Bobby Allyn
Bobby Allyn is a business reporter at NPR based in San Francisco. He covers technology and how Silicon Valley's largest companies are transforming how we live and reshaping society.
He came to San Francisco from Washington, where he focused on national breaking news and politics. Before that, he covered criminal justice at member station WHYY.
In that role, he focused on major corruption trials, law enforcement, and local criminal justice policy. He helped lead NPR's reporting of Bill Cosby's two criminal trials. He was a guest on Fresh Air after breaking a major story about the nation's first supervised injection site plan in Philadelphia. In between daily stories, he has worked on several investigative projects, including a story that exposed how the federal government was quietly hiring debt collection law firms to target the homes of student borrowers who had defaulted on their loans. Allyn also strayed from his beat to cover Philly parking disputes that divided in the city, the last meal at one of the city's last all-night diners, and a remembrance of the man who wrote the Mister Softee jingle on a xylophone in the basement of his Northeast Philly home.
At other points in life, Allyn has been a staff reporter at Nashville Public Radio and daily newspapers including The Oregonian in Portland and The Tennessean in Nashville. His work has also appeared in BuzzFeed News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
A native of Wilkes-Barre, a former mining town in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Allyn is the son of a machinist and a church organist. He's a dedicated bike commuter and long-distance runner. He is a graduate of American University in Washington.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republicans during a closed-door meeting that he does not now have the votes to defeat Democrats' push for witnesses, but he is not declaring defeat. -
President Trump's lawyers finished their presentation Monday night, dismissing the need for additional witnesses and saying former National Security Adviser John Bolton's testimony is not needed. -
On the floor, House impeachment managers stressed the president would not hesitate to investigate any political rival. Outside the chamber, senators sparred over issuing subpoenas. -
On Thursday, House Democrats outlined how the law applies to what they see as the president's "corrupt scheme" with Ukraine to tilt the 2020 election in his favor. -
Lead impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called on senators to "decide what kind of democracy you believe we ought to be." Trump, meanwhile, called the case against him a "hoax." -
Roberts, who joined the fledgling network in 1978, was a seasoned Washington insider who developed a distinctive voice as a reporter and commentator for both NPR and ABC News. -
Picket lines began forming outside GM plants after the United Auto Workers voted Sunday to begin a strike at midnight. Nearly 50,000 workers are affected by the work stoppage. -
After a police shooting, what information should be disclosed to the public? That question is roiling Philadelphia, where a bill aims to keep confidential the names of officers who use deadly force. -
The Philadelphia Archdiocese has plans to demolish the city's oldest Polish church, but it's facing strong resistance: Longtime parishioners and neighborhood newcomers have joined forces in protest. -
A youth detention center in Nashville is making news because of riots and breakouts. Advocates point to Missouri as an exemplary model. There, the atmosphere can feel more like summer camp than jail.
