosion.

NPR’s David Gura reports that, despite those measures, many bank stocks plunged on Monday.

And former Congressman Barney Frank, a Democrat who sponsored new banking regulations in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, explains what he thinks went wrong at the banks. Frank more recently also served on the board of Signature Bank.

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In about the last 10 years, the legalized cannabis industry has grown into a $32 billion business. Today, in 21 states, and the District of Columbia, you can legally purchase recreational marijuana if you are 21 or older. And 37 states have legalized medical marijuana programs.

While it’s easy to feel that cannabis has come a long way from the scare tactics of Reefer Madness, since 1970’s Controlled Substance Act, marijuana has been classified as a drug on par with cocaine and heroin – dramatically increasing penalties for possession, sale, and distribution. Those penalties were enforced in ways that continue to disproportionately target people of color, especially black people.

While the same states that once prosecuted the sale of weed are now regulating and taxing it, will those most affected by the punitive frameworks of the past be able to profit too?

Host Michel Martin speaks with Devin Alexander, owner of the cannabis delivery business, Rolling Releaf, based in Newton Massachusetts. And we hear from Tauhid Chappell, President of the Philadelphia CannaBusiness Association.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he welcomes a bipartisan effort in Congress to push for new rail safety regulations in the wake of the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Buttigieg spoke to NPR’s Ari Shapiro a day after Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw apologized for the East Palestine derailment during a Senate hearing, but stopped short of endorsing specific new regulations for his industry.

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Some 16 million American households receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will get less money this month.

During the pandemic, the federal government temporarily increased SNAP benefits. But those extra benefits have now expired. That means recipients will get about $90 less each month on average, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research institute. Some families may see their benefits cut by more than $250 per month.

Dr. Megan Sandel, co-director of the Boston Medical Center’s Grow Clinic, which focuses on treating malnutrition issues in kids, explains how children’s health can suffer when families are not able to put enough food on the table.

And NPR’s Stacey Vanek Smith reports on another worrying trend in Americans’ personal finances. Credit card debt is increasing at a record rate, as people struggle to keep up with inflation.

This episode also features reporting from NPR’s Alison Aubrey.

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Before he was the face of a protest movement and a starting quarterback in the Super Bowl, Colin Kaepernick was a teenager who was trying to figure out who he was and where he was going.

Kaepernick’s new graphic novel “Change The Game,” written with Eve L. Ewing and illustrated by Orlando Caicedo, is about that time in his life. He talked to NPR about his coming-of-age story, his career, and whether the NFL has changed since his departure.

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He hasn’t yet entered the contest, but even so, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is one of the leading Republicans in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

DeSantis has just released a new book that highlights his pugnacious style and hardline stance on issues ranging from education to public health. And he has attracted even more attention as Florida’s Republican-led legislature began its session Tuesday.

NPR’s Greg Allen has this look at how DeSantis became what some believe is the future of the Republican Party.

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Tennessee passed a bill last week restricting drag shows. The law specifically bans “adult cabaret performances” in public or in the presence of children.

In more than a dozen states, Republican lawmakers have been pushing similar bills.

Historian Jules Gill-Peterson of Johns Hopkins University says laws that target drag have a long history in the U.S, and LGBTQ people have fought back before.

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