Jennifer Ludden
Jennifer Ludden helps edit energy and environment stories for NPR's National Desk, working with NPR staffers and a team of public radio reporters across the country. They track the shift to clean energy, state and federal policy moves, and how people and communities are coping with the mounting impacts of climate change.
Previously, Ludden was an NPR correspondent covering family life and social issues, including the changing economics of marriage, the changing role of dads, and the ethical challenges of reproductive technology. She's also covered immigration and national security.
Ludden started reporting with NPR while based overseas in West Africa, Europe and the Middle East. She shared in two awards (Overseas Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists) for NPR's coverage of the Kosovo war in 1999, and won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for her coverage of the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When not navigating war zones, Ludden reported on cultural trends, including the dying tradition of storytellers in Syria, the emergence of Persian pop music in Iran, and the rise of a new form of urban polygamy in Africa.
Ludden has also reported from Canada and at public radio stations in Boston and Maine. She's a graduate of Syracuse University with degrees in television, radio, and film production and in English.
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Saeid Zeiaei and his wife Hadija Faraji became U.S. citizens last year. They have two young children born in the United States. The family embraces America but continues to preserve their Iranian heritage, too.
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A growing number of illegal immigrants in the United States are children who've come alone. The U.S. approach to these children is conflicted: Immigration officials still work to deport them, even as Health and Human Services operates a network of shelters to care for them. -
Western nations rush to evacuate thousands of citizens from Lebanon as Hezbollah militants and Israel continue to pound each other for a sixth day. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he will not stop a military barrage against Hezbollah until the militia group returns two kidnapped Israeli soldiers.
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As the Mideast crisis continues to intensify, the head of Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah declares "open war," and Israel says it will not stop its military campaign until Hezbollah is disarmed.
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The House and Senate kick off a series of competing hearings on immigration. Each chamber claims the public will be swayed by its approach to immigration policy. But analysts aren't sure the hearings will be effective.
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Many differences divide the Senate and House plans to overhaul immigration policy. The House version is mostly about enforcing restrictions on entering the country. The Senate measure has some of those provisions, but it also sketches a process by which immigrants who are illegally in the United States can get official permission to stay.
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President Bush used his national address last night to lay out his agenda on border and immigration issues. Renee Montagne speaks with Jennifer Ludden about the likely effectiveness of the president's border security proposal, and how his initiative is being received in Washington.
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In his newly announced plan for America's southern border, President Bush hopes to expand the use of National Guard troops. Analysts say the president hopes the increased security will help him win more support in Congress for a guest worker program.
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The janitors, restaurant workers, and other low-wage immigrants who've been demonstrating lately have almost no legal way to be in the United States. Instead, nearly all the permanent work visas issued each year are for highly skilled workers like computer programmers, university professors and nurses.
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Many of those waiting to immigrate to the United States legally are hoping to join relatives already in America. But the system is so overwhelmed that some families, like the Lobos of the Philippines, end up being divided for years while they wait for visas to become available.
