mike tigas

a few months ago, i saw a turtle in a nearby park. my husband wasn't with me to bear witness to said turtle but nonetheless joins me now in calling the park "turtle park." this to me is true love

Thursday, May 8, 2025 ProPublica management continues to deny steward representation Yesterday morning, ProPublica management confirmed that it will deny steward representation to at least two more bargaining unit members it plans to discipline next week through the issuance of Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs). This is part of a larger pattern: management has denied steward representation in every meeting where members were placed on PIPs. The plans are the first step in a disciplinary process that often leads to termination. We have raised this issue repeatedly. Last Thursday, more than 70% of our unit sent an open letter to ProPublica leadership, urging them to stop resisting core union protections including steward access, just cause and accountability in the disciplinary process. This week, managers informed two employees that they would be placed on PIPs in meetings next week. Shortly afterward, ProPublica’s general counsel told Guild leadership that stewards will not be allowed in those meetings. ProPublica’s disciplinary process remains opaque, inconsistently applied and shielded from scrutiny. Blocking stewards from these meetings is out of step with our industry and the principles of fairness and accountability the newsroom claims to uphold.

1/ 🚨 Yesterday, @propublica.org management confirmed that it will again deny steward representation at disciplinary meetings. Our full statement 👇

They’re abducting people for thought crimes and I’m getting my dead car on to the tow truck. They’re threatening to throw Americans in foreign death camps and I’m waiting for the plumber to fix the leaky hose bib.

This is what it’s like to live during the end times.

my hand holding a homemade yellow cup, filled with a latte

two pottery updates in one week, because desperate times call for more intentional joy: here's a latte that @mike.tig.as made this morning in my new favorite little cup

Back in 2017 @propublica.org rented a boat and snooped on wifi traffic at Mar-A-Lago www.propublica.org/article/any-...

I’ve been screaming for YEARS about not ever voluntarily giving your DNA to a database, and now 23andMe is going bankrupt so if you did this, you need to log in RIGHT NOW and delete your data, before the company declares bankruptcy! Your genetic records could end up in unknown hands. Do this NOW!!

Exclusive: Trump fires both Democratic commissioners at FTC, sources say President Donald Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, two sources familiar with the situation said, in another major test of the independence of regulatory agencies.

Just so we’re all clear, the Supreme Court *expressly ruled* that the president cannot fire FTC commissioners without cause in 1935’s Humphrey’s Executor. Trump’s action here is brazenly illegal under any interpretation of the law as it stands. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

FTC Removes Posts Critical of Amazon, Microsoft, and AI Companies Business-guidance content published during the Biden administration has been removed from the Federal Trade Commission website.

SCOOP: More than 300 FTC blogs published under FTC Chair Lina Khan disappeared this morning. They included posts critical of Amazon, Microsoft, and generative AI.

www.wired.com/story/federa...

Trump Fires Democrats on Federal Trade Commission The decision to fire the two Democratic members of the traditionally independent regulatory body is likely to face a legal challenge.

Trump fires Democrat FTC Commissioners— Alvaro Bedoya & Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. The FTC is the federal agency in charge of consumer protection and closest thing U.S. has to a privacy protection agency. There are usually 5 commissioners, 2 from opposing party: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/t...

A time capsule for 314 Day: St. Louis-area BBS message networks - Break Into Chat For many years, St. Louisans have been celebrating March 13 as “314 Day,” since our telephone area code was “314.” And for old-school BBSers, that has even more resonance. When I began BBSing in the e...

For St. Louisans, March 14 will be #314Day! ⚜️ ☎️ 🎉

So I'm sharing a tiny (and very specific) tech time capsule — a collection of textfiles related to St. Louis #BBS networks!

breakintochat.com/blog/2025/03...

#retrocomputing #stl #stlouis

a bad tuxedo cat leaning over a plate and attempting to grab a pepperoni from a pizza

#NICAR25 was amazing, but it’s good to be home

BEHIND-THIS-WEBSITE-NICAR25 Who’s Behind This Website? Priyanjana Bengani Data Reporter Bloomberg Bluesky: @acookiecrumbles.bsky.social Mastodon: @acookiecrumbles@indieweb.social Jon Keegan Tech reporter / Data journalist Sherwo...

Here are the slides for our talk “Who’s Behind This Website?” that @acookiecrumbles.bsky.social and I just gave at #NICAR25.

Slides: bit.ly/nicar25-behi...
Repo with cheatsheet: github.com/jonkeegan/be...

And here’s experimental “NICAR Website Sleuth” GPT that can help you: bit.ly/nicar-sleuth...

To journalists out there: how well does Signal work as a way to accept tips securely?

oh heck yeah, someone made a custom bsky feed for #NICAR #NICAR25 — bsky.app/profile/did:... (kudos to @loganfinney.com!)

Technical Tech Regulators - IRE/NICAR Slides Technical tech regulators Link to these slides https://bit.ly/nicar25-tech-regulators

This is the link to the #NICAR25 Tech Regulators session slide deck btw: bit.ly/nicar25-tech...

Technical Tech Regulators - IRE/NICAR Slides Technical tech regulators Link to these slides https://bit.ly/nicar25-tech-regulators

This is the link to the #NICAR25 Tech Regulators session slide deck btw: bit.ly/nicar25-tech...

Screenshot of a conference program app, showing a session’s info. Technical tech regulators: The data we use to regulate the most powerful companies in the world Thursday, Mar 6, 2025 10:15-11:15 Portage Ballroom 3, 4th fl

news nerd friends, i’m at #NICAR25 — come say hi! and in classic fashion, i’m a last-minute add to a session:

if only this had been a finalist bsky.app/profile/arle...

The FTC is being hit by terminations At least a dozen staffers were cut, The Verge has learned.

The FTC is being hit by terminations

"Mark Cuban offers to help outsource what should be a core government competency" is also in its own way one of the funniest things

Sheet music for song called She Knows Her Onions. The illustration shows a woman dressed as a flapper being ogled by an old man.

People don’t write songs praising a person’s onion knowledge like they used to.

Journalism teachers, did you know the Freedom of the Press Foundation has a FREE digital security curriculum for J students? Get it get it get it. J Students, if your teachers won’t get it, self-organize and teach it to each other. freedom.press/digisec/g…

arewedoomedyet.org nice

In 3 days, ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories [ @romchip.bsky.social ] is gonna try and raise $7K-11K w/ a 12-hour Twitch fundraiser.

I'm the Managing Editor of this journal, and one of its cofounders. Here's a 🧵 on why ROMchip matters, what it stands for, & how u can help.
donate.romchip.org

A lot of my big wins in government have been in cost avoidance. I stop agencies from spending $100 million to get them better results for $10 million. But *you can’t document cost avoidance*. That’s not a story that government can or will tell.

Anyway, read this thread.

thread! I think about this a lot - not as a journalist, but as a civic technologist trying to demonstrate the value of good systems.

I happen to think government value is at least as important as government waste, & government resiliency is MORE important than efficiency

but refined metrics...

Beaker as Elizabeth Holmes on the cover of Forbes magazine.

beaker on magazine covers: thread

+1 it’s such a fun ride clicking through it

lololol

Dismissed Nuclear Bomb Specialists Recalled by Energy Department The Energy Department is seeking to bring back nuclear energy specialists after abruptly telling hundreds of workers that their jobs were eliminated, according to two people familiar with the matter.

New: The Energy Department is seeking to bring back nuclear energy specialists after abruptly telling hundreds of workers that their jobs were eliminated, according to two people familiar with the matter