Bob Orr

(CBS News) 

Bob Orr is the Justice and Homeland Security correspondent for CBS News.

Orr has covered the transportation beat for CBS News in Washington since 1993. Since the 9/11 attacks, he has also covered homeland security, with an emphasis on aviation and terrorism. Orr's work appears primarily on the "CBS Evening News."

He contributed scores of live reports to the more than 93 hours of continuous CBS News coverage of those attacks and broke many stories with details of the four hijacked planes. Orr led the Network's coverage of the Columbia shuttle disaster and reported extensively on the Washington, D.C. sniper attacks. He has broken many important aviation stories, including the center fuel tank diagnosis as the likely cause of the crash of TWA flight 800. In all, Orr has covered more than a dozen major air accidents including American Airlines flight 587 in New York (2001), EgyptAir (1991) and USAir flight 427 near Pittsburgh (1994). His investigative reports on the Pittsburgh accident helped expose a design flaw in the rudder system of the Boeing 737, the world's most widely used airplane.

Orr is the recipient of three Emmy Awards: for his reports on the sniper attacks, the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 and the 1999 crash of Amtrak's "City of New Orleans" train near Chicago. He also received a Sigma Delta Chi Award for his reporting on the return of Elian Gonzales to Havana.

Orr joined CBS News in July 1993 as a general assignment correspondent in Washington.

Before that, he was a reporter and anchor for WBNS TV, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, Ohio (1978-85 and 1988-93). Orr distinguished himself as a reporter and later helped prison negotiators end the 1993 prison siege in Lucasville, Ohio. He also covered Hurricanes Andrew, Hugo and Gloria and reported on the nationwide coal strikes in 1981 and 1983, the baseball strike of 1994 and the DuPont Plaza Hotel fire in Puerto Rico, in addition to local, state and national politics. Orr worked as a reporter at WCAU TV (1985 88), the then-CBS Owned television station in Philadelphia. He began his career in broadcast journalism at WTRF TV Wheeling, W.V. as a reporter (1974-78).

In addition to his national Emmy Awards, Orr has received three regional Emmys for his reporting. He also contributed to numerous Associated Press Awards that WBNS TV received as Outstanding News Operation in Ohio.

Orr was born on October 21, 1953, in Wheeling, W.V. He was graduated cum laude from Bethany (W.V.) College in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications. Orr lives in Fairfax County, Va., with his wife, Susie. They have three daughters.

[Eye4News]

Hi, Mr. Orr:
I was rather appalled at the story you reported today about "illegal cigarette smuggling." Good grief. Isn't this a story about entrepreneurship? Buy low and sell high works on Wall Street. And certainly American business is not immune to avoiding paying taxes by off-shoring assets and jobs. So, why is it a crime for a black guy on I-95, punishable by two years in jail, while the white guys on Wall Street wrecked the economy and are at large? And once you buy something, isn't it YOURS to dispose of as you please? That's what the tycoons do, no matter who it hurts. You are looking for the wrong criminals. This kind of reporting and this selective enforcement of laws is all the explanation you should need about the OWS protests. People are sick of this injustice and skewed thinking. The economic model only works for the haves. The have-nots get stopped, frisked and carted away. It's a waste of law enforcement dollars. Just take a second and look at this from another perspective and the story will seem ironic at best. That is, unless your job is to prop up the status quo.

Best regards at catching the real criminals.
A thoughtful viewer.