Richard Gonzales
Richard Gonzales is NPR's National Desk Correspondent based in San Francisco. Along with covering the daily news of region, Gonzales' reporting has included medical marijuana, gay marriage, drive-by shootings, Jerry Brown, Willie Brown, the U.S. Ninth Circuit, the California State Supreme Court and any other legal, political, or social development occurring in Northern California relevant to the rest of the country.
Gonzales joined NPR in May 1986. He covered the U.S. State Department during the Iran-Contra Affair and the fall of apartheid in South Africa. Four years later, he assumed the post of White House Correspondent and reported on the prelude to the Gulf War and President George W. Bush's unsuccessful re-election bid. Gonzales covered the U.S. Congress for NPR from 1993-94, focusing on NAFTA and immigration and welfare reform.
In September 1995, Gonzales moved to his current position after spending a year as a John S. Knight Fellow Journalism at Stanford University.
In 2009, Gonzales won the Broadcast Journalism Award from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. He also received the PASS Award in 2004 and 2005 from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for reports on California's juvenile and adult criminal justice systems.
Prior to NPR, Gonzales was a freelance producer at public television station KQED in San Francisco. From 1979 to 1985, he held positions as a reporter, producer, and later, public affairs director at KPFA, a radio station in Berkeley, CA.
Gonzales graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in psychology and social relations. He is a co-founder of Familias Unidas, a bi-lingual social services program in his hometown of Richmond, California.
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About 10,800 residents are under evacuation orders because of the Maria Fire, one of two wildfires threatening Ventura County. Farther north, the Kincade Fire is 70% contained. -
Gen. Frank McKenzie says even without an apparent leader ISIS may be disjointed, but "they will be dangerous." -
The Kincade Fire continues to menace Sonoma County, but firefighters are gaining optimism. In Los Angeles, the dramatic Getty Fire wildfire erupted near the busiest highway in the U.S. -
Houston got on the board first and led throughout the game as Washington stranded 12 runners. The Nationals lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. -
The utility says widespread dry northeast winds reaching 45 to 60 mph with gusts of 60 to 70 mph at higher elevations raise the potential for a massive outages to prevent more wildfires.
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California's largest utility says "critical fire weather" makes outages necessary in 17 counties. -
A government review says most of the dead were killed by gunshot wounds to the head or chest. Over 3,000 people were wounded.
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PG&E is under fire for its management of last week's planned power outages that left about 800,000 customers in the dark. CEO Bill Johnson admits the company was ill-prepared for the operation. -
David Correia surrendered to authorities upon returning to New York after a trip to the Middle East. Andrey Kukushkin was arrested last week in California. -
The system will detect the beginning of a quake and send out alerts warning residents that they have a few seconds to prepare for a possibly deadly temblor.
