Chiara Eisner
Stories
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NPR investigation reveals information about death row in Texas
State law shields information about the process of lethal injection. A new NPR investigation finds where the drug comes from.
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A bird flu outbreak among dairy cows sparks new warnings about unpasteurized milk
An outbreak of avian flu in dairy cow herds has resurfaced long-simmering tensions between the federal government and raw milk advocates, who downplay concerns that health officials have raised.
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"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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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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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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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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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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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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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.