Pam Fessler
Pam Fessler is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, where she covers poverty, philanthropy, and voting issues.
In her reporting at NPR, Fessler does stories on homelessness, hunger, affordable housing, and income inequality. She reports on what non-profit groups, the government, and others are doing to reduce poverty and how those efforts are working. Her poverty reporting was recognized with a 2011 First Place National Headliner Award.
Fessler also covers elections and voting, including efforts to make voting more accessible, accurate, and secure. She has done countless stories on everything from the debate over state voter identification laws to Russian hacking attempts and long lines at the polls.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Fessler became NPR's first Homeland Security correspondent. For seven years, she reported on efforts to tighten security at ports, airports, and borders, and the debate over the impact on privacy and civil rights. She also reported on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, The 9/11 Commission Report, Social Security, and the Census. Fessler was one of NPR's White House reporters during the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Before becoming a correspondent, Fessler was the acting senior editor on the Washington Desk and NPR's chief election editor. She coordinated all network coverage of the presidential, congressional, and state elections in 1996 and 1998. In her more than 25 years at NPR, Fessler has also been deputy Washington Desk editor and Midwest National Desk editor.
Earlier in her career, she was a senior writer at Congressional Quarterly magazine. Fessler worked there for 13 years as both a reporter and editor, covering tax, budget, and other news. She also worked as a budget specialist at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was a reporter at The Record newspaper in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Fessler has a master's of public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree from Douglass College in New Jersey.
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The states say that they won't comply with a White House commission request for the personal data. Even a commission leader isn't able to turn over all of his own state's records.
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Russia's GRU intelligence agency targeted an American provider of election services, The Intercept says; a U.S. intelligence contractor was charged with revealing a secret report about the scheme.
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Groups that help low-income families get food aid report a big drop in the number of immigrants seeking help. Some are canceling government benefits for fear it will affect their immigration status.
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HUD Secretary Julian Castro hopes his likely successor, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, will come to support many of HUD's programs. Carson has called a new rule excessive government regulation.
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The former first lady made a mark with her "Just Say No" campaign and her support of stem-cell research, which she hoped would lead to a cure for Alzheimer's, the disease that took away her husband.
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President Obama commented on the long lines for some voters during his re-election acceptance speech last November. And at his State of the Union address, he promised to seek solutions. The new commission will make recommendations to states, but it will not have the power to enforce any changes.
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A coalition of more than 1,400 charities is launching Giving Tuesday to jump-start end-of-year giving. They're taking off on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to motivate donors at a time when the outlook for giving remains lackluster.
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Civil rights groups and Democrats complain that the billboards — many located in black, Hispanic and student-dominated neighborhoods — are meant to intimidate voters. The source of the billboards is an anonymous "private family foundation."
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The Iowa caucuses are two weeks from Tuesday. And the biggest challenge for GOP presidential candidates is still ahead: getting their supporters to turn out on a cold January night. Get-out-the-vote efforts could make all the difference in a race that now appears to be up for grabs.