Melissa Block
As special correspondent and guest host of NPR's news programs, Melissa Block brings her signature combination of warmth and incisive reporting. Her work over the decades has earned her journalism's highest honors, and has made her one of NPR's most familiar and beloved voices.
As co-host of All Things Considered from 2003 to 2015, Block's reporting took her everywhere from the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the heart of Rio de Janeiro; from rural Mozambique to the farthest reaches of Alaska.
Her riveting reporting from Sichuan, China, during and after the massive earthquake in 2008 brought the tragedy home to millions of listeners around the world. At the moment the earthquake hit, Block had the presence of mind to record a gripping, real-time narration of the seismic upheaval she was witnessing. Her long-form story about a desperate couple searching in the rubble for their toddler son was singled out by judges who awarded NPR's earthquake coverage the top honors in broadcast journalism: the George Foster Peabody Award, duPont-Columbia Award, Edward R. Murrow Award, National Headliner Award, and the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award.
Now, as special correspondent, Block continues to engage both the heart and the mind with her reporting on issues from gun violence to adult illiteracy to opioid addiction.
In 2017, she traveled the country for the series "Our Land," visiting a wide range of communities to explore how our identity is shaped by where we live. For that series, she paddled along the Mississippi River, went in search of salmon off the Alaska coast, and accompanied an immigrant family as they became U.S. citizens. Her story about the legacy of the Chinese community in the Mississippi Delta earned her a James Beard Award in 2018.
Block is the recipient of the 2019 Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism, awarded by the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, as well as the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fulbright Association.
Block began her career at NPR in 1985 as an editorial assistant for All Things Considered, and rose through the ranks to become the program's senior producer.
She was a reporter and correspondent in New York from 1994 to 2002, a period punctuated by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Her reporting after those attacks helped earn NPR a George Foster Peabody Award. Block's reporting on rape as a weapon of war in Kosovo was cited by the Overseas Press Club of America in awarding NPR the Lowell Thomas Award in 1999.
Block is a 1983 graduate of Harvard University and spent the following year on a Fulbright fellowship in Geneva, Switzerland. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband — writer Stefan Fatsis — and their daughter.
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Two members of the Duke University lacrosse team were named in sealed indictments handed down form a Durham, N.C., grand jury, according to reports. The charges stem from a night in March, when a dancer at a house party thrown by team members told police she was sexually assaulted by three men.
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Federal prosecutors begin their cross-examination of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling over his role in the collapse of the company. The government accuses Skilling of orchestrating fraud and conspiracy that led to one of the largest bankruptcies in U.S. history.
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German scientists say cells from the testes of male mice can behave like embryonic stem cells. If the same holds true in humans, it could perhaps provide a controversy-free source of versatile cells for use in treating disease.
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Just as Democratic opponents appeared resigned over the likely confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is pushing for a filibuster of the nomination. -
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania with strong ties to the military, catapulted into the spotlight recently with his call for a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Murtha says U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq support his position. -
Unrest in France has spread from the immigrant communities of the Paris suburbs to some 300 towns across the country. James Graff, Time magazine's Paris bureau chief, says the riots show that the French vision of color-blind equality doesn't work in reality.
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Awaz Dehkani, a high school teacher in Trappes, France, says her mostly immigrant students have mixed feelings about the violence that has spread to their community. They understand the anger that arises from lack of opportunity but also worry the unrest will hurt the image of immigrants in France.
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Syria vehemently denounces the United Nations' report on that country's role in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Anthony Shadid, Middle East correspondent for The Washington Post, has details of Damascus' response.
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A new tally from regional officials in Pakistan puts the death toll from the Kashmir earthquake and its aftermath at 79,000. Dr. Richard Brennan, director of global health programs for the International Rescue Committee, provides an update on efforts to get aid to quake survivors.
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In an address to the nation from New Orleans Thursday evening, President Bush outlined a massive reconstruction plan to restore areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He touched on areas from rebuilding electrical systems to mail delivery as he pledged substantial federal help.
