Anyone else travel with a wheelchair? I obviously need to memorize my chair's dimensons because they always ask on the airline. I can't just say "it's fit in the compartment the last 6 times I've flown" they have to know exact measurements. Sheesh.

After firing 90% of IES staff, the @usedgov.bsky.social has reopened the same roles. Source: "There are a lot of upset former staff talking about it. ... Those look like the same jobs" they were fired from.

Annunciation shooter appeared to have fascination with mass killings

"For 50 years, we’ve been mapping a timeline of progress of our high school system, and we’re going to have a big blank," @agamoran.bsky.social recently told @apmreports.org https://www.apmreports.org/story/2025/08/21/trump-cancels-survey-of-high-schoolers

NAEP is one of the few education initiatives Trump has vowed to preserve. But the administration has slashed staff responsible for keeping tests up to date. And the board overseeing the assessment has eliminated more than a dozen tests, citing “cost efficiencies.” www.apmreports.org/story/2025/0...

I've never been offered money (that I know of, I can be pretty dense sometimes) but one time a woman had her landscaper leave an unreasonable amount of luxury dark chocolate in the back seat of my old Ford Taurus

Multiple complaints from faculty, administration, staff and students. Why was nothing done again? apnews.com/article/kohb...

Nursing homes are designed to care for patients with physical infirmities. But nationwide, 1 in 5 residents has been diagnosed with a serious mental illness — conditions few of the facilities are equipped to handle. By @egawthrop.bsky.social: www.apmreports.org/story/2025/0...

Uber received a report of sexual assault or sexual misconduct in the United States almost every eight minutes on average between 2017 and 2022, sealed court records show, a level far more pervasive than what the company has disclosed. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/b...

New on #LabNotes www.apmresearchlab.org/blog/how-abn... by @craigstetter.bsky.social

Source: "I saw another snake in my garage and thought of you"

Happy #FOIAFriday and good morning. Let's talk about records and what they are called. By way of example, let's talk about the Epstein List. If you FOIA for "The Epstein List" I'd be surprised if you get a response, especially if government officials don't want you to have it. Why?

Wild Kingdom outside my home office

Here's @katereports.bsky.social on the impact of her reporting on Illinois hospitals. Full story: www.apmreports.org/story/2025/0...

I'm watching The Bear and btw, Carmy can't make a phone call from inside a Farraday cage. In this TED talk I will...

There's a scam going around claiming you have traffic tickets and asking you to pay the NCDMV to avoid consequences. Look closely at the URL. That's fake. Be careful out there.

Mark Hortman loved his kids, playing pool and being “arm candy” for his legislator wife. He was even making a dandelion-picking robot to help with her gardening. www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

Big, if true

My audio debut (embedded in this article) is worth a listen. Cheryl Thompson wasn't aware the state Senate had passed a law in part inspired by her horrible experience at a hospital after a man sexually assaulted her last year.

Lawmakers have strengthened Illinois’ longstanding sexual abuse survivors law in an effort to ensure patients receive critical care after sexual assault. Reporting by @katereports.bsky.social: www.apmreports.org/story/2025/0...

If you see someone you know is being harassed online, you should reach out. Otherwise, there’s a good chance they’ll know you saw the harassment and wonder if your silence is a sign that you support or agree with the harasser. This feels like it should be obvious! But most people choose silence.

If I die suddenly, I really want my family to just tell people how I died in the announcement. Don’t force people to spend 20 minutes googling.

Managers need to realize it is NEVER worth it to keep an abuser or a predator. It chases away more talent than you know. There is nobody so valuable that you have to put up with this kind of behavior and anyone who hid it who had power to stop it should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

NEW! Federal job watch: So far more of a "He-cession" than a "She-cession" Our analysis of BLS data shows a net loss of 15,000 federal jobs for men, compared to 2,000 for women www.apmresearchlab.org/federal-job-... by @egawthrop.bsky.social & @craigstetter.bsky.social

Hilariously, one year, the reporters at one of my workplaces got these incredibly cheap calculators for Christmas. They actually were wrong on many simple math equations.

I'm not interested in being surrounded by sycophantic AI "friends". This sounds disgusting.

We turned our most recent Sold a Story episodes into a one-hour program for @revealnews.org. You can hear it on public radio stations nationwide this weekend, and here: revealnews.org/podcast/read...

Not yet accidentally added to a classified signal chat, but still hoping my FOIAs get answered with that same energy.

Sold a Story has a new mini-series. We found a high-poverty school district where nearly every kid can read well. They’ve been teaching the same way for 25 years. But a new law, inspired by our reporting, put that at risk. All three podcast episodes are out now.

My @owasa-nc.bsky.social high water use notifications are basically when I'm doing laundry (I was out of town last week)

Everyone has to start somewhere. This was me more than 15 years ago. Anyone can become a data reporter with motivation to learn. More than 900 journalists are here in Minneapolis with @ire-nicar.bsky.social to become better journalists. Thank you for all you do #nicar25

Really crossing my fingers that Minnesota sushi wasn't a bad life choice.

If you missed Data Reporting for Smaller Teams, you can find our slides here: bit.ly/small-data-j Thank you to @justinmyers.net @junyao-yang.bsky.social and Cody Lilich for a great talk!

Come to Data Reporting for Small Newsrooms in Ballroom 2 at 11:30 am. #NICAR25. I guarantee you'll come away with a few tips on time and boss management. If you are on a small data team - or you ARE the data team - there is something for you.

Hello #nicar25! If you missed the beginner class on FOIA, great news! Have a look at our slideshow, which includes links to example records request letters, appeal letters and ways to organize your FOIA filings: bit.ly/beginner-foia Happy #FOIAFriday!

Every reader survey says readers want more feel-good stories, yet they click relentlessly on car crashes and disaster stories. They are way better read than most every feature story.

My @apmresearchlab.org, @apmreports.org & @mprnews.org colleagues and I are looking forward to welcoming/ meeting/ learning from all of you attending #NICAR25 later this week! (Don't worry: It may snow ❄️ Tues/Wed, but most of that should melt off on Thurs☀️)

I think of the sexual assault survivors in my life and all of them could've used more support than they got in their hour of need. Too many people didn't want to take sides.

Third graders in Steubenville, Ohio, are among the best little readers in the nation. For nearly 20 years, the elementary schools in this economically depressed area have produced better readers than some of the wealthiest places in the country. www.apmreports.org/story/2025/0...

A new episode of Sold a Story is available now. Episode 11: The Outlier There's a school district in eastern Ohio where virtually all students become good readers by the time they finish third grade. How did they do it? podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...

Tuesday morning at 9 on MPR News, we'll get an update on the powerful podcast "Sold a Story" and hear about the impact it's having nationally on how children are taught how to read. Reporters Emily Hanford and Christopher Peak join me. www.mprnews.org/episode/2025...

Just saw a post where someone said that use of em dashes (—) was a giveaway that you're using AI for writing. Uh, no. It could just mean you like to use em dashes.

There's a lot of 3D printers who are going to be really disappointed

“Ask a data journalist about the five things they're most proud of and I'll bet you one of them is something that resulted in a single paragraph done on deadline that made a story better.” www.ire.org/seven-reason... @mattwaite.bsky.social

It's our biggest data journalism event of the year! The 2025 NICAR Conference will feature hands-on classes on Datawrapper, OSINT, campaign finance data, web scraping and so much more. There are also beat-focused sessions and classes for beginners. See you in March! schedules.ire.org/nicar-2025/

Working hard on some deadlines coming up next month. I scheduled a car inspection and panicked briefly about the appointment confirmation that said "January 24." Because my brain thought it was already February. 🤦