Robert Benincasa
Robert Benincasa is a computer-assisted reporting producer in NPR's Investigations Unit.
Since joining NPR in 2008, Benincasa has been reporting on NPR Investigations stories, analyzing data for investigations, and developing data visualizations and interactive applications for NPR.org. He has worked on numerous groundbreaking stories, including data-driven investigations of the inequities of federal disaster aid and coal miners' exposures to deadly silica dust.
Prior to NPR, Benincasa served as the database editor for the Gannett News Service Washington Bureau for a decade.
Benincasa's work at NPR has been recognized by many of journalism's top honors. In 2014, he was part of a team that won an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, and he shared Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards with Investigations Unit colleagues in 2016 and 2011.
Also in 2011, he received numerous accolades for his contributions to several investigative stories, including an Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, an Investigative Reporters & Editors Radio Award, the White House News Photographers Association's Eyes of History Award for multimedia innovation, and George Polk and George Foster Peabody awards.
Benincasa served on the faculty of Georgetown University's Master of Professional Studies program in journalism from 2008 to 2016.
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An NPR probe finds many nursing homes are still prescribing schizophrenia drugs to calm dementia patients — despite FDA warnings — but only 2 percent of excessive-medication cases result in penalties.
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Way too many residents of U.S. nursing homes are on antipsychotic drugs, critics say. It's often just for the convenience of the staff, to sedate patients agitated by dementia. That's illegal.
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An NPR investigation found thousands of American mine owners fail to pay penalties for safety violations, even as they continue to manage dangerous — and sometimes deadly — operations. -
The federal budget for bioscience has undergone big swings since 2000. Some scientists are now out of work and others are abandoning the ambitious, creative ideas that fuel discovery. -
A plant in Tonawanda heats coal into material for the iron and steel industries, releasing toxic chemicals into the air. Residents have long blamed the pollution for several health problems. -
Federal regulators are cracking down on banks that are offering services called deposit advances. Many argue that the service is the same as payday loans and could lead consumers into a cycle of debt. -
Last year, the federal government made accessible playgrounds a requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But whether children with disabilities are able to enjoy their new civil rights may depend on where they live. -
Parent advocates and a new federal law making accessible play areas a civil right are changing the landscape for public playgrounds. -
The Standard Heights neighborhood sits next to the nation's second-largest gasoline refinery. Recently, residents learned a new truth about the plumes of exhaust they see every day: Exxon Mobil's aging refinery and petrochemical facilities — like many others — are pumping out far more pollution than the law allows. -
For more than a century, countless Americans have dreamed of playing Major League Baseball. Few ever make it, but there is a place in Bradenton, Fla., that nurtures those dreams. IMG Academies takes students as young as 11 and mixes intense baseball training with an academic education.
