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What went wrong in Uvalde Jun 01, 2022

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More than a week later, what we know and don’t know about how a gunman carried out a massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. — and why the timeline from authorities keeps changing.

In the days since a shooter killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, new and horrifying details about the timeline of events keep emerging. We now know that the gunman was able to walk into the school unimpeded. We know that children called 911 from within classrooms pleading for help. But we still don’t know exactly why it took so long for authorities to stop the gunman.

Silvia Foster-Frau reports on what happened during a devastating 90-minute window.

Out to dry after a hurricane May 31, 2022

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As hurricane season hits, we examine what happens when Black communities seem to be last in line for disaster planning in Texas.

Communities more likely to be hit by hurricanes are bracing themselves for a rough summer, as hurricane season begins June 1. But in Kashmere Gardens, a predominantly Black neighborhood in Houston, residents are still trying to repair the damage to homes from a hurricane that hit five years ago.

As Tracy Jan tells producer Bishop Sand, that’s because money to address that damage — and to prevent further destruction — has been hard to come by. According to an investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Texas directed federal grants toward Whiter and wealthier areas — leaving places like Kashmere Gardens out to dry.

"Broken Doors," Episode 4 May 30, 2022

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Today on “Post Reports,” the fourth episode of “Broken Doors,” about the minutes between approval for a no-knock warrant and a deadly raid.

“Broken Doors” is a new investigative podcast series hosted by Jenn Abelson and Nicole Dungca about how no-knock warrants are deployed in the U.S. justice system — and the consequences for communities when accountability is flawed at every level.

In the fourth episode of this series, we head to Port Allen, La.

On July 25, 2019, a Black man was killed during a no-knock raid on a motel room in Louisiana. His fiancee was also inside. An investigation into what led up to the fatal shooting reveals the speed with which it happened — and raises questions about electronic warrants, a relatively new technology being adopted by law enforcement agencies across the country.

The full series is out now wherever you get your podcasts. You can email the “Broken Doors” team with any tips or feedback at BrokenDoors@washpost.com.

Depp v. Heard May 27, 2022

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After six weeks, the contentious defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is set to wrap up Friday. Today on “Post Reports,” what happened in the courtroom and online, and why it matters.

After six weeks of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial, the jury is hearing closing arguments Friday.

Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post in 2018 in which she referred to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse (Depp has denied all allegations of abuse). Heard countersued Depp for $100 million after his lawyer Adam Waldman called her accusations a hoax.

Despite the gravity of the allegations, the trial has garnered attention from all corners of the Internet — millions have tuned in to the live-streamed trial every day, analyzing and memeing every aspect of the trial. Entertainment reporter Emily Yahr has been covering the contentious trial in person and online, and discusses why so many people are obsessed with it and what that implies.

What comes after the NRA May 26, 2022

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The NRA faces critics from all sides, with infighting among its executives and, after the Uvalde, Tex., school shooting, renewed pressure from gun control advocates. And then there are the radical gun groups that say the NRA hasn’t gone far enough.

Tomorrow, the National Rifle Association will kick off its annual meeting. Just a few hours from the site of Tuesday’s school shooting, the convention will feature a 14-acre gun show and headliners including former president Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R).

Post national political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf will be there to cover it. And he says the NRA’s place in the gun control landscape is shifting: Mired in internal battles and legal troubles, the organization now has to compete with a handful of even more adamant gun rights groups that are growing in popularity. Today, how the NRA navigates bad press in the wake of mass shootings, and how the American gun culture it helped create has evolved.

‘It started in the fourth grade building’ May 25, 2022

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The deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade, and what’s changed in the years since the massacre in Newtown, Conn.

Washington Post reporter Arelis Hernández is on the ground in Uvalde as children and families try to make sense of the violence that tore through Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.

According to a Post database,last year was the deadliest year for school shootings in America since at least 1999, the year of the Columbine massacre. This year is on track to be even worse – and the reasons for that aren’t entirely clear. John Woodrow Cox, who helped create The Post’s tracker, breaks down the massive, sometimes unseen impact of gun violence on American schoolchildren, and the tricky politics of gun control legislation.

