Larry Abramson
Larry Abramson is NPR's National Security Correspondent. He covers the Pentagon, as well as issues relating to the thousands of vets returning home from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Prior to his current role, Abramson was NPR's Education Correspondent covering a wide variety of issues related to education, from federal policy to testing to instructional techniques in the classroom. His reporting focused on the impact of for-profit colleges and universities, and on the role of technology in the classroom. He made a number of trips to New Orleans to chart the progress of school reform there since Hurricane Katrina. Abramson also covers a variety of news stories beyond the education beat.
In 2006, Abramson returned to the education beat after spending nine years covering national security and technology issues for NPR. Since 9/11, Abramson has covered telecommunications regulation, computer privacy, legal issues in cyberspace, and legal issues related to the war on terrorism.
During the late 1990s, Abramson was involved in several special projects related to education. He followed the efforts of a school in Fairfax County, Virginia, to include severely disabled students in regular classroom settings. He joined the National Desk reporting staff in 1997.
For seven years prior to his position as a reporter on the National Desk, Abramson was senior editor for NPR's National Desk. His department was responsible for approximately 25 staff reporters across the United States, five editors in Washington, and news bureaus in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. The National Desk also coordinated domestic news coverage with news departments at many of NPR's member stations. The desk doubled in size during Abramson's tenure. He oversaw the development of specialized beats in general business, high-technology, workplace issues, small business, education, and criminal justice.
Abramson joined NPR in 1985 as a production assistant with Morning Edition. He moved to the National Desk, where he served for two years as Western editor. From there, he became the deputy science editor with NPR's Science Unit, where he helped win a duPont-Columbia Award as editor of a special series on Black Americans and AIDS.
Prior to his work at NPR, Abramson was a freelance reporter in San Francisco and worked with Voice of America in California and in Washington, D.C.
He has a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley. Abramson also studied overseas at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and at the Free University in Berlin, Germany.
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The Pentagon's research agency, known as DARPA, is challenging scientists to develop robots that can work in man-made disasters like Fukushima. The goal is to develop machines that can be easily operated immediately after disasters strike. -
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told business leaders the Pentagon is developing capabilities to ward off attacks on the nation's infrastructure. He says foreign actors have already probed key systems that could cause damage and even death — and the Pentagon has a key role to play in stopping such efforts.
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People seeking government jobs that require security clearance must disclose any therapy they've received over the last seven years — even for sexual assault. Experts say the requirement, known as Question 21, is discouraging people from applying for the jobs — and from seeking help. -
Vice President Joe Biden is on a campaign tour of Virginia, which is a key swing state in the presidential race. Biden seized on Republican challenger Mitt Romney's choice of Rep. Paul Ryan as a running mate. Biden said it shows what the Republican ticket really stands for.
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Opening statements will be made Tuesday in the trial of a former Air Force instructor accused of rape and sexual assault of young trainees in his care at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Staff Sgt. Luis Walker faces 28 charges and could be sentenced to life in prison. Other instructors are also under investigation. -
The top military commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. It's his first public appearance before Congress since the killings of 16 Afghan civilians, apparently by a U.S. soldier. That incident and others, have caused new tensions between the U.S. and Afghanistan's government, and prompted some to reappraise America's strategy for the war. Nevertheless, Allen insisted that the strategy remains on course.
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Occupy Wall Street protesters say the high cost of college is one of the barriers between them and a good life. College costs have skyrocketed, though maybe not as much as you might think. -
The nation's for-profit colleges and universities received more than $1 billion in benefits from the Post-Sept. 11 GI Bill in the last year alone. But some say the for-profit schools aren't policed well enough — which creates an opening for abuses — and their dropout rates are too high.
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The nation's for-profit colleges and universities received more than $1 billion in benefits from the Post-Sept. 11 GI Bill in the last year alone. But some say the for-profit schools aren't policed well enough — which creates an opening for abuses — and their dropout rates are too high.
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The mid-Atlantic states are trying to put themselves back together again after a record-setting snowstorm over the weekend. Snowfall totals in some parts of Maryland were over three feet; parts of the Washington and Baltimore metro areas got more than two feet.
