Debbie Elliott
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-08-2025 3AM EDT
Jurors found fired Memphis police detectives Tadarius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith not guilty on a host of state charges, including second-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping. Two other officers had pleaded guilty in the case. Key prosecution evidence was video showing the officers punch, kick, and use police batons and pepper spray on Nichols after a traffic stop.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-08-2025 3AM EDT
Nichols was black, as are the now former officers involved. Defense lawyers argued they acted in keeping with Memphis Police Department policy because Nichols ran a red light and failed to stop when officers pursued him. Attorneys representing Tyree Nichols' family called the verdict a devastating miscarriage of justice. Debbie Elliott, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-20-2025 3PM EDT
In the dark of the night on April 20, 2010, oil and gas erupted from a BP well nearly a mile deep in the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana. It caused the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to explode and catch fire, killing 11 rig workers and injuring more than a dozen others.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-20-2025 3PM EDT
Oil spewed unchecked from the Gulf floor for nearly three months, killing wildlife, polluting beaches and devastating Gulf Coast businesses. Investigations and court rulings put the blame on a tragic series of safety failures. BP has paid some $70 billion in judgments and settlements and for cleanup and restoration projects, which are still underway 15 years later. Debbie Elliott, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-05-2025 6PM EST
During that time, Jabbar, using meta glasses, recorded a video as he rode through the French Quarter on a bicycle. Metaglasses appear to look like regular glasses, but they allow a user to record videos and photos hand-free.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 11-30-2024 7PM EST
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season had 18 named storms, 11 of them hurricanes, with five reaching major hurricane status, with winds topping 111 mph. Five hurricanes hit the U.S., including Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which combined killed more than 200 people and caused billions of dollars of damage in Florida, North Carolina and other parts of the southeast.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 11-30-2024 7PM EST
Both were late season storms in a year that saw a record seven hurricanes form after September 25th. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. This is NPR.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-09-2025 3AM EDT
A panel of three federal judges says the Alabama legislature intentionally drew its congressional district map to dilute black voting strength, which is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act. The court enjoined the state from using the map in future elections. The ruling comes in a lawsuit that made it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-09-2025 3AM EDT
which agreed that Alabama's congressional map was discriminatory in a state where African Americans make up about a quarter of the population. Black voters who sued called the ruling a testament to the persistence of generations of black Alabamians who pursued political equality at great cost. Debbie Elliott, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-07-2025 2PM EST
Protesters were starting a march from Selma to Montgomery to demand equal voting rights on March 7, 1965. But they were stopped on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge by state troopers wielding batons and tear gas. Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell of Selma says what took place there changed the face of American politics.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-07-2025 2PM EST
Sewell has introduced a bill to restore parts of the Voting Rights Act the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2013. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Selma.
Up First from NPR
Deported Migrant Returns to US, World Pride in DC, Sports Finals
I'm Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. At a time of sound bites and short attention spans, our show is all about the deep dive. We do long-form interviews with people behind the best in film, books, TV, music, and journalism. Here our guests open up about their process and their lives in ways you've never heard before. Listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
Well, another day of chasing down leads, and I think in particular a closer look at hundreds of hours of surveillance video. You know, it shows Jabbar placing two explosive devices concealed in coolers in the French Quarter just a few blocks from the crash site. And as the investigation was unfolding, agents initially indicated that other people might have helped him plant those.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
But after looking at all that video, it turned out to just be curious passersby who had stopped to check out the coolers on a street corner, right? FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Rea, who's with the Counterterrorism Division at the agency, is urging those people to now call the FBI with whatever they saw. Rea had more information about Jabbar's motivation.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
The FBI says investigators have pieced together his activities leading up to the attack, including that he posted several online videos proclaiming his support for ISIS and previewing the violence that was to come.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
Just hyper heightened security like I have never seen before. And I've covered this city for something like 30 years now. The college football playoff game between Georgia and Notre Dame was postponed by a day, was played in the Sugar Bowl without incident yesterday. Officers are posted everywhere you look, including military police from the Louisiana National Guard.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
Roads are blocked off around the Superdome, also in the French Quarter where Bourbon Street, like you say, is back open. When I first went out there after it opened, there was still water fresh on the street from where the crime scene had been cleaned up. And already makeshift memorials, long-stemmed yellow roses for the 14 victims, people adding to that throughout the day.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
There seemed to be this determination not to let a terrorist sap the city's culture. Darnell Sims is a drummer with the One Way Brass Band, and he told me it was important just to bring the street music back.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
He wasn't the only one trying to spread the love. As the band was playing on bourbon, a man jogged down the street with a handmade flag that said love hoisted up on a fish pole.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
Certainly people are shaken up, sadness, shock, and questions about why local officials haven't done more to make Bourbon Street less vulnerable to an attack like this. Kenzie Falk is a praline vendor who was pushing his cart along Canal. He says he's just trying to keep things going despite the uncertainty. As of right now, everything's at a standstill.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions
And what next are two more major national events, the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras here in New Orleans.