Hey! Some bittersweet news from me: yesterday was my last day at the @texastribune.org after almost six years of doing some of the best journalism of my career.

It's been more than 3 months since the Central Texas floods, and the application window for FEMA aid has closed. So @carla-astudi.bsky.social and I looked at where things stand. We found about one-fifth of FEMA applications from Kerr County have been approved so far.

Just how catastrophic was the scope, scale and intensity of the Central Texas floods? The @texastribune.org team have put together graphics explaining. Visuals by me, Chris Essig and Edison Wu. www.texastribune.org/2025/07/09/h...

NEW: Sec. Noem has now admits "last mile" disaster communications weren't up to par in the Texas catastrophe. But while bodies were still being recovered on Tuesday DHS canceled a $3 million grant focused on improving precisely those kinds of "last mile" comms. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dhs-c...

With the House bill now passed, I wanted to re-up two important stories: The bill benefits the rich, and inflicts deepest harm on the poorest Americans, data show www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/b... The deep federal aid cuts will not arrive immediately. A timeline: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/u...

NEW: Kristi Noem secretly took a cut of political donations and then failed to disclose it www.propublica.org/article/kris... w/ @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social

Now that the 2025 #txlege is over, are you wondering how your legislators voted on key bills? I got ya covered! I built a nifty little lookup tool to help you do just that for the @texastribune.org Link: www.texastribune.org/2025/06/13/t...

Desalination can create millions of gallons of fresh water a day. Texas lawmakers are betting on this solution to solve the state’s water crisis. But it is expensive and there are environmental concerns. For @texastribune.org graphics: @carla-astudi.bsky.social www.texastribune.org/2025/04/11/e...

At #NICAR25 the CFPB’s Chief Technologist @erie.bsky.social says the agency is still here and can only be ended by an act of Congress, despite her team being recently fired. The DOGE team has “god mode” access to all CFPB complaint data. “It's a 5 alarm fire for me that they have this data.”

Tip for @ire-nicar.bsky.social #nicar25 newcomers: Go to any session by Paul Overberg. It's always a master class. He began his hands-on workshop on CDC deaths data with an overview of record-keeping in the American colonies before the Declaration of Independence.

How we did it: Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did

Texas banned abortion. Then sepsis rates soared. www.propublica.org/article/texa...

🧵 THREAD: In the second Trump administration, we’re devoting a significant part of our staff to detailing dramatic changes in the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans. Here are some of the issues we’re watching — and how you can inform our work.

New: @propublica.org is tracking who's in Musk's DOGE crew. 20+ names so far including some that haven't yet been reported.

Texas school district warns Border Patrol may board buses and question students about citizenship www.texastribune.org/2025/02/05/a...

Texas colleges would be required to submit compliance reports and they don’t fix a violation within 180 days, they would be ineligible for future funding increases. via @jessicapriest.bsky.social @snehadey.bsky.social

this piece also never truly makes the case as to why the Star-Ledger was great in its heyday other than high circulation and staffing numbers + namedropping some reporters. Why were they so great? What stories did they publish? Why waste half the article ranting about how much the SL sucks now?

They went out to buy baby formula and were pulled over for a traffic stop. The man in the process of getting a green card is now facing deportation. He has no criminal record. His wife is an American citizen and they have 3 kids. via @serranoalej.bsky.social www.texastribune.org/2025/01/29/t...

One overlooked part of RFK Jr’s bid to be HHS secretary — what would he do with the agency’s *Human* services? RFK Jr derided Trump’s first immigration policy as cruel. But as a presidential candidate, he embraced some of Trump’s border ideas. And if confirmed, RFK Jr could help implement them.

a word of caution: there are a ton of reports flying around right now about which programs have been immediately cut off from federal funding because of trump's freeze. much of it seems unconfirmed at this point, so be discerning in what you share.

please for the love of all that is true on earth, do not share the list compiled via chatgpt of all discretionary programs as if it is what the administration is actually covering. the poster is not a journalist and has not fact-checked her work.

Some thought Texas AG Ken Paxton might be a candidate for Trump’s new attorney general. He didn’t get the job. But there’s a significant way Paxton could benefit from the new administration & his longtime ally. My latest for @propublica.org & @texastribune.org www.propublica.org/article/trum...

