Jim Burress

Investigative Reporter

WABE reporter Burress is a proud native of Louisville, Kentucky (and an officially-commissioned Kentucky Colonel). He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Wabash College in Indiana, and a master’s in Mass Communication from Murray State University in Kentucky. That's where Jim started his public radio career (WKMS-FM).

Jim moved to Atlanta to work on his PhD, but after a year away from reporting, he realized he preferred the newsroom to the classroom. He came to WABE in the spring of 2008 when there were just six people in the entire newsroom.

As a licensed pilot, Jim is fascinated by airplanes and aviation, which is why you’ll often hear him report on the commercial aviation industry.

In 2014, Jim wrote and produced WABE's first news documentary in more than a decade, "Stuck in the Bluff." He also traveled to Liberia to document the West African country's efforts to rebuild post civil-war, and happened to be at the same hospital, the same week, where the massive Ebola outbreak started.

Jim is a frequent contributor to the national show Marketplace, and his reports regularly air nationally on NPR's Morning Edition, and All Things Considered.

Jim has won numerous professional awards, including 1st place honors from both the Kentucky and Georgia Associated Press, top honors for "best radio documentary" and "best in class-radio" in the Society of Professional Journalists' Green Eyeshade Awards, and several regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. In 2010, the Atlanta Press Club awarded Jim its radio “Award of Excellence” for his reporting on unlawful practices within the Atlanta Police Department, and again in 2012 for a joint project looking at special needs students attending Clayton County schools. The NLGJA -- The Association of LGBTQ Journalists -- awarded Jim the 2016 Al Nueharth Award for Innovation in Investigative Journalism for his series of stories uncovering problems within the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness. Jim uncovered that top health officials failed to spend millions of dollars in federal funds earmarked for HIV prevention, forcing them to return the money. Top Fulton County officials credit his reporting as being a catalyst for sweeping change.

But Jim's biggest prize came in 2001 when he won it all on the game show, "The Price is Right."

Ways to Connect

Experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci And Murray Penner, On Ending HIV

By Jim Burress • Jul 6, 2017

Charles Sykes / AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Undetectable equals untransmittable. It's a short phrase that HIV researchers and prevention experts believe represents one of the biggest steps we've ever seen toward eradicating HIV.

The scientific consensus behind “U=U” means people living with HIV who respond to antiretroviral medication and achieve an "undetectable" status do not sexually transmit the virus.*

Duluth-Based AGCO Uses Google Glass To Build Farm Tractors

By Tasnim Shamma & Jim Burress • Jan 26, 2017

A factory worker in Jackson, Minnesota uses Google Glass to help her on the assembly line. — Courtesy of AGCO

Google Glass didn’t do so well when it first launched, and is no longer in production for consumers, but the high-tech glasses are getting a second life in manufacturing.

One of the pioneers of this technology is an agricultural manufacturing company based in Duluth, Georgia called AGCO.

Minnesota Plant

At one of AGCO’s factories in Jackson, Minnesota, Heather Erickson is building an engine before it goes on to the assembly line.

Closer Look: APD Millennial Academy; Trachoma; And More

By Jim Burress • Dec 22, 2016

Thursday's ''Closer Look'' profiles the Atlanta Police Department’s ''Millennial Leaders Citizen Police Academy.'' — Eboni Lemon / WABE

Thursday on "Closer Look with Rose Scott and Jim Burress":

College Park Sees Airport Noise Vote As National Catalyst

By Jim Burress • Oct 26, 2016

When College Park residents go to the polls on Election Day, they'll see an unusual question on the ballot. The non-binding resolution asks whether city officials should urge Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration to reassess how they assess noise levels around Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Georgia Democratic Roundtable: 'There Is An Urgency'

By Jim Burress • Jul 27, 2016

In advance of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, "Closer Look" invited three local Democratic leaders – each of different backgrounds – to sit down and assess their party.

The panel included former U.S. Rep. John Barrow, who's a Hillary Clinton delegate at the DNC; Gigi Pedraza, co-founder of the social venture YoSoyM; and Khalid Kamau, an organizer with ATL is Ready, as well as a Bernie Sanders delegate.

While the three agreed on several points, there was a split when it came to issues of free higher education, gun control and immigration.