Cassandra Basler
Editor of Local News Programs and PodcastCassandra Basler oversees Connecticut Public’s flagship daily news programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and coordinates breaking news coverage on the air, online and in your morning email inbox. She’s also an editor of the station’s limited series podcast, 'In Absentia' and producer of the five-part podcast Unforgotten: Connecticut’s Hidden History of Slavery. Her reporting has aired nationally on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Here & Now.
Basler came to Connecticut by way of Columbia Journalism School in New York City, where she graduated with a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship and used it to cover the integration of Syrian refugees in Germany during the height of the world migrant crisis.
Previously, Basler worked at WSHU Public Radio in Fairfield, Connecticut as a Morning Edition producer/reporter, a local correspondent for The New England News Collaborative, and a midday newscast anchor. She later served as senior editor, helping to produce everything from newscasts, to features and a biweekly travel podcast.
Basler grew up just north of Detroit, Michigan. There, she worked on a live morning talk show and in the newsroom at the local public radio affiliate during Detroit’s historic municipal bankruptcy filing. Her favorite freelance job was working as a researcher and contributing writer for the first Detroit guidebook to be published in three decades, “Belle Isle to 8 Mile: An Insider's Guide to Detroit.” Before that, she studied English, German and Urban Studies at the University of Michigan.
On the weekends, you can find her mapping out New England’s best dupes for the iconic Detroit Coney Dog.
-
The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) told its members this week that an arbitrator won them the right to negotiate telework on the job. The news came as an early pandemic-era agreement, which allowed many unionized state employees to work remotely 100% of the time, was set to expire at the end of the year.
-
Connecticut’s daily COVID-19 testing rate has continued to climb since the spread of the omicron variant hit the state, with a record 14.98% positivity rate reported Tuesday afternoon.
-
The U.S. Justice Department issued a report on Tuesday that found the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire, Conn., is violating the rights of young people confined there. Manson is a high-security prison for teenagers and young adults up to the age of 21.
-
New Haven Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez has withdrawn her nomination to take the job on a permanent basis. Dominguez would have been the city’s first official female chief, but was rejected by the city’s Board of Alders on Monday.
-
At least four students in Hamden and New Haven have been arrested in connection with threats against their schools that police are calling part of a hoax trend.
-
For the second week in a row, several high schools in Connecticut faced lockdowns, closures or early dismissals as police investigated possible threats. Multiple high schools in New Haven, Hamden and Norwich were affected on Monday.
-
Dan Guller helped his 3-year-old son switch on the bulbs of the menorah to mark the fourth night of Hanukkah. But Guller remembers when this kind of visibility wasn’t the norm for Darien’s Jews, and he told a crowd Wednesday night that he had worries when he and his husband moved to town 12 years ago.
-
Conn. Gov. Ned Lamont told reporters on Tuesday that his wife’s company sold its holdings in Digital Currency Group as soon as they heard the state’s economic development head started talks about the move to Stamford.
-
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Monday that a new financial services firm is moving to Stamford with the help of over $5 million in state financial incentives. What he didn't say was that his wife's firm had been an investor in the company.
-
Yale announced Wednesday that it plans to nearly double its current yearly payments to the city of New Haven over the next five years. Combined with money the university already promised, Yale will contribute $135 million in lieu of property taxes.