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datahistorian.bsky.social

@datahistorian.bsky.social
104 followers 52 following 152 posts

Retired History Prof, UW-Milwaukee, uwm.edu/history/about/directory/and… History of Data, Politics of Numbers. Latest book [with William Seltzer]: Use and Misuse of the U.S. Census

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Reposted by @datahistorian.bsky.social
B Jarosz @datageekb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Deadline extended
Graphic deadline extended from 10/13 to 11/2
4,943 comments asked for more time (but 97% of those requested 90 days)
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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Send this to every university President in the country.
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Mike Schneider @mikeysid.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The latest management alert raised concerns over the first-ever use of U.S. Postal Service carriers as census takers while working their postal routes: countofcounting.substack.com/p/postal-car...
countofcounting.substack.com
Postal carriers’ oversight was hindered when they worked as census takers, watchdog says
It can’t feel good getting dinged twice within a few days by your own watchdog agency.
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Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It’s nice to have my work corroborated by another DNA test. What is also deeply gratifying is the vindication of Madison Hemings, Israel (Gillette) Jefferson who spoke of TJ and SH, & Fawn Brodie, who put the men’s recollections in her TJ bio that I read at 14 and got me started on this journey.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The 2030 Census is now squarely in the Trump admin's crosshairs. But states, cities, counties, NGOs, and (yes) you can fight back. New from me in @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/2153...
newrepublic.com
The Fight to Save the Census From Trump Starts Now
The administration’s proposed changes to the 2030 census will harm states and cities. Here is how they can fight back.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
More….nerd issues about what “the proper data” are, the muzzling of technical expertise in today’s politicized environment. Check out what’s happening in the Census Bureau,
talkingpointsmemo.com
Exclusive: Census Bureau Directs Staff to Keep Quiet During Comment Period for Controversial New Rule
Leadership at the Census Bureau has ordered staff to halt all external...
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Great historically informed piece on “evidence,” “data,” and Ben Franklin’s revolutionary experience. More here: For more, a great new piece by Edward Blum, oieahc.wm.edu/wp-content/u... muse.jhu.edu/pub/275/arti...
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 17, 2026
In 1761, 55-year-old Benjamin Franklin attended the coronation of King George III and later wrote that he expected the young monarch’s reign would “be happy and truly glorious.” Fifteen years later, i...
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APDU @apduorg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Confusion and suspicion over 2026 census test questions in South Carolina city countofcounting.substack.com/p/confusion-...
countofcounting.substack.com
Confusion and suspicion over 2026 census test questions in South Carolina city
SOME SPARTANBURG, SOUTH Carolina residents were confused by the U.S.
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Wisconsin Examiner @wisconsinexaminer.com · 10/09/2026
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore visits Kansas ICE facility to check on Milwaukee women via @isiahholmes.bsky.social wisconsinexaminer.com/2026/09/10/u...
wisconsinexaminer.com
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore visits Kansas ICE facility to check on Milwaukee women • Wisconsin Examiner
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore became the first of her colleagues to visit a Kansas ICE facility where two Milwaukee women are held.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Today, the Trump administration proposed a draft rule (which we've known was coming for months) that, among other things, would take the unprecedented step of excluding a large number of noncitizens from population data in violation of the text of the 14th amendment. Two thoughts on this: 🧵
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APDU @apduorg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
If you're trying to make sense of the proposed changes for the 2030 Census, we recorded our Rapid Response briefing with @dataindex.us youtu.be/7PwVrPmQxOY?...
youtu.be
Rapid Response Data Briefing: Critical Rulemaking for 2030 Census
YouTube video by dataindex-us
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Mike Schneider @mikeysid.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
countofcounting.substack.com/p/proposed-r...
countofcounting.substack.com
Proposed rule change would limit who gets counted and what information is gathered in 2030 census
The speculation is over.
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Will Jones @willpjones.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This is a massive loss for all of us.
nytimes.com
Smithsonian’s Secretary to Resign as Trump Tries to Rule the Institution (Gift Article)
In the face of escalating White House attacks about how museums present American history, Lonnie G. Bunch III has announced his decision to depart.
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Steven Romalewski @sromalewski.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Great piece about a changing NYC, by Harry Siegel in @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social , with context and insights from John Mollenkopf @jomoko.bsky.social www.vitalcitynyc.org/how-nyc-chan... cc @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social
vitalcitynyc.org
A City Forgets. Maybe It’s Supposed To.
The New York of today is a different city than the New York of 9/11.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Nerd Alert! The DP controversy has many wrinkles...
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Steven Ruggles @stevenruggles.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I still think DP was a horrible mistake. I truly hope in the post-Trump era we return to sensible, targeted disclosure control for tabular data, and do not reinstate DP just because deluded conspiracy theorists hate it.
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Mike Schneider @mikeysid.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The octopus grabs hold of the Census Bureau substack.com/@mikeschneid...
substack.com
The octopus grabs hold of the Census Bureau
THE TENTACLES OF the Trump administration are reaching into so many aspects of the operations of the typically independent and nonpartisan U.S.
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Mike Schneider @mikeysid.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Now-banned privacy method was too fuzzy for regular people to grasp, Census Bureau chief says substack.com/@mikeschneid...
substack.com
Now-banned privacy method was too fuzzy for regular people to grasp, Census Bureau chief says
