Ted Robbins
As supervising editor for Arts and Culture at NPR based at NPR West in Culver City, Ted Robbins plans coverage across NPR shows and online, focusing on TV at a time when there's never been so much content. He thinks "arts and culture" encompasses a lot of human creativity 鈥� from traditional museum offerings to popular culture, and out-of-the-way people and events.
Robbins also supervises obituaries or, as NPR prefers to call them, "appreciations," of people in the arts.
Robbins joined the Arts Desk in 2015, after a decade on air as a NPR National Desk correspondent based in Tucson, Arizona. From there, he covered the Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Robbins reported on a range of issues, from immigration and border security to water issues and wildfires. He covered the economy in the West with an emphasis on the housing market and Las Vegas development. He reported on the January 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six and injured many, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Robbins' reporting has been honored with numerous accolades, including two Emmy Awards鈥攐ne for his story on sex education in schools, and another for his series on women in the workforce. He received a CINE Golden Eagle for a 1995 documentary on Mexican agriculture called "Tomatoes for the North."
In 2006, Robbins wrote an article for the Nieman Reports at Harvard about journalism and immigration. He was chosen for a 2009 French-American Foundation Fellowship focused on comparing European and U.S. immigration issues.
Raised in Los Angeles, Robbins became an avid NPR listener while spending hours driving (or stopped in traffic) on congested freeways. He is delighted to now be covering stories for his favorite news source.
Prior to coming to NPR in 2004, Robbins spent five years as a regular contributor to The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, 15 years at the PBS affiliate in Tucson, and working as a field producer for CBS News. He worked for NBC affiliates in Tucson and Salt Lake City, where he also did some radio reporting and print reporting for USA Today.
Robbins earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology and his master's degree in journalism, both from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught journalism at the University of Arizona for a decade.
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The Senate immigration bill calls for tripling a controversial federal court program called Operation Streamline. The program takes people caught crossing the border illegally, gives them prison sentences, then deports them. It's hugely expensive 鈥� but does it work?
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The Downtown Container Park will set up budding entrepreneurs in repurposed shipping containers. The park will have 35 containers and a bunch of modular cubes like you'd normally see at a construction site 鈥� all to house local businesses.
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With the sequester, the Public Defender's Office in Tucson, Ariz., has lost a quarter of its staff. But everyone is entitled to legal representation, so judges are appointing expensive private attorneys in the public defenders' place. -
Using figures that were made for miniature train sets, a former Las Vegas crime reporter is finding big success creating and selling tiny imaginary crime scenes. Abigail Goldman's macabre, and sometimes funny, "Die-O-Ramas" are selling out before she's even completed them. -
More than a dozen firefighters in Arizona were killed on Sunday as they were battling the Yarnell Hill fire near Prescott. It was the deadliest wildfire involving firefighters in the U.S. in decades.
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Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, one of President Obama's staunchest critics, has confounded conservatives in her own party by pushing for an extension of Medicaid coverage in the state. -
The immigration bill now under consideration by the Senate calls for drones to patrol the U.S. border 24/7. Supporters say that means more drones are needed. But critics argue there's no evidence the drones already flying are cost-effective. -
Dr. Keith Layne's practice was destroyed in the tornado that hit Moore, Okla. Now the family practice doctor is scrambling to treat patients while worrying about their mental and physical health.
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In Arizona, a federal judge ruled against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, saying it used racial profiling to enforce the state's tough immigration laws. Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Ted Robbins about the ruling.
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The Senate's immigration bill would require all U.S. employers to use E-Verify, a federal database that checks a worker's immigration status instantly. While businesses have had difficulty using the system in the past, officials say its results are now accurate 98 percent of the time.
