iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I wasn’t either until just now! I’ll forgive you if you forgive me

Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I apparently forgot to update my bio for a long time, so here's the scoop: I'm now a data reporter at City Cast DC! I write + report about everything numeric and hyperlocal. So far that is the U.S. Park Police, the suicide lifeline, streateries, paid leave, a really really big dome, + more

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Wait, did you watch it already???

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My answers to these questions are personal and deeply subjective. Your answers might be different! I hope we get a chance to talk about them soon.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Over the course of two hours, I explore how to make numbers around tragedy, violence, and loss feel real to your audience, respecting the people you are depicting, and protecting your heart. @albertocairo.com gives a better introduction here: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/visualizin...

openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com

Visualizing Loss and Tragedy

A new course in the Open Visualization Academy

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I started a thread in March asking for examples of data visualizations that focus on the human cost of violence, tragedies, and disasters. Today, the course I built with those examples is out on the Open Visualization Academy, free for everyone: openvisualizationacademy.org/courses/visu...

openvisualizationacademy.org

1.0 Introduction - Visualizing Loss and Tragedy - Open Visualization Academy

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

U.S. Park Police arrests have skyrocketed in the D.C. area this year. Emma Uber and I share the numbers with the public for the first time here: dc.citycast.fm/public-safet... Park Police operate anywhere in the District/surrounding counties. They aren't limited to National Parks.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I am holding on to my mini until someone pries it from my hands. This has certainly not caused any problems for me!

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT ISN'T A TIME SERIES

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Crashing out about non-economic adjustments to the QCEW press release. Please respect my privacy at this difficult time.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

If a call isn't picked up locally within a certain time (no one could tell me how long), it's rerouted to a national backup call center. But for that to work, the caller has to stay on the line. In July, most people who didn't reach a local operator hung up before reaching the national center.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

But the pickup rate never fully recovered--and it fell again for most of 2026, after multiple employees left the Department of Behavioral Health at the same time. Local pickup rates hovered around 60% for *five months* before returning to 70% or so. The national average is 88%.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The local pickup rate first fell off a cliff in November 2024, when suicide and mental health crisis calls from DC reached a record high. Calls stayed elevated through spring 2025 before falling back to a more-normal level.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

DC has one of the nation's lowest 988 Lifeline pickup rates in the nation. For most of this year, roughly 60% of suicide and mental health crisis calls to the 3-digit hotline were picked up by local operators. dc.citycast.fm/news/988-cal...

A line chart showing monthly local pickup rates for 988 Lifeline calls. D.C.
s rate plunged to the lowest in the nation in November 2024, recovered by spring 2025, then dipped again to the lowest in the nation in 2026. For most of 2026, the rate was around 60%, while the national average is 88%. The rate has risen to 73% in July 2026.

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Reposted by Alyssa Fowers

Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 25/08/2026

On LinkedIn, @daniellealberti.bsky.social just announced that Axios disbanded its data visualization team yesterday. @visuals.axios.com 📊 She is now looking for a new job. A leader in our field.

Danielle Alberti
Managing Editor, Data Visualization

Yesterday I learned that Axios was eliminating the data visualization team I've built and led for nearly seven years. So, for the first time in a long time, I'm looking for what's next.
I'm so proud of the team we built. At our largest, we were 13 designers and developers spread across the country, making dozens of quick-turnaround visuals a day for the National and Local newsrooms while also producing some stunning longform storytelling. I managed the team entirely remotely, and I'm especially proud of the culture we created while rarely being in the same room. People felt safe trying something weird to see if it landed. We genuinely liked working together, respected each other's work and wanted our teammates to succeed. Even as people moved on to other teams over the years, they kept cheering each other on. Creating a team like that is possibly the best thing I've done in my career.
I also really like making things work better. I put a lot of energy into building systems and workflows and automating processes so we could do more without just asking people to work faster. We built tools that were the envy of the industry and gave people across the newsroom the ability to make sophisticated visualizations themselves.
I sometimes joked that I was trying to automate myself out of a job. Whoops.

I've spent most of my career in data visualization, but l've always been a bit of a generalist. I've been a reporter, an editor and a developer, and over the years my job has grown to include everything from engineering and tooling to project management, strategy and people management. The common thread is that I like figuring out how things work, why they aren't working and how to make them better.
So I'm casting a pretty wide net. I'd love to keep working in data visualization, but I'm also very open to jobs outside journalism and roles that don't have "data visualization" in the title.
Mostly, I'm looking for somewhere I can do more of what I'm good at: building great teams, developing talented people and creating systems that help them do great work.
If that sounds like something your team needs, or you know someone I should talk to, please reach out.
Comment, DM, or email me at alberti.danielle@gmail.com.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

There is a whole owl just sitting in the right lane on Connecticut Ave??? (Someone set up an ebike as a barrier to traffic; we’re calling a wildlife rescue and keeping our distance)

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

When the news broke about DC’s Nat’l Guard deployment, I was in a Covid fever haze, scared and unsure about what would happen next. A year later, I’m still not sure. Not because I have a fever, but because there’s little comprehensive information out there. Read: dc.citycast.fm/dc-politics/...

dc.citycast.fm

A Year of National Guard Deployment in D.C., by the Numbers · City Cast DC

What data can — and can't — tell us about the surge in federal law enforcement.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I'm kicking myself for taking their word that it was a revenue figure instead of asking for the math right off the bat, but I appreciate you + others raising it!

