Melissa Block

Credit Doby Photography / NPR

Melissa Block is a 28-year veteran of NPR and has been hosting All Things Considered since 2003, after nearly a decade as an NPR correspondent.

Frequently reporting from communities in the center of the news, Block was in Chengdu, China, preparing for a weeklong broadcast when a massive earthquake struck the region in May 2008. Immediately following the quake, Block, along with co-host Robert Siegel and their production team, traveled throughout Sichuan province to report extensively on the destruction and relief efforts. Their riveting coverage aired across all of NPR's programs and was carried on major news organizations around the world. In addition, the reporting was recognized with the industry's top honors including a Peabody Award, a duPont-Columbia Award, a National Headliner Award and the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award.

Throughout her career, Block has covered major news events for NPR ranging from on-the-scene reporting from the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the days following Hurricane Katrina to a series from Texas gauging the impact of the Iraq War on the surrounding communities. Her reporting after the September 11, 2001 attacks was part of coverage that earned NPR a George Foster Peabody Award. Block's reporting from Kosovo in 1999 was cited among stories for which NPR News won an Overseas Press Club Award.

The Low-Tech Way Guns Get Traced

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Credit Melissa Block / NPR

ATF Special Agent Charles Houser runs the National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, W.Va.

Credit Cliff Owen / AP

Document prep technician Carol Sine (left) and tracer Debra Barrett process firearm transaction documents at the National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, W.Va.

Credit Cliff Owen / AP

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) processes firearm transaction documents from firearms dealers no longer in business, no matter the condition of the documents, such as this fire-and-water damaged ledger at their National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, W.Va.

By Melissa Block

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:06 pm

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Opponents of expanding background checks for gun sales often raise the fear that it would allow the government to create a national gun registry — a database of gun transactions. In fact, federal law already bans the creation of such a registry. And the reality of how gun sales records are accessed turns out to be surprisingly low-tech.

5:53 pm

Thu March 21, 2013

On Gun Ownership And Policy, 'A Country Of Chasms'

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Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Gun enthusiast Paul Gwaltney at Blue Ridge Arsenal, in Chantilly, Va. Gwaltney, an NPR listener, agreed to host a discussion about guns with friends and colleagues.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

(Clockwise from top left) Chuck Riddle, Renee Riddle, Athena Norman, George Hartogensis, Jeremy Riddle and Casey Riddle all joined Gwaltney in his home to discuss their views on guns and gun control.

By Melissa Block

Originally published on Thu March 21, 2013 7:55 pm

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The ideological gulf between gun owners and non-gun owners is a wide one — made all the more obvious by the ongoing debate over what, if any, gun control measures should be adopted in the U.S.

Sometimes, the debate feels like people are coming from different worlds, even for people within the same family. And while Americans are often willing to discuss their own views, it's rarer to hear conversations between people who own and love guns and those who do not.

6:02 pm

Mon March 18, 2013

Among Thousands Of Gun Deaths, Only One Charles Foster Jr.

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Credit Mike Haskey / Courtesy of The Ledger Enquirer

Led by the Rev. Willie Phillips (center), protesters march in February against violence in and around Club Majestic.

Credit Courtesy of the Foster family

Charles Foster Jr. was shot and killed in a nightclub on Jan. 1, 2013. The first in his family to attend college, he was just a few months shy of graduation.

Credit Melissa Block / NPR

Phillips keeps a binder of clippings about local anti-violence marches, stories about the Majestic and obituaries of young people who have been killed by gun violence.

Credit Melissa Block / NPR

The Majestic Sports Bar in Columbus, Ga. Local residents say the club has been the site of violence for years.

By Melissa Block

Originally published on Mon March 18, 2013 9:45 pm

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The Morris Missionary Baptist Church is nestled down a red dirt road, in Morris, Ga., set among pine trees near the Alabama state line. Next to the small white church lies its most recent grave site: that of Charles Foster Jr.

While the mass killings in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., garnered a frenzy of news coverage, statistically, they are not the norm. Each year, thousands of gun homicides in the U.S. — 11,000 in 2010 alone — attract little or no media attention.

5:15 pm

Thu November 15, 2012

A Dash Of Latin Flavor On The Thanksgiving Table

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Credit Jason Varney

Chef Jose Garces' quinoa soup.

Credit Jason Varney

Chef Jose Garces

By Melissa Block

Originally published on Fri November 16, 2012 4:59 pm

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When Chef Jose Garces, the Philadelphia-based restaurateur and author of The Latin Road Home, thinks back to the Thanksgiving table of his youth, he remembers the turkey, and his father's chicken giblet gravy.

But his parents, who emigrated to Chicago from Ecuador in the 1960s, whipped up Ecuadorean staples as well.

5:41 pm

Fri September 21, 2012

In Wisconsin, Political Circus Leaves Voters Wounded

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Credit Melissa Block / NPR

Heidi Accola works a stand at the farmers market in Baraboo, Wis. She runs a 1-acre organic farm with her husband, but she says they don't talk politics at home because it gets too heated.

Credit Melissa Block / NPR

A bumper sticker on the car of Bob Greenwood of Baraboo, Wis. "Recall Santa" reflects the bitterly divisive recall election this year, which Republican Gov. Scott Walker survived easily.

By Melissa Block

Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 6:53 pm

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Wisconsin is a prime battleground state in this year's presidential election.

Republicans hope the pick of native son Paul Ryan as their vice presidential nominee will bolster their chances to turn the state red in November. Wisconsin hasn't voted for a Republican for president since 1984. Barack Obama won the state by a blowout 14 points in 2008. And a run of Wisconsin polls this week shows him widening his lead over Mitt Romney.

So what do Wisconsin voters have to say about their choices — and their mood?

Economic Strain

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6:11 pm

Mon May 20, 2013