Vanessa Romo
Vanessa Romo is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers breaking news on a wide range of topics, weighing in daily on everything from immigration and the treatment of migrant children, to a war-crimes trial where a witness claimed he was the actual killer, to an alleged sex cult. She has also covered the occasional cat-clinging-to-the-hood-of-a-car story.
Before her stint on the News Desk, Romo spent the early months of the Trump Administration on the Washington Desk covering stories about culture and politics – the voting habits of the post-millennial generation, the rise of Maxine Waters as a septuagenarian pop culture icon and DACA quinceañeras as Trump protests.
In 2016, she was at the core of the team that launched and produced The New York Times' first political podcast, The Run-Up with Michael Barbaro. Prior to that, Romo was a Spencer Education Fellow at Columbia University's School of Journalism where she began working on a radio documentary about a pilot program in Los Angeles teaching black and Latino students to code switch.
Romo has also traveled extensively through the Member station world in California and Washington. As the education reporter at Southern California Public Radio, she covered the region's K-12 school districts and higher education institutions and won the Education Writers Association first place award as well as a Regional Edward R. Murrow for Hard News Reporting.
Before that, she covered business and labor for Member station KNKX, keeping an eye on global companies including Amazon, Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft.
A Los Angeles native, she is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, where she received a degree in history. She also earned a master's degree in Journalism from NYU. She loves all things camaron-based.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis says the penalties for companies that violate new employment requirements will help the state prosper. But businesses and immigrant activists alike say it'll do more harm than good. -
The pandemic restrictions allowed for the quick expulsion of migrants at the border. Now that it's been lifted, some officials are expecting a record influx and an impending humanitarian crisis. -
Peso Pluma seems to be dominating these days. He delighted audiences at Coachella, made history on The Tonight Show, and he's got hit after hit after hit on multiple music charts. -
President Biden's 2024 reelection campaign team has embraced his darker alter ego — "Dark Brandon," featuring beaming red laser eyes. It shows up on error pages and T-shirts. -
The singer, songwriter and producer said she's working with her team to make "a program that should simulate my voice well but we could also upload stems and samples for ppl to train their own." -
One of the four county officials in Oklahoma who were caught on tape allegedly talking about murdering reporters and lynching Black residents stepped down on Wednesday. -
On Wednesday, the mega-hit single became the first reggaeton song to be inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. -
A huge sinkhole that seemed stable for 15 years suddenly began expanding about a week ago, growing by several acres and leaving nearby residents terrified that it will take them and their homes. -
The Republican-led House voted to expel Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson for participating in a protest on the floor of the House over gun laws. A motion to remove Rep. Gloria Johnson failed. -
The term hush money dates back centuries, and it's been applied to various scandals involving presidents for nearly as long as the U.S. has been a country.
