Cheryl Corley
Cheryl Corley is a Chicago-based NPR correspondent who works for the National Desk. She primarily covers criminal justice issues as well as breaking news in the Midwest and across the country.
In her role as a criminal justice correspondent, Corley works as part of a collaborative team and has a particular interest on issues and reform efforts that affect women, girls, and juveniles. She's reported on programs that help incarcerated mothers raise babies in prison, on pre-apprenticeships in prison designed to help cut recidivism of women, on the efforts by Illinois officials to rethink the state's juvenile justice system and on the push to revamp the use of solitary confinement in North Dakota prisons.
For more than two decades with NPR, Corley has covered some of the country's most important news stories. She's reported on the political turmoil in Virginia over the governor's office and a blackface photo, the infamous Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, on mass shootings in Orlando, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago; and other locations. She's also reported on the election of Chicago's first black female and lesbian mayor, on the campaign and re-election of President Barack Obama, on the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and oil spills along the Gulf Coast, as well as numerous other disasters, and on the funeral of the "queen of soul," Aretha Franklin.
Corley also has served as a fill-in host for NPR shows, including Weekend All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and defunct shows Tell Me More and News and Notes.
Prior to joining NPR, Corley was the news director at Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ, where she supervised an award-winning team of reporters. She also worked as the City Hall reporter covering the administration of the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington, and others that followed. She also has been a frequent panelist on television news-affairs programs in Chicago.
Corley has received awards for her work from a number of organizations including the National Association of Black Journalists, the Associated Press, the Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. She earned the Community Media Workshop's Studs Terkel Award for excellence in reporting on Chicago's diverse communities and a Herman Kogan Award for reporting on immigration issues.
A Chicago native, Corley graduated cum laude from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and is a former Bradley University trustee. While in Peoria, Corley worked as a reporter and news director for public radio station WCBU and as a television director for the NBC affiliate, WEEK-TV. She is a past President of the Association for Women Journalists in Chicago (AWJ-Chicago).
She is also the co-creator of the Cindy Bandle Young Critics Program. The critics/journalism training program for female high school students was originally collaboration between AWJ-Chicago and the Goodman Theatre. Corley has also served as a board member and president of Community Television Network, an organization that trains Chicago youth in video and multimedia production.
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New Orleans is still off limits to most of its residents. NPR's Cheryl Corley drove to the city's Gentilly neighborhood to check out evacuee Mary Jacobs' home, and called her with a report. -
Some of the levees in New Orleans patched up after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city were unable to hold back surging waters from Hurricane Rita. Parts of the city that had been mostly drained of standing water are flooded again.
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The mayor of New Orleans is suspending his plan to bring Hurricane Katrina evacuees back home. Instead, Mayor Ray Nagin is ordering a new evacuation because tropical storm Rita may pose a new risk for the embattled city.
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The Base Closure and Realignment Commission overturns the Pentagon's recommendation to close Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. The decision preserves the state's second-largest employer.
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Americans adopted more than 22,000 foreign-born children last year. But a number of African-American and mixed-raced babies born in the United States are being adopted by foreigners living abroad. -
Rule changes could cost many big cities millions they receive for subsidized housing from the federal government. They claim the Bush administration reneged on an agreement that would have maintained much of the funding.
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United Airlines has reached agreement with its mechanics' union, averting a threatened strike. Mechanics ratified a new contract Tuesday, and the machinists' union has agreed in principle to a new deal.
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In the wake of a bankruptcy judge's ruling that United Airlines can terminate its employee pension plan, other U.S. airlines might respond in a similar fashion. The industry is seeking to cut costs as it reels from high fuel prices and stiff competition.
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In a bid to get out of bankruptcy, United Airlines is expected to off-load its pension plans on the federal government's Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Most United workers will receive something close to the same benefits they were expecting. Many high-earners will get substantially less.
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The new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Ill., brings together authentic artifacts and flashy multimedia installations. Traditionalist curators argue that glitzy technology is inappropriate, but others believe it's the right approach for the 21st century. The museum is slated to open in April.
