Brooke Williams

Boston wants more trees. Hyde Park and East Boston offer two windows into the future. While one of its most racially diverse neighborhoods is still struggling, another is a success story. Local nonprofits are part of that.

Congratulations to @comatbu.bsky.social grad student @abigail-pritchard.bsky.social on this important data examination of how Boston neighborhoods are experiencing different urban forest futures. Thank you to @singernews.bsky.social for supporting student journalism!

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

I'm annoyed that our student news organizations haven't unearthed the exact number of UMD students who have had their visas revoked, but I'm more mad that our administration won't publicly announce the number.

Japanese American National Museum takes a stand against DOGE cuts to NEH The National Endowment for the Humanities warned museums across the country that it was slashing funding, including money previously pledged to places such as LACMA and the Japanese American National ...

Can we get more of this? “The Japanese American National Museum will ‘scrub nothing,’ Fujioka said, and instead will highlight the importance of DEI.

“Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka said.

“I never see you at the club.”

I never see you at the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement online FOIA reading room.

We are in a very dark place as the Trump administration targets the First Amendment My ethics and diversity class on Wednesday was devoted to a brief overview of First Amendment law. The class comprises nine graduate students and advanced undergrads, and they have shown throughout…

New at Media Nation. We are in a very dark place as the Trump administration targets the First Amendment. dankennedy.net/2025/03/27/w...

DOGE/Musk preferentially cancelled grants and contracts to recipients in counties that voted for Harris in 2024.

Among cancellations with election data available, 92.9% and 86.1% cancelled grants and contracts went to Harris counties, representing 96.6% and 92.4% of total dollar amounts.

I'm giving a talk on mis/disinformation and the idea of the "post-truth society", in conjunction with a screening of "Don't Look Up" at Amherst Cinema, April 1st, as part of "Science on the Screen". Come join us! amherstcinema.org/series/scien...

ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests Mahmoud Khalil was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into custody.

Mahmoud Khalil was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into custody.

Another great #NICAR25 in the books! Thanks to the @ire-nicar.bsky.social staff and local committee for putting together a fantastic program. URLs for my sessions:

github.com/dwillis/nica...
github.com/dwillis/nica...
github.com/dwillis/nica...

I love how #nicar25 gives data journalists a chance to show off their custom made internal dashboards/apps/explorers they used for their investigations

On the left: A NICAR25 logo with the following text: Do you really need a map? How to make the most of your data viz. Friday, March 7 2:15 p.m. On the right: Three circular headshots with names and organizations: Emily Hopkins, Mirror Indy; Emilia Ruzicka, University of Virginia; Jake Steinberg, Minnesota Star Tribune.

Good morning #NICAR25! Join us for a discussion about how to think about data viz while keeping it accessible. I’ll be joined by the lovely @jakesteinberg.com and @emiliaruzicka.bsky.social

My annual reminder that I have free online Python resources for my students — that anyone can use. #NICAR25 -
python-adv-web-apps.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

For the folks at #NICAR25, find me at the conference to talk more about our open positions at McClatchy, including one on my journalism AI team.

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

Good morning! I'm excited to be in Minneapolis for @ire-nicar.bsky.social #NICAR25! Come say hi!

And if you’re ready to take your spreadsheet game up a notch, I’ll be teaching filtering and pivot tables in Google Sheets at 11:30 today. I promise it’ll be fun!

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

#NICAR25 is gonna have some weird carveouts at sessions relying on government data. We should keep photos of all the slides that say "This data is no longer available but here's where find alternatives."

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

I'm going to be BUSY during #NICAR25, with lots of speaking and teaching.
9am Thurs... kickoff to a series of "Beginner Track" sessions; for anyone new to data or investigative journalism. @jayohday.bsky.social, Joel Jacobs & Anu Narayanswamy.
schedules.ire.org/nicar-2025/i...

a man and a woman are sitting in front of a map of the world talking about something . ALT: a man and a woman are sitting in front of a map of the world talking about something .

