Ryan Little

So proud of the team @thebaltimorebanner.com for their work covering the bridge's collapse!

Super proud of the @thebaltimorebanner.com newsroom for winning an IRE award for our Key Bridge collapse coverage. At the time, we didn't even have a live blog, but we did have great journalists who know this community and what the bridge meant to it.

Prince George's County was 80% white when the federal workforce was integrated. Today, PG and Charles County are America's most affluent majority-Black counties with~20% of Black workers there being federal employees.

Trump's cuts now threaten generations of progress.

story👇🏾

Families of Key Bridge victims shut out of $16M relief fund A community foundation raised money for the Maryland Tough, Baltimore Strong fund under the explicit premise that Key Bridge victims’ families would see some of it.

New: Named after a turn of phrase from the governor, the Maryland Tough, Baltimore Strong Key Bridge Relief Fund raised $16 million. None of it went to help the victims’ families despite the Baltimore Community Foundation initially saying it would.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

My first deep dive story for NYT: Are You Smarter Than A.I.?

Some experts predict that A.I. will surpass human intelligence within the next few years. Play this puzzle to see how far the machines have to go. 🟦🟩🟪

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Transit nightmare: Thousands of Baltimore kids can’t get to school on time Unreliable public transportation turns school choice into a false promise.

Why are Baltimore students underperforming on the math test? One major reason is it’s impossible to get to school on time every day www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

NTSB urges Chesapeake Bay Bridge should be assessed for ship strike The Francis Scott Key Bridge was 30 times more susceptible to ship strike than it should have been, a federal official said Thursday.

The Key Bridge was 30 times more susceptible to ship strike than it should have been, the NTSB said Thursday, and the risk of a similar disaster at the Bay Bridge is still unknown because it has never been studied.

w/ @jasminevaughnhall.bsky.social www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/tr...

NTSB slams MDTA: "The Maryland Transportation Authority never ran the calculation on the Key Bridge, and as of October 2024, they still haven’t on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge."

Baltimore gained population for the first time in a decade, new data shows Baltimore City gained population for the first time since 2014, census data released Thursday shows.

Baltimore's 10-year population loss streak is over, according to Census data.

The city grew (veeeery slightly) for the first time since 2014.

@abbyzimmardi.bsky.social & I spoke to experts about what this means for the city, its residents and its future.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/baltimore/ba...

Baltimore City Council members press for solutions to student transit nightmare Baltimore City Council members pressed officials in the school district and the Maryland Transit Administration to find solutions to improve mass transit students.

Reporting by @lizbowie.bsky.social & I was cited yesterday in a Baltimore City Council hearing on the root causes of chronic absenteeism.

Proud that we were able to shed some light on a challenge that thousands of students.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

Baltimore City Council is ready to talk about kids’ struggles to get to school A Thursday hearing will be the first time public officials discuss transit’s impact on students since a Banner investigation found it’s nearly impossible for them to get to school on time every day.

Baltimore City Council is ready to talk about kids’ struggles to get to school

Read it in @thebaltimorebanner.com

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

NICAR 2025 schedule | March 6-9, 2025 | Minneapolis Welcome to the #NICAR25 conference schedule!

On Friday morning at #NICAR25, @thetrace.org will be previewing our brand new Gun Violence Data Hub — the project I've been working on for the last several months.

Come check out our session! Very excited for this one.

schedules.ire.org/nicar-2025/i...

We just fixed a bug that prevented some schools from showing up, including City College.

What Baltimore school is best for you? Compare routes using this tool. Use this tool to compare routes from your neighborhood to any Baltimore public school.

The problem is exacerbated by the city's school choice program. Baltimore doesn't have neighborhood schools. Any student can go to almost any school. Our package includes a tool for students and their parents to compare routes to schools near and far. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

Excited to share @thebaltimorebanner.com Data Team's most ambitious project yet. For months, @invisibae.bsky.social logged live bus data every 5 seconds, parsing millions of rows to map every school route and gauge their reliability. The result? Our most interactive experience ever.

