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Wade Goodwyn

Wade Goodwyn is an NPR National Desk Correspondent covering Texas and the surrounding states.

Reporting since 1991, Goodwyn has covered a wide range of issues, from mass shootings and hurricanes to Republican politics. Whatever it might be, Goodwyn covers the national news emanating from the Lone Star State.

Though a journalist, Goodwyn really considers himself a storyteller. He grew up in a Southern storytelling family and tradition, he considers radio an ideal medium for narrative journalism. While working for a decade as a political organizer in New York City, he began listening regularly to WNYC, which eventually led him to his career as an NPR reporter.

In a recent profile, Goodwyn's voice was described as being "like warm butter melting over BBQ'd sweet corn." But he claims, dubiously, that his writing is just as important as his voice.

Goodwyn is a graduate of the University of Texas with a degree in history. He lives in Dallas with his famliy.

  • A federal grand jury charges a Mississippi man in the 1964 killings of two black men in one of the few remaining unsolved cases from the civil rights era. James Ford Seale pleaded not guilty today in Jackson, Miss. Seale, a former sheriff's deputy, is believed to have been a Klansman.
  • Enron's former finance chief, Andrew Fastow, is sentenced to six years with an additional two years under supervised release. Fastow had worked out a plea deal with prosecutors back in 2004 under which he agreed to a prison term of up to 10 years. However, Fastow asked Federal Court Judge Kenneth Hoyt for a shorter sentence.
  • Wade Goodwyn, who covered the Enron trial for NPR, reacts to the unexpected news that Enron founder Ken Lay has died of a heart attack. Goodwyn tells Lynn Neary that Lay was a changed man after his conviction for fraud related to the collapse of Enron.
  • The Lone Star State is home to more than a million horses. Some Texans have begun adding to their herds in rather unusual ways: by cloning their champion horses.
  • The Pentagon has publicly named two soldiers who have been missing in Iraq since Friday. An umbrella group of Iraqi insurgents claims that it is holding the two hostage. U.S. officials are trying to determine what happened.
  • After finding former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling guilty on several counts in their conspiracy and fraud trial, the jury of eight women and four men met with reporters to explain their thinking.
  • Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are convicted Thursday of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud in a case born from one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history. The pair now face lengthy prison sentences.
  • Defense attorneys for former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling make passionate closing arguments on their clients' behalf, ridiculing the prosecution's case. The jury gets the case today.
  • Lawyers for former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling make their closing arguments today. Yesterday, it was the prosecution's turn to sum up their case. The prosecution did not hesitate to reiterate their view of the former Enron managers as criminals attempting to escape responsibility for their actions.
  • Closing arguments have begun in the criminal trial of former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. Both men face multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy and face the possibility of spending the next twenty years in prison. Both men also deny doing anything wrong. The case is expected to go to the jury on Wednesday.