In addition, we have a BRAND NEW feature where you can search for your address and find out who is your Texas representative and how they voted for. Hopefully, we will be using a similar feature for important Texas Legislature votes in the future.

Lawmakers have voted for the next Texas House speaker (in only two rounds) and we have a total vote breakdown of the final tally as well as a searchable list of how each lawmaker voted. www.texastribune.org/2025/01/14/t...

Also s/o to our photo team for showing the random gaps in the border walls were people could just... walk around...

The 3D map visuals in this @texastribune.org Texas border wall investigation are dope! s/o to our talented data visuals developer Yuriko Schumacher (who is not on Bsky) apps.texastribune.org/features/202...

I lit a chart on fire www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...

"The Marshall Project and Los Angeles Times have identified more than 30 lawsuits regarding sleep deprivation behind bars." Important story from @keribla.bsky.social and @shannonheffernan.bsky.social:

It should be said that @anniewaldman.bsky.social asked UnitedHealthcare for comment over a month ago. Asked again 11 days ago, a spokesperson for the company said “we are in mourning” and that they could not engage with a “non-urgent story during this incredibly difficult moment in time.”

Check out everything @davidmcswane.bsky.social did to report this story for @propublica.org: www.propublica.org/article/thom...

This is a masterpiece of both investigative reporting and narrative storytelling. Please take the time to read this haunting piece and to marvel at what @davidmcswane.bsky.social has uncovered. I'll be thinking about this story for a long, long time: www.propublica.org/article/thom...

Wild stuff going on in Texas right now. Amid an incredibly contentious Republican fight for Speaker of the House, the Texas GOP has passed a resolution vowing to censure anyone who doesn’t vote for party leaders’ preferred candidate — which will bar any censured lawmaker from running in primaries.

A really smart story from @serranoalej.bsky.social: A 2006 study found undocumented immigrants contributed more to Texas than they cost the state. The state hasn’t updated the analysis since. www.texastribune.org/2024/12/06/t...

“Why are the Republicans fighting” seems like it will be recurring motif this upcoming Texas legislative session.

Elon Musk was the the secretive megadonor backing RBG PAC, a trollish anti-abortion group which claimed Trump and Ruth Bader Ginsburg shared the same views on abortion. The PAC spent $20 million in less than two months. @andrewperez.bsky.social with the news www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Can you copy the vibe of a story about a case of a creator copying the vibe of someone else?

More Tribune staffers are joining Bluesky. Follow our starter pack here 👇

The Texas House Speaker race, usually a humdrum affair, is a two-man race that will heavily influence the 2025 Texas legislative session & what laws will pass (& won’t pass) next year. www.texastribune.org/2024/11/27/d... But who IS the challenger David Cook? via @texastribune.org politics team.

The kids aren’t enrolled in local public schools, so the nonprofit @thesidewalkschool.bsky.social—founded in 2019—teaches them reading, math, and art in addition to bringing food and coordinating medical services.

what an amazing piece. excellently written, walking a careful line between how batshit the actual situation is and what it reveals about the current techno-legal landscape

wait, Drake filed in Texas?!

Texas Land Commissioner announces state will offer more land in the Rio Grande Valley to stage mass deportations, @beregarcia.bsky.social reports. www.texastribune.org/2024/11/26/t...

This is very cool 📊 vis.csh.ac.at/notmyname/

In 11 Texas cities, detached single-family homes are allowed nearly anywhere homes can go, @carla-astudi.bsky.social & I found. Denser, cheaper housing like townhomes, duplexes & apartments aren't as welcome — if they're even allowed apps.texastribune.org/features/202... @texastribune.org #txlege

I’m sorry WUT www.expressnews.com/politics/art...

Here's a behind-the-scenes of how the idea for this story came to be: bigcharts.substack.com/p/behind-the...

🧵🧵 While everyone was understandably focused on national politics, something happened in Texas this week that has received far less attention than it deserves, given its potential consequences. And I'd guess even very plugged-in folks dont realize the full scope. Let me explain (at length):

The US workforce can be divided into “sitters” (like programmers and lawyers) and “standers” (like servers and construction workers). In our newest piece, @alv9n.com looks at what we can learn from this labor split. 💻: pudding.cool/2024/11/sitt... 📺: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE_E...