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Deborah and Joe Thompson were married for six years. He died from an accidental heroin overdose in 2016.

Opioid Policy Becomes Personal For One Health Official After Husband's Death

12:17pm December 30, 2017

by Sam Gringlas

Deborah Thompson is a point person on Iowa's response to the opioid epidemic. Earlier this year, she revealed a more immediate connection to the crisis: her husband, who fatally overdosed on heroin.

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President Trump arrives to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Dec. 22. Openly transgender people will be allowed to enlist in the military starting Monday after the White House decided not to appeal.

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U.S. Military To Allow Transgender Recruits After Trump Administration Drops Appeal

11:24am December 30, 2017

by Richard Gonzales

An LGBT activist says the Trump administration has waved "the white flag," dropping an appeal of court rulings blocking a ban on transgender troops.

In 2014, Erica Garner led a protest march in New York City after a grand jury decided not to indict a police officer involved in the death of her father, Eric Garner.

Erica Garner, Who Became An Activist After Her Father's Death, Dies

10:59am December 30, 2017

by Laurel Wamsley

She became a prominent figure calling for an end to police brutality after New York City officers put her father in a fatal chokehold. She suffered brain damage following a heart attack.

Danica Roem of Virginia became the first out trans person to be elected to a state legislature.

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Transgender Rights Lead NPR's Top LGBTQ Stories of 2017

8:23am December 30, 2017

by Danny Nett

From so-called "bathroom bills" to a teen wrestling champion, 2017 saw transgender rights surge to the forefront of public consciousness.

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Advocating Changes To Missouri's Juvenile Justice System

8:02am December 30, 2017

Missouri is one of only five states to prosecute 17-year-old crime suspects as adults. Civil rights attorney Mae Quinn tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer why she's pushing to raise the age to 18.

National

Tourism Season Begins In Puerto Rico

8:02am December 30, 2017

by Jeff Cohen

Puerto Rico is officially declaring itself open for tourism, three months after Hurricane Maria. The island needs the tourism dollars, but some visitors worry about vacationing amid the destruction.

Home, Home On The (Shooting) Range

8:02am December 30, 2017

by Grant Gerlock

For comic book fans, there's Comic-Con. For would-be knights there's the Renaissance Festival. Now, we hear about cowboy wannabes acting out their six-shooter fantasies.

Inside the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic in its earliest days. The clinic opened on June 7, 1967, and treated 250 patients that day. It's motto, then and now: "Health care is a right, not a privilege."

A 1960s 'Hippie Clinic' In San Francisco Inspired A Medical Philosophy

6:00am December 30, 2017

by Carrie Feibel

Fifty years ago a community health clinic first opened its doors as a safe, sympathetic space for countercultural youth. Today its motto is the same: "Health care is a right, not a privilege."

First Baptist Church of Gallant, in Gallant, Ala., the home church of former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.

2017 Has Been A Rough Year For Evangelicals

8:20pm December 29, 2017

by Tom Gjelten

Self-described "evangelical" Christians helped elect President Trump in 2016. But this year, the label lost coherence. Some evangelicals reconsidered what it stood for, while others disowned the term.

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A Look At The First Year Of Trump's Presidency

4:49pm December 29, 2017

NPR's Ari Shapiro takes a look back at the political news of 2017, and the first year of Trump's presidency, with Matt Yglesias, columnist, editor and co-founder of Vox, and Rachael Larimore, online managing editor of The Weekly Standard.

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