Two data journos who are killing it and #NICAR25 hasn't even started yet!🤠⚡

Check out @silviacanelon.com's interactive calendar:
tiny.cc/nicar-2025
(export as an .ics file!)

& @smachlis.bsky.social's interactive Bluesky app:

apps.machlis.com/shiny/nicar25/
(see top posts! filter by author!)

IRE is celebrating its 50th birthday and you’re invited to the party! - Investigative Reporters & Editors Fifty years of IRE. This milestone is special. To celebrate this historic anniversary, check out the events coming up in 2025.

IRE was founded Feb. 22, 1975 in Reston, Virginia — exactly 50 years ago today!

This milestone is special. It means that for half a century, our members have stayed true to the belief that journalism can help us all live in a better, more informed world. www.ire.org/ire-50th-news/

Dave Portnoy Got Special Treatment in LIBRA Collapse Over Barstool Token Plans Barstool founder Dave Portnoy's $5M LIBRA loss sparked controversy, with new claims linking him to a secret token deal.

I REALLY want to hire a researcher to do a deep dive on the rise of political meme coins.

Very interesting turn of events in Argentina, where a rug pull of a ‘seemingly state sponsored’ coin, netted 100m in profit, and a $6m refund to Dave Portnoy.

www.ccn.com/news/crypto/...

Fieldnotes is Hiring Fieldnotes is a watchdog group that investigates the oil and gas industry.

@fieldnotes.co is hiring!

Want to expose the (many) misdeeds of the oil & gas industry? Come join our team!

Researcher: full-time
Research Fellow: full-time, 18-month term, designed for early career folks

My DMs are open if you have any questions!

thank you!

Important and appropriate A1 play in the NYT print paper today for the story Kirsten Grind and I did on the 11 federal agencies that had targeted Musk companies for investigations/lawsuit that have now been disrupted in a way that benefits Musk. A free link as well.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/u...

Aaron Swartz, patron saint of the open-access internet, gets immortalized in SF Hundreds gathered at the Internet Archive for the unveiling of a statue honoring the late programmer, who's been embraced as a tech hero.

On Aaron Swartz: “He stood for freedom of access to information, especially for scientific research — things the public had already paid for.” - Lisa Rein, co-founder of @creativecommons.bsky.social

sfstandard.com/2025/02/08/a...

A little bird told us it was Superb Owl Day!

Here are some Superb Owls for you: bit.ly/4gBB3oV

50 Ways to Celebrate Student Press Freedom Day - Student Press Freedom Day There are many ways — big and small — to celebrate Student Press Freedom Day, whether you’re a student, educator, professional journalist or supporter. So, in honor of the Student Press Law Center’s…

#StudentPressFreedom Day is Feb. 27! There are many ways to celebrate student journalists and protect their First Amendment rights — check out this list of ideas from @SPLC.org to learn how you can get involved.

Day two of the USC Annenberg OSINT conf. Starting with Lawrence Abu Hamdan of Earshot talking about open source reporting using audio

Just spoke at the USC inaugural Open Source Journalism Conference about the investigation into the Berlin bicycle assassin - and now there's a whole video that explains how the investigation was done. Check it out: youtu.be/Kl9aaCDSOzs

Whitehouse.gov captures from: 2008 Sept. 15; 2013 Mar. 21; 2017 Feb. 3; and 2021 Feb. 25

Every 4 years, a team of libraries & research organizations work together to preserve material from U.S. government websites during the transition of administrations. 🗳️

Get the latest on the 2024/2025 End of Term Web Archive @eotarchive.org ➡️ blog.archive.org/2025/02/06/u...

'It's a bad deal': Union president warns federal workers against accepting offer The offer to federal workers to resign and keep pay and benefits is a "scam," says Randy Erwin of the National Federation of Federal Employees. He warns the public will feel federal workforce cuts.

The offer to federal workers to resign and keep pay and benefits is a "scam," says Randy Erwin of the National Federation of Federal Employees.