Ted Gest covered the White House, Justice Department, Supreme Court and legal/justice news during a 23-year career at U.S. News & World Report. Gest's book on criminal justice policy, "Crime and Politics," was published in the summer of 2001 by Oxford University Press.

A native of St. Louis, Gest began his career there at the Post-Dispatch. He has been cited by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and he won an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award.

In 1997, he co-founded Criminal Justice Journalists, which he has headed ever since. In March 2003, he was named coordinator of the Council of Presidents of National Journalism Organizations. He is based in Washington, D.C.