I agree with this.

It is great to be back in the place with the second largest lemur population after Madagascar. Yes, I have returned to North Carolina.

I know I miss my children because the gate agent just called out rows 6 and 7 and I did the thing.

A reminder that in 2018 Elon Musk, when he was a mere babe in the billionaire woods, paid $0 federal income tax. Obviously that'll change as he goes from obscenely rich to unfathomably wealthy, right?

Heading back to NC a day early to avoid the flying mess. Was able to acquire Brooklyn and NYPL library cards but not Queens. Next time!!

Under Trump 2.0, three CFPB probes into Andreessen-backed companies have been halted, including inquiries into the popular cash advance app EarnIn and Point Digital Finance, a provider of so-called alternative mortgages.

It is my last day in New York City for a few months. I’m giving a presentation on data retention, deletion, and lifecycle management!

This is horrible news. Jessica was a wonderful collaborator and friend. mediaimpactfunders.org/remembering-...

First rule of NC journalism: Cook Out will never return your calls

I’m not as involved with @triangleblogblog.bsky.social as I used to be - but I think it’s one of the best examples of creating and spreading civic joy. A really fun model that can be replicated.

How NYC voted in Election 2025 — district by district, filter after filter. Check it out, check it out, check it out in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/04/e...

Looking forward to day 2 of the @propublica.org product gathering.

The biggest choice on today's ballots in PA is whether to retain 3 Democratic supreme court justices. The push to remake the court has been driven by billionaire Jeff Yass. In 2022, @propublica.org detailed how Yass had avoided paying $1B in taxes and funneled that money to right-wing causes:

Sad to be missing election night in Carrboro and Chapel Hill but exciting to be in NYC. (I’m watching NY1 in my hotel room.)

best election shirt!

Only contested election in my town.

IRS Direct File dies a sad, quick death after only a brief time among the living. Why? It's not because it's a bad idea or that it didn't work. It's because TurboTax's parent company spent decades trying to make sure they controlled the e-filing market:

Took an hour rambling walk, saw many people voting in the West Village at three different voting locations, and am now enjoying a roll and coffee. A great start to the day!

Had approximately one hour to walk around and was able to get both Brooklyn and Manhattan Public Library cards in that time. Thank you to the excellent librarians at the main branch in Brooklyn and the 3rd Avenue branch in Manhattan.

The Local Reporter has not yet publicly acknowledged that they received a monetary gift from CHALT's PAC; typically, non-profit newsrooms do not accept gifts from PACs.

If you see any business owners belittling SNAP recipients for accepting government money to get through tough times, maybe look them up on @propublica.org's PPP Loan Tracker to see if they got any of the $793B in bailout money (96% of which was forgiven) projects.propublica.org/coronavirus/...

my topic: unexpectedly delightful things I have found from the past decade living in north carolina.

watching baseball with my goofball

have promised that we can try to watch all of game 7 of the world series but I am not sure I can stay up for 9 innings and haven’t watched games 1-6 so we’re in for a fun night.

heading to nyc this week for work.

How did @propublica.org reporter @ericumansky.bsky.social learn that the Trump administration had just gone ahead and made it significantly harder for male vets with breast cancer to get coverage? This crucial info was not made public. Read his 🧵 for the details👇

What if we could work with our public libraries to create + sustain convivial infrastructures for local news, local 🎶, digital equity, and more? I wrote abt lots of communities that are doing this work, bldg networks of solidarity + resistance, modeling alternatives to extractive commercial systems.

my favorite part of halloween is the great sort and trade

carrboro’s blockbuster

the adults in this neighborhood are really enjoying this costume when they realize there’s a real pangram 🤣🤣

when your 6-year-old has a vision and your coworkers help make it come true.

Harvard Law Library has created a brilliant website for their Data.gov archive—there's a static S3-style data store, and the front-end is a DuckDB-Wasm in-browser database using HTTP range requests to retrieve the needed data. In short, there's...no website? Kind of?

So many revelations about NC's chief supreme court justice Paul Newby in this @propublica.org piece: how he is using his office as a Christian and Republican activist, and with what impact. Details and the stakes. www.propublica.org/article/paul...

Journalism tip: If someone says drop the story, that’s a sign to keep reporting. Back reporters who won’t flinch. Support our independent journalism ➜ propub.li/43MugoG

jeopardy fever has struck our elementary school. children are humming the theme song. i have to say: i sort of miss 6-7.

The results of our ranked-choice pet election are out. Walter, despite overwhelmingly leading in the first round, lost by a single vote in the fourth round. He will not be the Votebeat pet mascot, but despite his disappointment, he will not contest the results projects.votebeat.org/2025/how-ran...

here’s a mystery. how did what appears to be an actual photograph of george hw bush end up in our home office closet

Few people outside North Carolina have heard of Paul Newby, the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court. But Newby has had a huge impact on America and his state. He’s done this with the goal of delivering what he’s called “biblical justice, equal justice, for all.” THREAD 👇

This is a must-read piece for folks in North Carolina today.

If you had one night in Manhattan, one in Queens, and one in Brooklyn and your only goal was to visit a library branch to get your library card and have a decent dinner nearby, which branch and restaurant would you pair for each one?

Had a great chat with a former colleague this morning at Epilogue, which is such a wonderful bookstore / coffee shop / meeting space in Chapel Hill.

This makes me really sad. Robert was a great radio guy and a great Philadelphian.

working on really hard messy technical problems at work followed by coming downstairs and carving a pumpkin

One of my children rapidly changed his Halloween costume this morning from the New York Times spelling bee to a banana to a blueberry and back to the spelling bee, but with a different pangram (vampire).

My favorite part of this is that it’s in The Daily Tar Heel.

The best part of being married to someone who lives their life entirely offline: “So there’s this guy named Isaac who does interviews for the New Yorker…”

Working on tips continues to be hard and also a creative delight. (My colleague made this pumpkin.)

Are there any good full length albums that you recommend for working on a cold rainy day? I always listen to Neko Case but would be open to alternatives.

🎃

Like ghosts, we’re all about transparency. 👻 Got a tip for us? Contact our team safely on Signal at 917-512-0201. **We always show our work. Use our stencils to make your own pumpkin: propub.li/43AXneD