Come see me at NICAR: I'm doing a session about Data Viz with Illustrator and another about using the DataWrapper API in R. And, friends, let's grab coffee! @ire-nicar.bsky.social

Transit nightmare: Thousands of Baltimore kids can’t get to school on time Unreliable public transportation turns school choice into a false promise.

NEW INVESTIGATION 🚍:

Baltimore City is the only district in the state that doesn't offer most students a yellow bus ride after elementary school.

When that policy collided with school choice, it turned getting to class on time into a nightmare.

Read ⬇️

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

Mysterious Zizian leader Jack LaSota arrested in Western Maryland Jack ‘Ziz’ LaSota, the apparent leader of the Zizians, a cult-like group tied to at least six deaths, was arrested Sunday evening in western Maryland.

Sometimes it feels like all roads eventually lead to Maryland: Mysterious leader of the violent Zizian group arrested in Western Maryland, @leeosanderlin.bsky.social reports. The cultlike group has been tied to several killings across the country. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

The Banner wins Polk Award for coverage of Baltimore’s overdose crisis Baltimore Banner reporters Alissa Zhu, Jessica Gallagher and Nick Thieme have won the organization’s first George Polk Award for their local investigative work.

It is an extraordinary honor to receive a George Polk Award in Local Reporting for our coverage of Baltimore's overdose crisis, published by @thebaltimorebanner.com and @nytimes.com Local Investigations Fellowship.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

If you're not aware of the Baltimore Banner you absolutely should be: a brand new (founded in 2022) nonprofit news org that already has 100+ staff and (I believe) a sustainable business model! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bal...

Nick's work became a national partnership including The New York Times' The Upshot, Stanford's @biglocalnews.bsky.social and nine local newsrooms across the country. Other newsrooms can take part by accessing the the national data in the Stanford Digital Repository. purl.stanford.edu/cx567kr8730

The Banner wins Polk Award for coverage of Baltimore’s overdose crisis Baltimore Banner reporters Alissa Zhu, Jessica Gallagher and Nick Thieme have won the organization’s first George Polk Award for their local investigative work.

Congratulations to @alissazhu.bsky.social, @jessicagallagher.bsky.social and Nick Thieme for winning a Polk for their reporting on Baltimore's overdose crisis. Nick's data reporting creating a one-of-a-kind dataset was incredible. Go Banner Data Team! www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

Why one generation of Indy Black men have been dying of overdoses for decades, and how survivors are fighting to help In Indy, survivors are fighting to help the next generation.

In Indianapolis, Black men said they were reluctant to use public health solutions like syringe exchanges or fentanyl test strips because of a fear of harassment by police, Mirror Indy found.
mirrorindy.org/indianapolis...

Milwaukee is losing a generation of Black men to drug crisis Older Black men account for a growing share of Milwaukee drug deaths as fentanyl creeps into cocaine supplies, catching a generation unaware.

In Milwaukee, half of older Black men lost to drugs spent time in state prison. Wisconsin is trying to increase access to a Department of Corrections treatment program, which has a waitlist of 11,700, @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social found. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/drug...

‘A forgotten generation’: Older Black men in Boston are dying of drug overdoses at alarming rates - The Boston Globe A new analysis shows that Black men 55 and older are now hardest hit by the opioid epidemic.

In Boston, where this generational disparity is a more recent phenomenon, older Black men feel less welcome in treatment programs, @bostonglobe.com found.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/30/m...

Three more partners published their stories on this one generation of Black men plagued by overdose deaths: @bostonglobe.com, @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social and Mirror Indy. This is a trend @thebaltimorebanner.com found in Baltimore first, then elsewhere. Threading stories...

Let's face it, QGIS is the Excel of geospatial analysis...

Ravens' Justin Tucker accused of inappropriate behavior by six massage therapists Women say Justin Tucker repeatedly exposed his genitals and, in three instances, apparently left ejaculate on tables after massages.

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker's behavior was so egregious, two massage therapists say they ended his sessions early. Two spas say they banned him. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/raven...

Special shoutout to @cephillips.bsky.social and Justin Mayo of @biglocalnews.bsky.social. This project wouldn't have been possible without their expertise running collaborations like this.

Three more local partners will publish local stories in January: @bostonglobe.com, Mirror Indy and @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social.