WNYC Newsroom

Over 125 years after an African-American woman named Anita Florence Hemmings passed as white at Vassar College, her story has helped inspire a conference on the topic.

Damon Young talks black masculinity, parenting a black girl in an all-pervasive white supremacist country, and being labeled gay as a young high school teacher.  

When opioid maker Purdue Pharma faced criminal prosecution that could have cut into its business, it called on a prominent New Yorker to help keep the drug on the market and plentiful.

New York City Audubon estimates that more than 90,000 birds die every year while trying to navigate the city's maze of windows. 

Officials continue to face community opposition to the new jails that will be built in four boroughs.

The topic is being debated among different advocacy groups and is being considered by Albany lawmakers.

53-year-old Francesco Cali was found dead outside his Staten Island home.

New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell says the House Ways and Means Committee will make the request.

Snow is expected throughout the morning Friday and many schools are delaying opening. 

ProPublica's Talia Buford reports that the state did not create a list for a decade.

New York City schools are open, but several suburban schools are closed or delayed because of the snow. Check here for details.

Live from the Christian Cultural Center in East New York, Brian Lehrer is moderating a forum for New York City Public Advocate candidates about affordable housing for working families.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson told WNYC that "it would be nice [for the federal government] to be able to give more," but that he's satisfied with HUD and the city's deal to improve NYCHA.

In 2008, Michael Patrick Carroll said African-Americans should be grateful for slavery. Now, he wants to be voted into a post where he'd determine wills, estates and guardianship issues.

WNYC's Matt Katz, the author of "American Governor" who spent years covering Gov. Christie, weighs in on what the new book accomplishes, and what it leaves out.

An Asbury Park Press series about drug use among cops—and the maneuvers used to protect officers from discipline—led Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to demand immediate reforms.

Peter Zimroth, the monitor who was appointed to oversee reforms after stop-and-frisk was ruled unconstitutional in 2013, is casting doubt on the NYPD's latest numbers.

First-term House member Mikie Sherrill discusses her hope for a bipartisan solution to end the government shutdown.

After opposing a bag fee last year, Gov. Murphy is getting behind a sweeping plan to ban plastic bags. Businesses that currently use the bags are gearing up to fight it.