Read an excerpt from John’s book, “Children Under Fire: An American Crisis.”

Monkeypox: Should we be worried? May 24, 2022

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Today on Post Reports, what to know about monkeypox and how prepared the United States is for future pandemics. Plus, in New Orleans, the return of a beloved Mardi Gras tradition.

What is monkeypox, and how concerned should we be about the virus? Cameron Wolfe, an infectious-disease expert at Duke University, explains what we know about the rare virus, now confirmed in the United States and Europe.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert late last week, urging doctors and health departments to be vigilant. Monkeypox, which can be passed to animals and humans, is usually found in Central and West Africa. But many of the recent cases cropping up in the United Kingdom, France and elsewhere suggest the virus may be spreading through the community.

Plus, in New Orleans, the Mardi Gras Indians are back in a big way.

Georgia's Trump question May 23, 2022

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On Tuesday Republican voters in Georgia will choose between candidates who supported Donald Trump’s claims that the election was stolen and those who did not. The results may say a lot about election integrity in 2022 — and the state of the GOP nationwide.

In 2020, the fate of the presidency and which party would control the U.S. Senate hinged on what happened in Georgia. The state emerged as a contentious battleground, and it quickly drew the attention of President Donald Trump, who began to falsely claim that the elections in the state were manipulated.

Nearly two years later, Trump’s influence over Georgia’s elections has not disappeared. In fact, several Republican candidates have declared their support for Trump’s false election claims, including challengers to the incumbent governor and secretary of state. And Trump’s sway has created a schism in the state’s Republican Party.

Matthew Brown, who covers politics in the state, unpacks the dimensions of Georgia’s primaries and examines what could happen if an election denier enters office.

‘His Name Is George Floyd’ May 20, 2022

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After the murder of George Floyd, reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa spent months learning everything they could about Floyd’s life. The story they reveal in a new book shows how systemic racism shaped and shortened it.

“He's everywhere — but he's not here. He's on somebody's wall. He's on somebody's billboard. … He's in a newspaper, but he's not here. He's here in spirit. But he's not here.”

In the summer of 2020, after George Floyd was murdered, he became a symbol and a rallying cry. But what was missing in our understanding was the man himself —a figure who was complicated, full of ambition, shaped by his family and his community and centuries of systemic racism.

The Washington Post set out to better understand who Floyd really was and reported a series of stories about George Floyd’s America. We made a podcast based on this reporting, “The Life of George Floyd,” which we’re playing today for you in full. But two of the reporters on that project still had questions.

Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa have now written a book that delves deeper into Floyd’s life — what he was like as a father, a boyfriend, a classmate, an athlete, how ambitious he was. And how those ambitions were hobbled by systemic racism. They learned about things that happened to Floyd’s family, hundreds of years before he was born, that shaped everything that would happen to him later.

If you’d like to read an excerpt of Robert and Tolu’s book, you can find that here: How George Floyd Spent His Final Hours.

The untold story of the Texas abortion ban May 19, 2022

Show notes

A year ago today, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Texas Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act. The law bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy — before many people even know they’re pregnant. It also employed a novel legal strategy that empowered ordinary people to enforce the law by suing anyone who may have helped facilitate the abortion.

Many observers thought the law would be blocked from taking effect or overturned after passing. That didn’t happen. The Supreme Court had three opportunities to consider the law and didn’t, signaling that the court could be open to overturning Roe v. Wade.

In the recent uproar over the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it’s been easy to forget about the impact and significance of Texas’s law. But a year later the law still stands in the state, blocking abortions after about six weeks.

Today on Post Reports, on the anniversary of the Texas abortion ban, national political reporter Caroline Kitchener brings us the story of the activist who helped to craft the law, the doctor who tried to challenge it, and the lessons both sides have taken away from its success.

Caroline Kitchener examines whether a national abortion ban is possible in a post-Roe world.

You can also read her profile of Dr. Alan Braid.

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