Cris Barrish
Cris Barrish, a national award-winning investigative reporter, covers stories about Delaware.
Cris worked at Wilmington (Del.) News Journal for 34 years, starting out writing about local sports but ultimately becoming the senior investigative reporter — a position he held for nearly two decades. At the News Journal, he won dozens of national and regional awards for his exposés about corruption, incompetence, and sheer outrageousness in the First State. He won the University of Colorado/Denver Press Club Al Nakkula Award for Police reporting and other honors for his Pulitzer Prize-nominated series of investigative stories on the failed efforts by police, prosecutors, and medical officials to stop a pedophile pediatrician who raped more than 100 young girls he treated.
He was lead author of “Fatal Embrace,” a true-crime book about the murder by prominent attorney Tom Capano of gubernatorial secretary Ann Marie Fahey. He has appeared in several television documentaries and on radio and cable news about cases he covered, including A&E’s “American Justice” and “City Confidential,” the Discovery Network, CNN, NPR, and local and regional news shows.
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Efforts to legalize marijuana in Delaware went up in smoke in 2022 despite widespread legislative support. But lawmakers say new progressive blood in Dover could make this the year it finally passes. WHYY's Cris Barrish has more.
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Abandoned potbellied pigs are running wild in southern Delaware. WHYY's Cris Barrish reports on the state's alert to owners and the public.
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The discovery of the only known adult American chestnut in Delaware has spurred widespread interest in visiting the rare tree.
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Delawareans elected the state's most racially diverse General Assembly, including one new member who was a Miss America contestant last year. WHYY's Cris Barrish has more.
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A Delaware family that fled Ukraine in February when the Russian bombardment began is now living in Warsaw. One member returned to the Kyiv area in July and reconnected with WHYY's Cris Barrish to talk about her heartening – and heartbreaking – visit.
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A Delaware man who stormed the U.S. Capitol at the outset of the Jan. 6 insurrection has been sentenced to two years in prison. WHYY's Cris Barrish has more.A Delaware man who stormed the U.S. Capitol at the outset of the Jan. 6 insurrection has been sentenced to two years in prison. WHYY's Cris Barrish has more.(Original air-date: 10/25/22)
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Deep in the woods of northern Delaware, a deer hunter with an encyclopedic knowledge of local flora found a towering old tree long thought to be extinct in the state. WHYY's Cris Barrish has more on this unlikely story.
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The highly lethal painkiller fentanyl was present in 83% of Delaware's record 515 overdose deaths last year. WHYY's Cris Barrish reports that the state is now giving out free fentanyl test strips to users of heroin, cocaine, meth and other drugs.
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Golf star Patrick Cantlay took home $2.7 million winner's check in the BMW Championship that ended Sunday at Wilmington Country Club. But WHYY's Cris Barrish reports that northern Delaware was also a big winner from the event that drew 130,000 spectators.
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Delaware has approved a faster timeline to test rape kits. WHYY's Cris Barrish reports that the new rules come after Delaware has processed a backlog of more than 1,200 kits that have languished for years.