Larry Abramson
Larry Abramson is NPR's National Security Correspondent. He covers the Pentagon, as well as issues relating to the thousands of vets returning home from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Prior to his current role, Abramson was NPR's Education Correspondent covering a wide variety of issues related to education, from federal policy to testing to instructional techniques in the classroom. His reporting focused on the impact of for-profit colleges and universities, and on the role of technology in the classroom. He made a number of trips to New Orleans to chart the progress of school reform there since Hurricane Katrina. Abramson also covers a variety of news stories beyond the education beat.
In 2006, Abramson returned to the education beat after spending nine years covering national security and technology issues for NPR. Since 9/11, Abramson has covered telecommunications regulation, computer privacy, legal issues in cyberspace, and legal issues related to the war on terrorism.
During the late 1990s, Abramson was involved in several special projects related to education. He followed the efforts of a school in Fairfax County, Virginia, to include severely disabled students in regular classroom settings. He joined the National Desk reporting staff in 1997.
For seven years prior to his position as a reporter on the National Desk, Abramson was senior editor for NPR's National Desk. His department was responsible for approximately 25 staff reporters across the United States, five editors in Washington, and news bureaus in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. The National Desk also coordinated domestic news coverage with news departments at many of NPR's member stations. The desk doubled in size during Abramson's tenure. He oversaw the development of specialized beats in general business, high-technology, workplace issues, small business, education, and criminal justice.
Abramson joined NPR in 1985 as a production assistant with Morning Edition. He moved to the National Desk, where he served for two years as Western editor. From there, he became the deputy science editor with NPR's Science Unit, where he helped win a duPont-Columbia Award as editor of a special series on Black Americans and AIDS.
Prior to his work at NPR, Abramson was a freelance reporter in San Francisco and worked with Voice of America in California and in Washington, D.C.
He has a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley. Abramson also studied overseas at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and at the Free University in Berlin, Germany.
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After the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, the Pentagon said it would offer military IDs and extend the benefits that come with them to same-sex partners. But some states that don't recognize gay marriages have refused to issue the IDs to same-sex spouses of National Guard members. -
Pentagon lawyers are still tinkering with funds and legal interpretations to figure out what services they can offer. One of the challenges for military families is figuring out what's open and closed.
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During the run-up to possible military action in Syria, the name of an unknown researcher was catapulted into the spotlight. Elizabeth O'Bagy was on NPR, Fox and quoted by Senator John McCain during a hearing. It turns out, O'Bagy is not exactly who she said she was, and her story reveals a lot about how Washington works during times of high drama.
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On Tuesday, the Pentagon released plans for opening most military jobs to women. The armed services have until 2016 to open the positions, which have been closed to women for decades. The military services can keep some specialties closed to women, but must give a good reason for such exceptions.
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The U.S. will soon begin to open combat positions to women. That's already the case in Israel, where women say it is an important step but doesn't guarantee full equality. The military's upper echelons remain male-dominated. -
Automatic budget cuts have pushed Air Force bases to slash their flying budgets even though it means grounding pilots and reducing readiness. The cancellations are boosting the arguments of those who want the military excepted from sequestration cuts. -
Voters appear to have re-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to another term. But his right-wing alliance suffered serious losses. Center and left parties defied the polls and won half the seats in parliament.
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The former al-Qaida leader was planning attacks throughout his years in Pakistan, which included a wish to kill President Obama. But the plots were far beyond the capability of his weakened organization. And bin Laden was upset with the actions of affiliated groups he couldn't control. -
The top military commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. It's his first public appearance before Congress since the killings of 16 Afghan civilians, apparently by a U.S. soldier. That incident and others, have caused new tensions between the U.S. and Afghanistan's government, and prompted some to reappraise America's strategy for the war. Nevertheless, Allen insisted that the strategy remains on course.
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Many students say they were lured into law school by the promise of high salaries upon graduation, but instead ended up with just a major debt load. How exactly schools calculate their graduates' employment statistics isn't regulated — it's up to students to scrutinize it, the ABA says.
