Chiara Eisner
Stories
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National
"We got workers in the water": Audio reveals details about Baltimore bridge rescue
Radio calls exchanged between first responders when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed show a coordinated response. But distress calls are not optimized for alerting construction crews.
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National
Alabama executes man by nitrogen gas for the first time in the U.S.
Kenneth Smith, 58, died at 8:25 p.m. Thursday, after a slew of last-minute appeals to several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, failed.
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National
Alabama is set to become the first state to execute an inmate using nitrogen gas
The state on Thursday is set to carry out an execution using nitrogen gas, a method that has never been used before in the U.S. Kenneth Smith survived an earlier execution attempt by lethal injection.
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National
Kenneth Smith could be the first person executed with nitrogen gas. He spoke with NPR
Smith rarely speaks with reporters about surviving a lethal injection execution in 2022. But he talked with NPR about the state's plans to try again, this time with a new method: nitrogen gas.
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National
Families of executed prisoners want death penalty tapes made public
Virginia said it's keeping execution tapes secret to protect the privacy of the relatives of the prisoners the state recorded. But the families NPR talked with said they want the tapes published.
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National
Alabama's upcoming gas execution could harm witnesses and violate religious liberty
Alabama plans to execute a prisoner using nitrogen gas. NPR obtained a Department of Corrections document showing the method may pose risks to others in the room and impede religious liberties.
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Vaccines are still tested with horseshoe crab blood. The industry is finally changing
The horseshoe crab bleeding industry is in transition. One biomedical company agreed to more oversight, and a regulatory group is paving the way for drug companies to use animal-free alternatives.
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National
When train crashes leak harmful chemicals, small town firefighters can be vulnerable
Firefighters are often "woefully under-equipped" to handle train accidents that emit hazardous materials. Most of those serious enough to cause evacuations happened near small towns.