Richard Gonzales
Richard Gonzales is NPR's National Desk Correspondent based in San Francisco. Along with covering the daily news of region, Gonzales' reporting has included medical marijuana, gay marriage, drive-by shootings, Jerry Brown, Willie Brown, the U.S. Ninth Circuit, the California State Supreme Court and any other legal, political, or social development occurring in Northern California relevant to the rest of the country.
Gonzales joined NPR in May 1986. He covered the U.S. State Department during the Iran-Contra Affair and the fall of apartheid in South Africa. Four years later, he assumed the post of White House Correspondent and reported on the prelude to the Gulf War and President George W. Bush's unsuccessful re-election bid. Gonzales covered the U.S. Congress for NPR from 1993-94, focusing on NAFTA and immigration and welfare reform.
In September 1995, Gonzales moved to his current position after spending a year as a John S. Knight Fellow Journalism at Stanford University.
In 2009, Gonzales won the Broadcast Journalism Award from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. He also received the PASS Award in 2004 and 2005 from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for reports on California's juvenile and adult criminal justice systems.
Prior to NPR, Gonzales was a freelance producer at public television station KQED in San Francisco. From 1979 to 1985, he held positions as a reporter, producer, and later, public affairs director at KPFA, a radio station in Berkeley, CA.
Gonzales graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in psychology and social relations. He is a co-founder of Familias Unidas, a bi-lingual social services program in his hometown of Richmond, California.
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The high court effectively blocked the restrictive law pending a decision on whether the court will hear the case. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberal justices for the temporary stay. -
The people missing in Northern California's Camp Fire could be listed more than once, warns the sheriff, as calls and emails come in from friends and relatives. Seventy-one are known to have died. -
Three wildfires have forced 250,000 people to evacuate their homes across the state. Two of those dangerous blazes menaced Thousand Oaks even as it struggles to cope with a mass shooting. -
The change announced on Thursday is designed to prohibit migrants who cross the border outside of designated entry points from seeking asylum in the U.S. A legal challenge was filed on Friday. -
One cellphone company says it already had begun crediting customers for the lack of service due to outages in Florida counties hit by Hurricane Michael. -
Allen died from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Seattle on Monday, according to his company, Vulcan Inc. -
A toddler's body was recovered on Monday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said. Moody's Analytics estimates the cost of now-Post-Tropical Cyclone Florence's damage at $17 billion to $22 billion. -
A state inspection of a Virginia facility that housed immigrant children found that charges of child abuse were unfounded. But the report confirmed the facility used restraints on children.
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The Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar briefed reporters on Friday about immigrant children in HHS custody.
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Texas has become the center of the debate over the zero tolerance policy that led to the separation of families who crossed the border illegally to seek asylum. Where does that policy stand now?
