Ted Robbins
As supervising editor for Arts and Culture at NPR based at NPR West in Culver City, Ted Robbins plans coverage across NPR shows and online, focusing on TV at a time when there's never been so much content. He thinks "arts and culture" encompasses a lot of human creativity — from traditional museum offerings to popular culture, and out-of-the-way people and events.
Robbins also supervises obituaries or, as NPR prefers to call them, "appreciations," of people in the arts.
Robbins joined the Arts Desk in 2015, after a decade on air as a NPR National Desk correspondent based in Tucson, Arizona. From there, he covered the Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Robbins reported on a range of issues, from immigration and border security to water issues and wildfires. He covered the economy in the West with an emphasis on the housing market and Las Vegas development. He reported on the January 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six and injured many, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Robbins' reporting has been honored with numerous accolades, including two Emmy Awards—one for his story on sex education in schools, and another for his series on women in the workforce. He received a CINE Golden Eagle for a 1995 documentary on Mexican agriculture called "Tomatoes for the North."
In 2006, Robbins wrote an article for the Nieman Reports at Harvard about journalism and immigration. He was chosen for a 2009 French-American Foundation Fellowship focused on comparing European and U.S. immigration issues.
Raised in Los Angeles, Robbins became an avid NPR listener while spending hours driving (or stopped in traffic) on congested freeways. He is delighted to now be covering stories for his favorite news source.
Prior to coming to NPR in 2004, Robbins spent five years as a regular contributor to The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, 15 years at the PBS affiliate in Tucson, and working as a field producer for CBS News. He worked for NBC affiliates in Tucson and Salt Lake City, where he also did some radio reporting and print reporting for USA Today.
Robbins earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology and his master's degree in journalism, both from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught journalism at the University of Arizona for a decade.
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In the debate over immigration, many politicians seem to agree that people now in the U.S. illegally should wait at "the back of the line" for legal residency. But the backlog in processing applications means even those already in line face decades of waiting. -
Jerry Buss died Monday at the age of 80. Buss turned the Los Angeles Lakers from a good pro-basketball team into a great one. During the 34 years he owned them, the Lakers won more games than any other NBA team, including 10 league titles.
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The man who brought Showtime to Los Angeles has died. Under Lakers owner Jerry Buss, the team won 10 NBA championships. His players loved him, and his business smarts helped market the team in ways the league had never seen before. Buss had been hospitalized recently and was undergoing treatment for cancer. He was 80 years old.
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Securing the border is a key element of the Senate's immigration overhaul proposal. Ted Robbins talks to Audie Cornish about the billions already spent on existing security measures and whether they are effective.
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Rather than rest in retirement, a group of volunteers is restoring land in Arizona's Ironwood Forest National Monument to its natural habitat. Their main goal is to eliminate invasive buffelgrass, which is taking over and causing a fire hazard. It's no small task — they've removed it from the same place 40 times.
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For 16 years, Mexican growers have agreed not to sell tomatoes below what's called a reference price, meant to protect Florida growers from cheap Mexican tomatoes. But half of all tomatoes eaten in the U.S. come from Mexico, and Mexican growers say it's because their tomatoes taste better. -
Mourners left flowers and plants after the 2011 Tucson shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded 13. Instead of sending the shrines to a landfill after they were taken down, volunteers sorted through everything, replanted what they could and composted the rest. -
"Secure the borders first" has been the cry from Republicans in Congress before they'd agree to comprehensive immigration reform. That stance seems to be changing, as some experts say demanding border security first is backward. -
Republicans and Democrats are pushing to make overhauling immigration a priority in 2013. Senator-elect Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, is expected to play a big part in any overhaul of immigration laws.
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Many conservative faith leaders are among those calling for immigration reform. They joined government leaders on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., to map out what that reform could look like, calling it a moral as well as economic issue.
