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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 an exclusive on the independence level of nursing home residents, the safety of automated aircraft, and a government mandate to produce $1 coins that Americans don't want.

Prior to NPR, Benincasa served as the database editor for the Gannett News Service Washington Bureau for a decade. In 1995, he joined the Burlington VT Free Press as a staff writer.

Benincasa's work at NPR has been recognized by many of journalism's top honors. In 2011, he was part of the team that received a Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence in Journalism, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, George Foster Peabody Award, and a National Journalism Award – Jack R. Howard Award for Excellence in Radio Reporting for work on NPR's story "Seeking Justice for Campus Rapes."

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 While House News Photographers Association's Eyes of History Award for multimedia innovation, and George Polk Award.

Since 2008, Benincasa, has served on the faculty of Georgetown University's Master of Professional Studies program in journalism.

Benincasa earned a master's of arts degree in journalism from University of Maryland and a bachelor's of arts in psychology from Villanova University.

Business
3:59 am
Thu December 5, 2013

Banks Come Under Fire For Filling In The Payday Loan Gap

Federal regulators are setting new rules for banks that offer deposit advances.
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Originally published on Thu December 5, 2013 3:05 pm

A payday loan is a costly form of credit operating on the fringes of the economy. That's why the target of a new crackdown by federal regulators may surprise you: Instead of a forlorn-looking storefront with a garish neon sign, it's your familiar neighborhood bank.

A small but growing number of banks, including some major players, have been offering the equivalent of payday loans, calling them "deposit advances."

That is, at least, until bank regulators stepped in Nov. 21 and put new restrictions on the loans.

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U.S.
2:32 am
Wed August 28, 2013

New Accessible Playground Rules May Not Go Far Enough

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The local playground's design doesn't work for Emmanuel, shown here with his family. The loose surface hampers his wheelchair, and there are no ramps to help him get onto the play structures.
Credit Julie Caine for NPR
Credit NPR
Teresa Soto watches as her son, Emmanuel Soto, 3, who was born with spina bifida, wheels himself over broken pavement on the path home from the playground near their house.
Credit Julie Caine for NPR
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Originally published on Wed August 28, 2013 5:57 pm

Last year, the federal government made accessibility standards at playgrounds mandatory under the Americans with Disabilities Act so that children with disabilities can more easily play alongside typical kids.

But whether children with disabilities are able to enjoy their new civil rights to play may depend on where they live, and the design decisions their cities and towns made when they built local playgrounds.

For 3-year-old Emmanuel Soto, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, the local playground's design doesn't work.

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U.S.
11:00 am
Tue August 27, 2013

For Kids With Special Needs, More Places To Play

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Brooklyn Fisher rolls down the ramp on the playground named for her in Pocatello, Idaho. The playground was built using accessible features so children of all abilities could play alongside each other.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Credit NPR
Wide ramps allow children of all abilities easy access to all of the parts of Brooklyn's Playground.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
This accessible swing is designed to support children with physical disabilities.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Brooklyn Fisher, who has spina bifida, plays with her father, Jonny Fisher, at the playground.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
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Originally published on Tue August 27, 2013 5:31 pm

Remember running around the playground when you were a kid? Maybe hanging from the monkey bars or seeing who could swing the highest?

It wasn't just a mindless energy burn. Many have called play the work of childhood. Play teaches children how to make friends, make rules and navigate relationships.

But for kids whose disabilities keep them from using playgrounds, those opportunities can be lost.

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American Dreams: Then And Now
4:42 pm
Wed August 15, 2012

A Baseball School For Big League Dreamers

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Ketchum Marsh, a senior from Massachusetts, walks back to the dugout during an intrasquad game at IMG Baseball Academy, where he trains and goes to school.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
Marsh will play baseball at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., next year.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
Just 1,200 players are drafted each year — and major league rosters have only 750 active slots.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
Ketchum Marsh, a high school senior from Massachusetts, walks back to the dugout during a May 21 intrasquad game at IMG Baseball Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he trains and goes to school.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
World Geography teacher Christoph LeClainche with some of the student-athletes at IMG Academy. IMG students spend half the day in class and half playing baseball.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
Marsh started attending IMG in eighth grade. Tuition, room and board for the academic and sports program runs about $70,000 a year.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
IMG says it's had 17 players drafted since 2006.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
IMG Academy pitching coach Dave Shepard gives pointers to pitcher Cameron Varga.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
Marsh warms up during an intrasquad game. His coaches say he has surpassed other players who may have had more athletic ability but lacked his work ethic.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
IMG Baseball Academy Director Ken Bolek is a former major and minor league coach.
Credit Chip Litherland for NPR
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Originally published on Wed August 15, 2012 8:11 pm

If you have ever dreamed of playing big-league baseball, chances are the dream started to fade sometime in high school.

It gradually becomes clear: You won't be starting in Game 7 of the World Series, and tipping your cap after hitting a walk-off homer. So at some point you go from player to fan — watching others chase greatness on the diamond.

But not every baseball dreamer is willing to give up so early. And in Bradenton, Fla., there's a place that lies somewhere between the Little League field and Yankee Stadium.

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Planet Money
1:24 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

Where Dollars Are Born

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Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Rewinder operator John Danylieko moves a finished roll of currency paper from the paper machine. The roll will be cut into three narrower rolls before being cut into sheets.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Crane & Co. Vice President Doug Crane stands near a spool of paper used for $20 bills, as it spins at the company's Wahconah Mill.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
A "size press" coats the currency paper so that it's compatible with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's intaglio printing process.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
The rotary digester, about 15 feet across, uses steam and chemicals to cook away the contaminants in cotton and linen fibers.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Several tons of linen fibers drain and cool down after having been cooked in the rotary digester, a giant steel ball.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Marites Wilbur performs a final inspection on a ream of 32-note currency paper sheets.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
A currency template is used to check that security features, such as a watermark of Andrew Jackson's image, are in the right place.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
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Originally published on Fri May 25, 2012 8:05 am

DALTON, Mass. – If you were driving through this small town along the Housatonic River in the Berkshires, here's something you might not think about: All the bills in your wallet are visiting their birthplace.

The paper for U.S. currency, the substrate of everyday commerce, has been made here since 1879 by the Crane family.

Crane & Co. vice president Doug Crane represents the eighth generation descended from Stephen Crane, who was making paper before the American Revolution.

He gave NPR reporters a behind-the-scenes tour and talked about his company.

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Planet Money
2:53 pm
Thu April 19, 2012

Should We Kill The Dollar Bill?

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Originally published on Mon April 23, 2012 3:53 pm

Our story begins last month inside a busy Washington, D.C. subway station plastered with posters of giant dollar bills. One of them says: "Tell Congress to stop wasting time trying to eliminate the dollar bill." Another asks: "Do you heart the dollar?"

Political fights in the nation's capital normally involve billions or even trillions, not single dollars. What's going on here?

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Planet Money
12:09 pm
Tue December 13, 2011

White House Kills Dollar Coin Program

Dollar coins gathering dust in the Fed's Baltimore brach.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
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Originally published on Wed December 14, 2011 4:24 pm

The federal government will stop minting unwanted $1 coins, the White House said Tuesday. The move will save an estimated $50 million a year.

Earlier this year, we reported on the mountain of $1 coins sitting unused in government vaults. The pile-up — an estimated 1.4 billion coins — was caused by a 2005 law that ordered the minting of coins honoring each U.S. president.

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