Ted Robbins
As supervising editor for Arts and Culture at NPR based at NPR West in Culver City, Ted Robbins plans coverage across NPR shows and online, focusing on TV at a time when there's never been so much content. He thinks "arts and culture" encompasses a lot of human creativity — from traditional museum offerings to popular culture, and out-of-the-way people and events.
Robbins also supervises obituaries or, as NPR prefers to call them, "appreciations," of people in the arts.
Robbins joined the Arts Desk in 2015, after a decade on air as a NPR National Desk correspondent based in Tucson, Arizona. From there, he covered the Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Robbins reported on a range of issues, from immigration and border security to water issues and wildfires. He covered the economy in the West with an emphasis on the housing market and Las Vegas development. He reported on the January 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six and injured many, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Robbins' reporting has been honored with numerous accolades, including two Emmy Awards—one for his story on sex education in schools, and another for his series on women in the workforce. He received a CINE Golden Eagle for a 1995 documentary on Mexican agriculture called "Tomatoes for the North."
In 2006, Robbins wrote an article for the Nieman Reports at Harvard about journalism and immigration. He was chosen for a 2009 French-American Foundation Fellowship focused on comparing European and U.S. immigration issues.
Raised in Los Angeles, Robbins became an avid NPR listener while spending hours driving (or stopped in traffic) on congested freeways. He is delighted to now be covering stories for his favorite news source.
Prior to coming to NPR in 2004, Robbins spent five years as a regular contributor to The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, 15 years at the PBS affiliate in Tucson, and working as a field producer for CBS News. He worked for NBC affiliates in Tucson and Salt Lake City, where he also did some radio reporting and print reporting for USA Today.
Robbins earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology and his master's degree in journalism, both from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught journalism at the University of Arizona for a decade.
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The Defense Department is planning to detonate 700 tons of non-nuclear explosives at the Nevada Test Site. Called "Divine Strake," the test is part of the military's effort to design "bunker-busting" explosives. Many locals and "downwinders" in Nevada and Utah object to the test.
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Nic Marines lives in Tucson, Ariz., but more than 20 years ago, he entered the country illegally, crossing the border between Mexico and the U.S. He spent years slogging through red tape, but finally was able to clear his name and get his citizenship. "It's the best country in the world," he says. -
President Bush signs the Border Security Act, a new law emphasizing enforcement over reform of the nation's immigration system. The act's key provision is a new 700-mile fence for the border with Mexico. But questions have been raised about whether the fence will be built, given that little or no funds were appropriated to the task when Congress approved the act in September.
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In the desert south of Las Vegas, crews are assembling a giant array of curved mirrors. The Nevada Solar One project will use the sun to power a steam turbine that, in turn, will create electricity for 40,000 homes. -
For four years, the National Park Service has been gathering natural sound in dozens of parks across the country. The idea is to protect visitors -- and wildlife -- from unwelcome noise.
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With commercial airlines struggling to cut costs, they often pull aircraft out of service, putting them into storage at places like the Pinal Air Park in the Arizona desert. There, rows and rows of airliners sit baking in the sun, their windows taped against wind-blown dust. Workers at the facility periodically start the planes' engines, much the same way one would start an old Volvo in the driveway to keep it from seizing up. -
President Bush flies to Yuma, Ariz., to talk about his plans for slowing illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Tighter border enforcement elsewhere has increased illegal crossings in this area not previously known as a hotbed of smuggling.
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The U.S. Border Patrol and some National Guard troops are already on duty along the U.S.-Mexico border. Some people in the Southwest think the border is already too militarized. Others welcome the effort to seal the border.
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In the area around Tucson, Ariz., the border has become much more militarized in recent years, with checkpoints, fences, and many more Border Patrol agents. A few members of the National Guard are there as well, but so far, they've played a minor role.
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Confronted with illegal border crossing in Arizona, the Maricopa County Sherriff's office has turned to a traditional Western solution: the posse. Wednesday night, sheriff's deputies and members of the department's 300-member reserve force were sent to patrol the desert and round up illegal immigrants.
