Howard Berkes

OK, as the actual journalist who has been unwittingly caught up in the Claude rumor this morning (who also covers AI disinformation) let me clear this one up for the record.

To recap: Claude kind of implicated itself in the Iran school bombing citing (in part) my reporting...

Hey look, a podcast made by a local public radio station is at the top of Apple Podcasts.

Obey Apple and listen to "Adults in the Room" by @kuow.org.

Hey this is tonight!

Engineered stone workers get lung transplants as industry pushes Congress for legal shield Silicosis is a public health problem unfolding for engineered stone fabricators across America, and questions are mounting about who is ultimately responsible if workers get sick

Hundreds of workers who fabricate kitchen countertops from artificial stone slabs have developed silicosis. Dozens have died.

The industry's response: ask congress for complete immunity from lawsuits filed by sick workers.

Check out this powerful news report by Anna Werner for @investigatetv.com

Me and @sylviaruthg.lpm.org spent a couple weeks on this one, tracking down how illegal child marriages are still happening in Kentucky 👇 #kyga26

NASA announces major overhaul of Artemis moon program amid safety concerns, delays: "We've got to get back to basics" NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced significant changes to the agency's Artemis program, which aims to land on the moon in 2028.

After just reporting about “lessons learned”from the Challenger/Columbia disasters, it’s disappointing to see that NASA & its partners have not apparently learned enough. NASA’s new director deemed the Artemis mission unsafe. Actually, saying stop is a lesson learned

www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-ar...

BONUS | The Challenger Legacy: Q&A - ABC listen What's the point of space exploration? Would you fly on a space shuttle? How did they fix the joints after the Challenger disaster?  For this special bonus episode of The Challenger Legacy, hosts Dr ...

Bonus epsiode of the @abcaustralia.bsky.social podcast The Challenger Legacy features thoughtful Q&A about the Challenger & Columbia disasters & the American space program. More comprehensive than anything produced in the states. Great work from Fiona Pepper & team
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

EXCLUSIVE: An @npr.org investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

Other documents that mention Trump have been taken down (and some restored).

More:

Two New Top Officers Elected to Public Health Watch Board

Retired NPR correspondent Howard Berkes and political strategist Cliff Walker become board chair and vice chair, respectively.

40 years after Challenger: Lingering guilt and lessons learned Forty years after the Challenger disaster, NPR explores the engineers' last-minute efforts to stop the launch, their decades of guilt and the vital lessons that remain critical for NASA today.

40 yrs ago today, @npr.org colleague Daniel Zwerdling & I separately interviewed 2 Thiokol engineers who anonymously provided detailed/unreported accounts of the 11th-hour effort to stop the fatal launch of the shuttle Challenger. The story & the stories behind the story: www.npr.org/2026/01/25/g...

Massive Galveston Bay Barrier System Gets One Step Closer to Construction A January vote to begin preliminary engineering and design work jump-started the controversial “Ike Dike” project, meant to protect against increasingly fierce hurricanes. But not everyone is celebrating.

Massive Galveston Bay Barrier System Gets One Step Closer to Construction

A January vote to begin preliminary engineering and design work jump-started the controversial “Ike Dike” project, meant to protect against increasingly fierce hurricanes. But not everyone is celebrating.

I'm a health reporter at @stateline.org and @statesnewsroom.com. I'm looking for experts and researchers following the effects of #ACA subsidy expiration and #Medicaid coverage loss on chronic illness, specifically #diabetes. DM's are open and open to research links. s chatlani AT stateline dot org

05 | The Challenger Legacy: Apollo on Steroids - ABC listen NASA is gearing up for the Artemis II mission — where it will send astronauts around the moon for the first time in 50 years. While space exploration is never without risk, a retired astronaut is warn...

EP 5 of the @abcaustralia.bsky.social podcast The Challenger Legacy has some disturbing assessments of risk about the upcoming Artemis II mission, with echoes of Challenger and Columbia. Fiona Pepper and team connect the dots.

www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

The 2026 Nieman Fellows honor Gaza-based Palestinian journalists Shrouq Aila and Anas Baba with the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism - Nieman Foundation The Nieman Fellows in the Class of 2026 have awarded the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism to two Palestinian journalists in Gaza: Anas Baba, a reporter for National Publ...

