Ryan Heinsius
News Director & Managing EditorRyan Heinsius joined the KNAU newsroom as executive producer in 2013 and was named news director and managing editor in 2024. As a reporter, he has covered a broad range of stories from local, state and tribal politics to education, economy, energy and public lands issues, and frequently interviews internationally known and regional musicians. Ryan is an Edward R. Murrow Award winner and a Public Media Journalists Association Award winner, and a frequent contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and national newscast. He's been featured on WBUR's Here & Now among other programs.
Before making the leap to public radio, Ryan spent more than a decade in print media as the editor of an alternative weekly paper. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University in political science and journalism and has also returned to teach at his alma mater.
Ryan is a Flagstaff-based musician and has performed and recorded with many bands in the Southwest. He spends as much time as possible with his family hiking, running and cycling the amazing terrain of northern Arizona and beyond.
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Last summer, Congress allowed a program to compensate victims of Cold War-era radiation exposure to expire. Now, a new bipartisan effort to both revive and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act is picking up steam. -
A bill to expand federal compensation for victims of U.S. nuclear testing failed in the last Congress despite bipartisan support. A new bill has created strange political bedfellows.
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The company that owns a uranium mine near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon has resumed trucking ore from the site. It follows an agreement with Navajo Nation officials last month to allow the shipments to cross the reservation. -
Navajo Nation officials have agreed to allow shipments of uranium ore to again cross the reservation. It comes after tribal leaders threatened to turn back trucks hauling ore from a mine near the Grand Canyon last summer. -
Leadership in the U.S. House did not include compensation for victims of radiation exposure in its current budget proposal. The program expired in June and advocates were hoping Congress would renew it before the end of the year. -
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is threatening to block attempts by House Republicans to only partially renew a law that compensates victims of radiation exposure. -
President Joe Biden declared the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in Pennsylvania on Monday. It acknowledges the decades of trauma inflicted on tribal communities throughout the U.S. and in Arizona, which had the second-highest number of the schools in the nation. -
In June, Congress allowed a 34-year-old federal law that compensates victims of Cold War-era radiation exposure to lapse. Now, an effort is underway to pressure lawmakers to renew and expand the program before the end of the current lame-duck session. -
Votes are still being counted throughout Arizona, but initial results have yielded few major surprises in national and statewide races along with more than a dozen ballot propositions. -
For the first time in a dozen years, there's an open seat for the Coconino County recorder, which oversees early voting, the preferred method for 80% of Arizonans. It comes as election workers continue to be targets of misinformation.
