Law

An analysis of the Ghislaine Maxwell guilty verdict

5:55am December 30, 2021

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to CNN legal analyst Areva Martin about Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty of helping to lure girls to be sexually abused by the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Pandemic rules that allowed virtual prescribing of controlled medications very controversial. It's allowed many to seek treatment opioid addiction, but some worry about the potential for abuse.

Health & Safety

Limits on virtual addiction treatment may soon return, making care harder to access

5:01am December 30, 2021

by Yuki Noguchi

A ban on using telemedicine to prescribe controlled medications was suspended in the pandemic. That's allowed many to seek opioid addiction treatment, but some worry about potential for abuse.

In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell is seated at the defense table while watching testimony of witnesses during her trial in New York.

National

Ghislaine Maxwell found guilty of helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls

7:40pm December 29, 2021

The British socialite was accused of procuring underage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. After six days of deliberation, a federal jury found her guilty on five of six counts.

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Proud Boys walk toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington in support of President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. A federal judge has refused to dismiss an indictment charging four alleged leaders of the group with conspiring to attack the Capitol.

Judge refuses to dismiss indictment against alleged Proud Boys leaders

3:45am December 29, 2021

by The Associated Press

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Tuesday rejected defense attorneys' arguments that the four men are charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

A line forms at a walk-up COVID-19 testing site last week at Farragut Square, just blocks from the White House.

The nation's capital has the highest COVID risk level in the country

9:43pm December 28, 2021

Washington, D.C., is considered the highest-risk place for COVID infection in the nation. Data shows D.C. had 1,192 new cases per day and 169 cases per 100,000 in the seven-day period ending Monday.

National

What's on the social media horizon in the year ahead

4:34pm December 28, 2021

by Shannon Bond

Congress held lots of hearings in 2021 about how it's time to finally regulate powerful tech companies. There has also been rare bipartisan unity on the concern over child safety on the web.

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From left: Julien Xavier Neals, nominee to be U.S. district judge for the District of New Jersey; Zahid Quraishi, nominee to be judge for the District of New Jersey; and Regina Rodriguez, nominee to be judge for the District of Colorado, are sworn in duri

Politics & Government

Biden had a productive year picking federal judges. The job could get tougher in 2022

11:31am December 28, 2021

by Carrie Johnson

President Biden has gotten a diverse group of 40 federal judges confirmed in 2021, the most for a new president since the Reagan era.

People hold signs in support of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos during a rally on the west steps of the Colorado state capitol on Dec. 22 in Denver.

National

A judge will reconsider a trucker's 110-year sentence following a public outcry

8:01pm December 27, 2021

by The Associated Press

Around 5 million people have signed a petition seeking clemency for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, who was sentenced for a crash that killed four. A judge set a Jan. 13 hearing to reconsider the sentence.

People from states with less access to abortion are flocking to Kansas' clinics

4:58pm December 27, 2021

by Abigail Censky

The staff at Trust Women, a Kansas clinic, is seeing an influx of people from other states with limited or no access to abortion services. That could get worse if the state outlaws abortion.

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Daisy Hohman was separated from her three children for 20 months when they were placed in foster care. When Hohman was reunited with her children, she received a bill of nearly $20,000 for foster care from her Minnesota county.

States send kids to foster care and their parents the bill — often one too big to pay

4:35pm December 27, 2021

In every state, governments charge parents for the cost of foster care when children are taken away. When that happens, NPR found, poor parents can't make ends meet, so families are kept apart longer.