@npr.org Anas Baba shares the 2026 Louis M Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism from the @niemanfoundation.bsky.social Fellows

nieman.harvard.edu/the-2026-nie...

04 | The Challenger Legacy: The Devil You Know - ABC listen In the wake of twin disasters two decades apart, how do we make sense of why they happened? In episode four, we find out what happened on the very first flight after Columbia — and ask whether NASA c...

From ABC Australia - EP 4 of The Challenger Legacy, with a closer look at the “normalization of deviance,” and its claimed role in the shuttle Challenger and Columbia disasters. Fiona Pepper and team connect the dots.

www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Oregon Public Broadcasting is one of the crown jewels of public media in the US. This is a shot across its bow.

Please take a media literacy moment and stop posting that the young boy in the Super Bowl halftime show was Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old who was detained by ICE.

It was a child actor, who posted about it on social media.

www.instagram.com/reel/DUhUaQp...

Behind the glitz in Milan, the Epstein scandal casts its shadow over the Olympic movement The Epstein scandal has spread to the Olympic movement. The top organizer of the Los Angeles Summer Games faces calls to step down because of his past contacts with Epstein collaborator Ghislaine Maxw...

My latest for NPR www.npr.org/2026/02/06/n...

This story incorrectly states that NIOSH administers a program that provides benefits for coal miners. That is not true. NIOSH is a research agency. It provides free testing for miners to detect black lung and it tracks and does research on the disease. Benefits are administered by the Dept of Labor

Trump’s call to ‘nationalize’ elections adds to state officials’ alarm “[Pam Bondi] pretty much slandered all of us,” said Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson. “And to me, that’s problematic to publicly claim that secretaries of state are not doing our jobs and the federal government has to do it for us. Not OK.”

“[Pam Bondi] pretty much slandered all of us,” said Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson. “And to me, that’s problematic to publicly claim that secretaries of state are not doing our jobs and the federal government has to do it for us. Not OK.”

U.S. steps onto Olympic stage at a time when its image and role in the world spark growing concern The Olympics are a symbol of international cooperation and peace. The U.S. was once seen as a bastion of that order, but historians say Trump's America enters this year's Winter Games with a very diff...

My latest for NPR U.S. enters Winter Olympics with darker image on the world stage www.npr.org/2026/02/05/n...

03 | The Challenger Legacy: Columbia - ABC listen In 2003, close to two decades after the Challenger disaster, seven astronauts were killed in another space shuttle accident.  History has repeated itself and NASA faces another reckoning — the parall...

Ep 3 of @abcaustralia.bsky.social podcast The Challenger Legacy is a gut wrenching look at the 2003 shuttle Columbia disaster & the failures that echo Challenger. From Fiona Pepper & team.

www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

The Trump admin wont name the agents who killed Alexi Pretti.

So we are.

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raym...

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

Note from the editors: ProPublica is publishing the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. We believe there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed. The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement. The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.

A note from our editors:

Two School Districts Sue, Claiming Alaska Is Failing Its Constitutional Obligation to Fund Public Education The lawsuit points to the effects of the state’s underfunding, including low proficiency-test scores and dangerous building conditions.

Two Alaska school districts are suing the state for what they say is its failure to adequately fund public education.

Their suit cites the effects of underfunding, including low test scores, staff reductions and dangerous school conditions.

With KYUK Public Media

The Lingering Guilt and Lessons Learned from the Challenger Disaster Forty years ago, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch. According to NPR's Howard Berkes, the lessons learned from the disaster are as critical as ever.

More on the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, and the failed effort to delay the launch, from me and
@kuer.org Radio West
radiowest.kuer.org/show/radiowe...

They were not responsible for the Challenger disaster. Watch the story.

Utah company that made the Challenger O-Rings wants you to know a few things The American space program needed big rubber rings. The subcontractor that won the job was called HydraPak – a Salt Lake City company that made seals for industrial equipment.

You’re likely hearing about space shuttle O-rings on this 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Nate Carlisle of FOX13 Utah has this little known tidbit. The shuttle O-rings were produced by a company owned, operated & partially staffed by polygamists

www.fox13now.com/news/fox-13-...