Nation Feb 21 App connects drivers with lawyers to de-escalate police interactions during traffic stops The murder of George Floyd thrust Minnesota into the center of the debate over police misconduct. As Fred de Sam Lazaro reports, one effort coming out of that painful period hopes to make traffic stops safer. It’s part of the…
Nation Feb 08 St. Paul makes history as 1st major U.S. city to elect all-female city council In the last election, the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, did something it had never done before: elect an all-female city council. The state’s capital became one of the largest American cities to hold that distinction. Special correspondent Fred de…
Arts Jan 29 Minneapolis chamber group performs music written by Polish prisoners at Auschwitz Observances were held across the world over the weekend for the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Fred de Sam Lazaro has the story of one effort to preserve and honor the music performed by prisoners in orchestras that were a…
Nation Jan 01 Doctors unionize as healthcare services are consolidated into corporate systems As recently as the early 80s, about three of every four doctors in the U.S. worked for themselves, owning small clinics. Today, some 75 percent of physicians are employees of hospital systems or large corporate entities. Some worry the trend…
Arts Dec 19 Church leader hopes hand-written and illustrated Bible can heal religious divides When the printing press was invented nearly 600 years ago, it put an end to centuries of hand-written manuscripts in which scribes, mostly in monasteries, tediously wrote and illustrated sacred texts, such as the Bible. Fred de Sam Lazaro revisits…
World Nov 29 Southeast Asian cities face existential crisis as they sink while sea levels rise Coastal cities in Southeast Asia, including Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila, face a mutually risky future: they’re sinking as sea levels around them are rising. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Thailand, in partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the…
Nation Nov 23 Southeast Asia flooded with imported plastic waste meant for recycling Last year, the U.S. exported more than 950 million tons of plastic waste meant for recycling and a significant portion of that ended up in Southeast Asia. The region has been inundated with plastic scrap after China blocked all but…
Nation Nov 22 More American families rely on food banks as high prices squeeze budgets There's been some good news of late when it comes to inflation. Data from the federal government last week showed inflation eased through October. And according to the Farm Bureau, the average cost of a Thanksgiving dinner actually decreased slightly…
World Nov 21 Thailand program looks to reunite families separated by climate change-driven migration The number of households where children are raised by grandparents is rising in lower and middle-income countries. Parents have moved away for opportunities as agricultural jobs no longer provide a reliable income due to climate change. Fred de Sam Lazaro…
Nation Oct 19 Amid national push for police reform, Native people feel left out of conversation Amid ongoing police reform efforts in the U.S., Native American activists say they've often been left out of the conversation. But more than three years after the police murder of George Floyd, there's a renewed push in places like Minneapolis…