@dwillis
I teach data journalism at the University of Maryland, run OpenElections. Fan of WBB & test cricket. Posting obscure things about campaign finance, Congress & elections. https://github.com/dwillis https://thescoop.org
It's Election Night, and we're tracking hundreds of races across the country. Follow all along with tonight's results on DDHQ Votes.
votes.decisiondeskhq.com/races/242548
I remember being legitimately surprised by the grifting for federal money during COVID (www.propublica.org/article/a-cl...) but now I know those techniques weren't *efficient enough* compared to actually just turning the agencies into vehicles for personal profit.
🚨WBB Bracket Matrix!🚨
Great stuff from my friend Kevin Whitaker. Check it out! whitakk.github.io/wbb-bracket-...
A bar chart showing the percentage of wins coming from 5 different styles of play for the most versatile NCAA Division I WBB teams.
A month or so ago, I wondered if there was a way to measure *how* #ncaawbb teams win. Turns out that there are several statistical approaches for this, and I used some of them to create a versatility score. New in the @herhoopstats.com newsletter:
herhoopstats.substack.com/p/the-teams-...
If you follow the logic of that Post mocha latte oped, by never drinking coffee I have isolated myself from society for decades in an even more extreme way than a "specialized" coffee drinker, so that's great.
Anti-Ovaltine rhetoric cannot stand.
We did - seemed like original cast?
What was it yesterday?
Saw that show in December and loved it!
My county council member, @natalifg.bsky.social, understands what politics is for: power.
"I feel that I am in a position of power, and you’ve got to use that power."
Beginning to suspect a cyber attack here.
Mike.
The Cecil County Democratic Central Committee just selected Neil Jennings as their candidate to run in SD-35, meaning Dems have a candidate in every state legislative seat in the state. The last time they did so was in 1974.
A bar chart showing the percentage of wins coming from 5 different styles of play for the most versatile NCAA Division I WBB teams.
A month or so ago, I wondered if there was a way to measure *how* #ncaawbb teams win. Turns out that there are several statistical approaches for this, and I used some of them to create a versatility score. New in the @herhoopstats.com newsletter:
herhoopstats.substack.com/p/the-teams-...
Excited for a @herhoopstats.com post coming out tomorrow on the ways that successful #ncaawbb teams have won this season, which teams have won in multiple different ways and which win doing basically one thing. Make sure you subscribe to the newsletter at herhoopstats.substack.com
Never been to N/A, myself, but I hear it's nice.
"DeVries, 40, joined UK’s coaching staff in 2012. He married one of his star runners, Allison Peare, after she graduated in 2014. DeVries was previously suspended for two days in 2023 when UK determined that he made unwelcome and inappropriate comments about the bodies of student-athletes."
Fortune favors the bold
Many people are saying
Here's the repository from our #NICAR26 session on using LLMs to improve your archives. You can follow along to see how @merrillcollege.bsky.social students created "beat books" from local news archives.
github.com/NewsAppsUMD/...
This woman, US citizen living in Skokie, was detained at Ohare yesterday, taken to Broadview, then transferred to a detention facility in Wisconsin, now released. We know all this not because of DHS, who repeatedly denied that they even had her, but because her phone was pinging in those locations.
Just released at #NICAR26: CAROL Cleaner, which cleans up NTSB safety recommendation data to make it more useful for analysis, from @merrillcollege.bsky.social student Cat Murphy:
catelizabethmurphy.github.io/carol_cleane...
I don't know much about being a real programmer, but what little I've learned has mostly come from Jake.
Are you sorry, though?
It's time for NICAR-India
Come on by my #NICAR2026 talk Thursday with Tiasia Saunders about narrative analysis in R. schedules.ire.org/nicar-2026/#...
🔍 I'm pleased to announce the launch of archive.ire.org, a new AI-powered search engine unlocking the collective knowledge of Investigative Reporters and Editors members.
“Dear Derek Americans”
Now do Loving
I did an online class one summer and even though I loved the topic and the instructor was great it was a genuinely not good experience.
