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Martin Kaste
Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.
In addition to criminal justice reporting, Kaste has contributed to NPR News coverage of major world events, including the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2011 uprising in Libya.
Kaste has reported on the government's warrant-less wiretapping practices as well as the data collection and analysis that go on behind the scenes in social media and other new media. His privacy reporting was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 United States v. Jones ruling concerning GPS tracking.
Before moving to the West Coast, Kaste spent five years as NPR's reporter in South America. He covered the drug wars in Colombia, the financial meltdown in Argentina, the rise of Brazilian president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and the fall of Haiti's president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Throughout this assignment, Kaste covered the overthrow of five presidents in five years.
Prior to joining NPR in 2000, Kaste was a political reporter for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul for seven years.
Kaste is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
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Republicans are attacking Kamala Harris for being soft on crime. But her record as a district attorney and California attorney general isn't so simple.
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Illegal "sideshows," also known as "street takeovers," have spread since the pandemic. When police try to break them up, they often face defiant crowds
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More postal workers continue to be robbed on the job despite a number of new safety measures. The mail carriers’ union has been holding rallies in recent months calling for stronger protections.
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Republicans have raised the alarm about a migrant crime wave. Nationally, crime is down even as immigration has surged, but the concerns are real in some neighborhoods.
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As protests continue to roil colleges across the nation, NPR looks at why police tactics have differed from campus to campus.
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The number of U.S. children dying from gunshot wounds has climbed in recent years. Keeping guns out of reach is one way to curb the trend — others argue to teach kids to handle guns responsibly.
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Marijuana legalization was expected to bring the industry out of the shadows. But in some states, the black market is alive and well.
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As the fentanyl crisis ravages Native American communities, some of their leaders want tribal police and courts to go after non-tribal dealers. But they can't without getting permission from Congress.
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The trial of Jennifer Crumbley over murders committed by her son, Ethan, has focused attention on the legal responsibilities of parents and other adults when it comes to minors and guns.
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A federal court in New Mexico has let stand, for the time being, a controversial gun ban in Albuquerque's parks and playgrounds. The governor frames the ban as a response to a public health emergency.