Merrill’s Recent Stories
Education Oct 30
Where support for college students is ‘high-tech, high-touch’Florida is one of 35 states that tie college funding to graduation rates. But a new study,“The Pell Divide,” finds a difference in graduation rates between students who receive funding assistance from Pell Grants and those who don’t. Hari Sreenivasan…
Nation Jun 18
Elizabeth Brackett taught me that a good story begins with peopleIt’s hard to imagine anything ever slowing Elizabeth Brackett. In her more than two decades of work for the PBS NewsHour, she braved earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and presidential campaigns. She never yawned. She always pushed for more — more…
Politics Oct 28
Full interview: Gwen Ifill with Sen. Kay HaganEverywhere she goes in North Carolina, Sen. Kay Hagan asks her supporters to repeat the same refrain: “Collectively say with me,” Hagan said to a packed room in Durham’s Convention Center Sunday, “Our state is not for sale.” And while…
Politics Oct 28
Full interview: Gwen Ifill with U.S. Senate candidate Thom TillisAt a campaign office in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sunday, Thom Tillis, The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, told a group of volunteers that he was recently at a televised football game where, after long delays between plays on the field,…
Politics Oct 14
Full interview with Colo. Senate candidate Rep. Cory GardnerThis weekend, PBS NewsHour anchor Gwen Ifill spoke with Representative Cory Gardner about his reasons for getting into the race and why he believes he’d make a better leader for Colorado.
Politics Oct 14
Full interview with Colo. Sen. Mark UdallIn one of the closest political races in the country,Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, faces Republican Rep. Cory Gardner in a fight that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.
Arts Sep 18
Preserving the ancient ruins of Utah’s Nine Mile CanyonIn 2000, massive natural gas reserves were discovered on the plateau above Nine Mile Canyon in Utah, an area with thousands of archaeological sites and more petroglyphs than anywhere else in the lower 48 states. That energy boom has created…
Education Aug 22
Explore the future of higher education with Hari SreenivasanPBS NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan traveled the country this year to explore the state of higher education. He will share five of stories he found as part of a week-long look at how America is rethinking the college experience. The series…