David Schaper
David Schaper is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, based in Chicago, primarily covering transportation and infrastructure, as well as breaking news in Chicago and the Midwest.
In this role, Schaper covers aviation and airlines, railroads, the trucking and freight industries, highways, transit, and new means of mobility such as ride hailing apps, car sharing, and shared bikes and scooters. In addition, he reports on important transportation safety issues, as well as the politics behind transportation and infrastructure policy and funding.
Since joining NPR in 2002, Schaper has covered some of the nation's most important news stories, including the Sandy Hook school shooting and other mass shootings, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, California wildfires, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and numerous other disasters. David has also reported on presidential campaigns in Iowa and elsewhere, on key races for U.S. Senate and House, governorships, and other offices in the Midwest, and he reported on the rise of Barack Obama from relative political obscurity in Chicago to the White House. Along the way, he's brought listeners and online readers many colorful stories about Chicago politics, including the corruption trials and convictions of two former Illinois governors.
But none of that compares to the joy of covering his beloved Chicago Cubs winning the World Series in 2016, and three Stanley Cup Championships for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, 2013, and 2015.
Prior to joining NPR, Schaper spent almost a decade working as an award-winning reporter and editor for WBEZ/Chicago Public Media, NPR's Member station in Chicago. For three years he covered education issues, reporting in-depth on the problems and progress — financial, educational and otherwise — in Chicago's public schools.
Schaper also served as WBEZ's Assistant Managing Editor of News, managing the station's daily news coverage and editing the reporting staff while often still reporting himself. He later served as WBEZ's political editor and reporter; he was a frequent fill-in news anchor and talk show host. Additionally, he has been an occasional contributor guest panelist on Chicago public television station WTTW's news program, Chicago Tonight.
Schaper began his journalism career in La Crosse, Wisconsin, as a reporter and anchor at Wisconsin Public Radio's WLSU-FM. He has since worked in both public and commercial radio news, including stints at WBBM NewsRadio in Chicago, WXRT-FM in Chicago, WDCB-FM in suburban Chicago, WUIS-FM in Springfield, Illinois, WMAY-AM in Springfield, Illinois, and WIZM-AM and FM in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Schaper earned a bachelor's degree in mass communications and history at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and a master's degree in public affairs reporting at the University of Illinois-Springfield. He lives in Chicago with his wife, a Chicago Public School teacher, and they have three adult children.
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An investigation into the troubled plane's development and certification finds a "disturbing pattern" of Boeing design flaws, management failures and "grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA." -
Flight attendants, pilots and other airline employees hope a deadlocked Congress will agree to extend a federal payroll relief program and prevent mass layoffs.
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Kenosha residents lament the violence and destruction that left swaths of their city damaged or destroyed, but many understand the anger over biased policing and wide racial inequities that led to it. -
The shootings of the three protesters appeared to change the tenor of demonstrations on Wednesday night. The protests had turned violent a night earlier when two people were killed. -
Among the things the coronavirus pandemic is changing is how people get around. People are walking, biking and driving more, but using buses, trains and Uber less. -
While screening 75% fewer people at airports this summer than last, the security officers discover guns hidden in carry-on bags at a rate surpassing last summer. And 80% of those guns are loaded. -
The agency says older 737 Classic and Next Generation planes that have been in storage because of the COVID-19 pandemic might have developed engine valve problems that could lead to engine failure. -
The FAA says an airworthiness directive for Boeing's 737 Max is near, but it still may be months before the troubled plane flies passengers again. -
A sharp drop in air travel due to the pandemic cuts into Delta's bottom line, but the airline says it will continue to block out middle seats to create more distance between passengers. -
With bookings down and cancellations on the rise amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases, United's furloughs will be a "gut punch" to employees when federal coronavirus relief funding runs out.
