U.S.

Edward French, 71, was killed in San Francisco on July 11. One of the murder suspects was arrested two weeks before his death for gun possession and parole violations. The suspect was released based on a "public-safety assessment score" — a computer gen

National

Did A Bail Reform Algorithm Contribute To This San Francisco Man's Murder?

4:09pm August 18, 2017

by Eric Westervelt

The July murder of photographer Ed French, is raising questions and concerns about a pretrial risk assessment computer tool used by a growing number of county and city courts.

The violence in Charlottesville erupted over protests about removing a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Another statue of Lee was removed earlier this year in New Orleans.

National

Who Are The Confederate Men Memorialized With Statues?

4:07pm August 18, 2017

by Tanya Ballard Brown

Confederate statues and monuments are coming down all over the country.

Solar cells sit in the sun at the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm in Desert Center, Calif. The people who run California's electric grid expect the solar power output to be cut roughly in half during the eclipse.

California Prepares For An Eclipse Of Its Solar Power

3:29pm August 18, 2017

by Lauren Sommer

On a sunny day, California gets up to 40 percent of its energy from solar power. Monday's total eclipse isn't just a scientific spectacle, it's a major concern for the state's power grid.

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National

On Isolation and Belonging: Stories We Tell Ourselves 25 Years After High School

3:22pm August 18, 2017

by Rachel Martin

It's been 25 years since NPR's Rachel Martin graduated from high school, and it got her wondering about how people think back on — and are shaped by — their teenage selves.

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Workers use a crane to lift the monument dedicated to former Chief Justice of the United States Roger Taney in Annapolis, Md., early Friday. The State House Trust voted Wednesday to remove the statue from its grounds.

Maryland State House Removes Statue Of Judge Who Wrote Dred Scott Decision

1:57pm August 18, 2017

by Laurel Wamsley

The infamous 1857 decision upheld slavery and declared that blacks were not citizens. Maryland's State House Trust voted Wednesday to remove the statue from its grounds, where it stood for 145 years.

Do Laptops Help Learning? A Look At The Only Statewide School Laptop Program

10:06am August 18, 2017

by Robbie Feinberg

It was 15 years ago that Maine began the first, and still the only, statewide school laptop program. Experts worry that an attempt to bridge the digital divide might have widened it.

CHART: The Relationship Between Seeing Discrimination And Voting For Trump

9:58am August 18, 2017

by Danielle Kurtzleben

There is an apparent correlation between a state's likelihood of having voted for Trump and whether residents think black, immigrant, and gay and lesbian communities face "a lot of discrimination."

Athlete Activism, After Charlottesville

9:07am August 18, 2017

Marcus Thompson of The Athletic talks with Ailsa Chang about how activist athletes are responding in the wake of the Charlottesville violence, and the limits of athlete activism.

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Morning News Brief: Spain Attack, Trump's Week, 'Boston Free Speech' Rally

9:07am August 18, 2017

A van drove into a crowd in Barcelona, Spain, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. Also, the latest on fallout over President Trump's comments, and a controversial rally in Boston is planned.

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This sequence of images shows the development of embryos formed after eggs were injected with both CRISPR, a gene-editing tool, and sperm from a donor with a genetic mutation known to cause cardiomyopathy.

Exclusive: Inside The Lab Where Scientists Are Editing DNA In Human Embryos

9:07am August 18, 2017

by Rob Stein

NPR gets exclusive access to a lab in Portland, Ore., where scientists have begun editing the DNA in human embryos to try to prevent genetic diseases.

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