Jan Vink

The request for states to produce new population estimates or lose FEMA $ makes, and I can't emphasize this enough, no sense.

US judge blocks Trump's demands for state data on food stamp recipients A U.S. judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from stripping 19 mostly Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C., of food stamp benefits funding unless the states hand over data on millions of people who receive them.

This is a critical victory in our efforts to protect the privacy of New Yorkers and ensure people can safely access the food assistance they need.

USDA is ending future Household Food Security Reports AND the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement–our most comprehensive source on food insecurity in the U.S. For approximately $1 million a year, it informs over $100 billion in nutrition programs. Cutting it means cutting evidence.

A little more on George Cook, another person who seem to wear many hats in this administration

Fall 2025 Meeting — Independent Census Scientific Advisory Committee (I-CSAC) Description

NEW: Members of the Census Bureau's scientific advisory committee that the Trump administration ended plan to meet on their own on Sept. 18 to discuss #2030Census privacy protections at their first public meeting as the newly formed Independent Census Scientific Advisory Committee

Federal data website outage raises concerns among advocates A federal website that informs the public about data collection has gone down, causing concern among advocates.

“The www.reginfo.gov/public/ website went offline at the end of last week and was partially restored this week. Data was missing after Aug. 1, according to dataindex.us, a collective of data scientists and advocates who monitor changes in federal data sets.”

apnews.com/article/cens...

Data System Changes and Challenges 2025 NOTES ABOUT THIS SLIDE DECK Please feel free to use information from these slides in your own presentations. Attribution to APDU is appreciated but not required. These slides are intended for an audie...

Want to talk with others about the challenges facing the Federal Statistical System and public data? @apduorg.bsky.social has created some useful slides!

#DataRescue #PublicData

docs.google.com/presentation...

Good questions, we deserve those answers. Is there any update?

Applied Demography Toolbox

Added a few items and made some updates to the Applied Demography Toolbox page:
https://applieddemogtoolbox.github.io/
#Demography #PopMastodon #AppliedDemogToolbox

Oops, talked too soon. The whole site is currently offline

We will have to keep an eye on Section 2 of the 14'th Amendment in the Congressional version of the Constitution. A "data error" might erase it next.

Somebody at Commerce will tell him that, wouldn't they?

US constitution

This is the US Constitution page @ the Library of Congress

Sections 9 and 10 have been removed

9 includes habeas corpus, the courts' review of unlawful detention & imprisonment

This gov't can't change the Constitution w/ sneaky editing, but it's a new low: constitution.congress.gov/constitution/

Quote from Erica Groshen, senior economics advisor at Cornell ILR School: “When a statistical agency revises its data, that is an indication it cares both about timeliness and about accuracy. It’s saying: ‘We’re going to get you something in a short period of time that we think contains valuable information using methods that are well-tested. However, it’s not going to be as good as the revised data we’ll have in a month or two.’ So revisions are not a bug, they are a feature of the program.”

@ericagroshen.bsky.social adds: "With regard to allegations of altering the data, the process is highly, highly choreographed, with tight deadlines. BLS does this every month, and everybody knows who needs to do what job on what day to get this out on time."

Statement from Friends of BLS on Commissioner McEntarfer’s Removal.

“This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system.”

www.friendsofbls.org/updates/2025...

Nice deprivation index dashboard for New York:
mypublicdashboard.ny.gov/t/OJRP_PUBLI...

The Bus Station That Didn’t Exist, and Other Data Epiphanies, Nightingale “Data is multidisciplinary” is my mantra—it’s 2025, and I’ve now worked 20 years in every possible flavour of data—data visualization, open...

📊 Journey through a gallery of "eureka moments" that expose the hidden complexities of data in government.

Giuseppe Sollazzo draws on two decades of experience to reveal why challenging assumptions and understanding context are paramount for effective data use.

nightingaledvs.com/bus-station-...

Question: This week BEA will release the "Personal Consumption Expenditures: Chain-type Price Index". Is that price index also getting less reliable for similar reasons?

I am confused: one moment the GOP want only residents in counts, the next moment they want to exclude only unlawful aliens. Besides both being unconstitutional, which is it?
Also: who is spending money to allow the Census to do the rendering? Will the Bureau get money to cover the additional work?

3 Months later, 1 report published, some pushed ahead another three months but I am very disappointed that the Census Bureau decided to withhold publication of numerous reports "While the Census Bureau conducted this assessment, it will not externally release the accompanying report. (June 2025)"

New York sues feds over Census, grant cuts New York State is taking the lead in another multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration

It has all the ingredients of a new movie "The Clause"

www.news10.com/news/ny-news...

So much still to do, so little time

I got my copy in the mail yesterday. I haven't read it all, but I can already highly recommend it.

NO KINGS NOW!!!
NO KINGS FOREVER!!!

Data About America’s Communities Are In Jeopardy, and Lives May Hang in the Balance, Nightingale Over the years, I’ve worked with counties across California focused on combating drug overdose in their communities.

"These data are not bound by political lines. They benefit Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike. People of all political persuasions can, and do, make use of the treasure trove of data that the U.S. government publishes"

HT Andy Krackov via @datavizsociety.bsky.social

It is not too early to get prepared for 2030!

I hope that the planning of the 2030 census operations will be funded and free of political interference

Want to trust federal statistics, like jobs & inflation? If so, you should object to a rule to make senior federal stats staff more like political appointees.
Find out more & how to comment on it here: (www.friendsofbls.org/updates/2025...).
Deadline: 5/23/25. Quantity matters, so repost.

Donald Trump’s Information Warfare Against America Federal data used to be economic jet fuel. Now much of it is either gone or weaponized.

Federal data is an invaluable national asset and economy driver. But for Trump & Co., it's "woke" and must disappear, or it's personal, private, and perfect for weaponization against people and groups they don't like. My latest at @thebulwark.com
www.thebulwark.com/p/donald-tru...

Bar chart showing 651 NSF-funded research projects, with total terminated days in dark grey or red, completed days in light grey or red. Red highlights projects listed by Ted Cruz as "neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda".

For #TidyTuesday this week, we're looking at data on terminations of NSF grants 📊

🎨 Using colour to highlight one category
📈 Transparency to highlight the important data
✍️ Annotations instead of a legend for transparency

#RStats #ggplot2 #DataViz