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Hey Tracy! I'm a reporter on the piece. A few people pushed back on $113, so I reached back out to DDOT for more detail. Turns out that's the fee *for occupying a metered space* with a moving pod, construction staging zone, etc. The piece is being updated now w/ a correction.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I can see how it looks that way! The old (temporary) streateries are required to come down before the new (permanent) ones go up. Makes it feel a bit duck-season-rabbit-season out here.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

don't care about the backstory? You can search for a restaurant here and see if its streatery is staged to make a comeback: dc.citycast.fm/food-drink/s...

dc.citycast.fm

See the Status of All of D.C.'s Temporary Streateries · City Cast DC

Search for your favorite restaurant's streatery here.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Everyone that Kaela and I talked to for this story (including DDOT) was frustrated–and everyone (including DDOT!) had a point. See where streateries survive, why they needed to change, and how the requirements are shaping the future of dining in DC: dc.citycast.fm/business-dev...

dc.citycast.fm

See Where Streateries Survive in D.C. – And Why So Many Disappeared · City Cast DC

Restaurants resisted. The city government dug in. What if everyone was right?

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

How tall is the new D.C.-area sphere going to be? Thirty elephants and a small dogs, according to preliminary plans. dc.citycast.fm/local-civics...

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Flicking around livecams to see how bad the smoke is and uhhhh it's pretty bad guys! (Top of the Washington Monument, today vs 2 days ago)

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

What really struck me is that the program is: -completely solvent, and -more-than-paid-for by a dedicated payroll tax The city is just using the savings to put more money in the general fund/bridge other budget gaps this year.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

The harshest cuts are to family caretaking leave, which went from a max of 12 weeks to 6 weeks, and medical leave, which went from 12 weeks to 10 weeks. But the max amount per week went down for parental + prenatal, too.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Obsessed with this chart from NOTUS's @andrewvandam.bsky.social www.notus.org/analysis/map...

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Work comes at you fast! My first City Cast story published Friday, and you can hear me talk about it (and the ideal definition of a state fair) on the pod today. For the non-audio-oriented, here's a link to my look at the DC primary numbers: dc.citycast.fm/dc-politics/...

dc.citycast.fm

JLG's Victory Lap, in Charts · City Cast DC

The latest data from the primaries shows Lewis George ahead in 80% of D.C. precincts.

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Reposted by Alyssa Fowers

Annie Waldman @anniewaldman.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Despite all this, raw milk is having a moment, in part because of support from Health Secretary RFK Jr. More than 10 million Americans now drink it. National weekly sales rose by 65% from 2023 to 2024 alone. And more and more states are making it easier to access.

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Annie Waldman @anniewaldman.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

With the rise of MAHA, I wanted to understand why raw milk had grown so popular. What I learned at Raw Farm was so eye-opening, I wondered how long it would take for another outbreak to occur. Unbeknownst to me, one was already underway.

McAfee’s Dairy Has Sickened Hundreds of People Over the Years, According to Regulators
Federal and state regulators have linked 233 outbreak cases to Organic Pastures or Raw Farm. The true number of cases is likely higher.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

So proud to have graphics in this jaw-dropping ProPublica story by Annie Waldman!

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

The word is out! I’m heading to City Cast! (In point of fact, the Washington Post departed me in February, but the main point stands!)

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

A sample of what you will find on Insta!

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

For those who showed interest in Horsequest: the results are now up on Instagram at horsequest_dc! Get ready by watching this video of the finalists. For those not interested: this is my last post about it. Promise.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Here's the real big guy--click the image to see the full thing!

A chart showing one vertical line for each outlet that moved in and out of the White House press pool from November 2024 through January 2026. When the Trump administration begins in January 2025, new media outlets flood into the pool. Overall movement in and out of the pool also increases.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Couple of charts I made for Georgetown University's journalism capstone program! The visuals are based on reporting from Georgia Russello, Caleigh Keating and Lauren Doherty (for the press pool) and Angelena Bougiamas (press briefings). Full version of the press pool graphic in thread!

A set of three charts showing the number and length of press briefings in the first 100 days of Trump's first term, Biden's term, and Trump's second term. Trump's first term had 44 briefings average 47 minutes, Biden had 50 briefings averaging 51 minutes, and Trump's second term had 19 briefings averaging 34 minutes.

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Note to my nervous system: "job hunt" means *I* am hunting for a job. Not that something is hunting *me.* Please stop preparing me for an action sequence.

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Tan G. @tangandhara.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Rare sighting of a column chart taking a dip at Hove Beach. #dataviz

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John Gramlich @johngramlich.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

89% – percentage of disaster aid requests Trump has approved for states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators 23% – percentage of disaster aid requests Trump has approved for states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Line chart showing presidential approval rates for disaster aid requests submitted by Democratic- and Republican-led states, covering the period from the Reagan administration to today. The chart is based on a Politico/E&E News analysis of records from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

are there any more things like this

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Alyssa Fowers @alyssafowers.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

I count 20 other visuals in the thread that no one has commented on…?

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Reposted by Alyssa Fowers

Lee Cronin’s Pablo Hidalgo @infinata.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Jacked action hero with goon in headlock, in raspy yet firm voice:

Text saying "You've read your last free article."

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