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 administration had planned to expand the program of requiring asylum-seekers to return to Mexico as they await court hearings in the U.S. Now it has to first defend the policy in court. -
The deal would have allowed certain Cuban players to sign and play for U.S. and Canadian major league teams without having to defect. -
President Nicolás Maduro, through allies, is ratcheting up legal and political pressure on the opposition leader by removing his parliamentary immunity.
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The utility company is already on probation for its felony conviction related to a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion. -
The delay will give Congress time to work on a possible permanent pathway for thousands of Liberians to remain in the U.S. -
A federal judge already has ruled that mental health care for inmates in Alabama's prisons is "horrendously inadequate." Now he's looking at the system's response to 15 suicides in the past 15 months. -
The verdict represents the second time a jury has decided in favor of a multimillion-dollar damage award after concluding that Roundup caused cancer. -
A flood of migrant families and children arriving at the Southern border is straining the U.S. immigration system. Authorities say daily apprehensions are at the highest levels in over a decade. -
An independent investigation finds that police failed to follow up on allegations made against the now-disgraced sports doctor in 2004. -
The case drew national attention when a local sheriff released from a city jail an unauthorized immigrant without notifying federal officials. The immigrant later killed Kate Steinle.