A NOW-BANNED privacy protection method was too fuzzy for people who aren’t statistical experts to grasp, which led the Trump administration to order statistical agencies to stop using it, according to...
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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
SCOOP: A Trump-aligned think tank, America First Policy Institute, has ties to a highly unusual Census Bureau report that the president is using to renew false claims of widespread voting by non-U.S. citizens in 2020, @npr.org has learned www.npr.org/2026/08/19/n...
npr.org
Experts raise alarms over Census Bureau report Trump is touting on noncitizen voting
A Trump-aligned think tank has ties to a highly unusual Census Bureau report that the president is using to renew false claims of widespread voting by non-U.S. citizens in 2020, NPR has learned.
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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
NEW: The Census Bureau did not immediately respond to NPR's questions about analysis that President Trump said in a social media post the bureau is conducting about non-U.S. citizens illegally voting in the 2020 election, which many past studies have found to be extremely rare
Screen grab of President Trump's Aug. 18 post that says: "The Census Bureau has begun checking the Voter Records from 2020 against their Citizenship Records. On the first 128,000,000 Voters, the Census Bureau proves that over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally! The Census Bureau is going to analyze the next 32,000,000 Voters, and this number will explode. I WON THE ELECTION! We must pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
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Mike Schneider @mikeysid.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
No researcher’s name is on Census Bureau report Trump uses to claim the 2020 election was stolen countofcounting.substack.com/p/no-researc...
countofcounting.substack.com
No researcher’s name is on Census Bureau report Trump uses to claim the 2020 election was stolen
NO STATISTICIAN OR researcher at the U.S.
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Mike Schneider @mikeysid.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
countofcounting.substack.com/p/census-bur...
countofcounting.substack.com
Census Bureau needs to figure out how to land the plane after Commerce Department’s order on privacy methods
WHAT’S AMAZING ABOUT the Commerce Department’s recent decision to restrict the types of privacy protections statistical agencies can use is how little consideration there was to its real-world impacts...
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Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
god, don't threaten me with a good time
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
And another one, by my late husband, Steve Meyer, lots here on relevance to current politics…
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
And while we're at it.... emke.uwm.edu Margo Anderson and Amanda I. Seligman, Editors
emke.uwm.edu
Encyclopedia of Milwaukee
Milwaukee history topics ranging from arts and culture to philanthropy and nonprofit organizations to business and labor.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
A little self promotion...
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
ICE coming to Milwaukee, WI? www.jsonline.com/story/news/l...
jsonline.com
ICE arrests at least 18 people, mostly in Milwaukee traffic stops, advocates say
The sudden increase in public, visible arrests by ICE, often using SUVs blocking traffic on major roads, diverges from how the agency had been operating.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This one is a doozer.. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
washingtonpost.com
Trump officials planned to mark 2.7 million living people as dead, whistleblower claims
A former Social Security executive said the plan, which was not carried out, would have used a death database to pressure immigrants to leave the country.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
In its latest ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act, the Roberts Court has inverted the Reconstruction Amendments to justify the same racist devices and practices they were adopted to dismantle (🎁) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
What Kilpatrick wanted, and what the Roberts Court is making possible, is a country where white people can maintain their political dominance at the expense of Americans who are not white. The anticaste provisions of the Reconstruction amendments, intended by their authors to reverse the “horrid blasphemy” that America was a white man’s country, are being inverted to defend that dominance. This is not the color-blindness of Martin Luther King Jr., but what the scholar Ian Haney López has called “reactionary colorblindness,” the purpose of which is to maintain racial hierarchy through superficially neutral means. It takes the view that the Constitution’s “color-blindness” renders any attempt to remedy anti-Black racism unconstitutional, because by definition that would involve making racial distinctions. Similarly, the ruling in this case does not explicitly overturn the VRA’s ban on racial discrimination in voting so much as rewrite it to allow such discrimination.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Emerging impact of deportation agenda… thelatinonewsletter.org/p/counties-l...
thelatinonewsletter.org
Counties With Large Presence of Latinos Face Greater Population Growth Slowdown
The analysis is based on the 3,132 counties with Latino residents, out of the country’s 3,144 counties
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Note the pic is wrong...Rothman worked in Van Hise Hall, not Bascom Hall [the Madison chancellor's headquarters....] www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
forbes.com
University Of Wisconsin System Fires President Jay Rothman
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents voted unanimously to fire UW President Jay Rothman on Tuesday, after he earlier had refused to step down.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
"We are pleased to say that two pieces of our ICE Out package, which take a clear stand against the appalling actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), were passed...in a strong show of support by the Common Council."
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Milwaukee, WI: "Statement on passage of ICE Out legislation by the Common Council," 3/3/26: ...
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Wonderful report…. www.404media.co/at-the-world...
404media.co
At the World’s Largest General Science Meeting, Surviving Trump Is the Topic
“This is really a turning point and we’re in a historical transition at present.”
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
How not to build a dataset... www.propublica.org/article/save...
propublica.org
“Not Ready for Prime Time.” A Federal Tool to Check Voter Citizenship Keeps Making Mistakes.
The Department of Homeland Security pushed out the revamped tool while it was still adding data. That led to widespread misidentification, particularly for citizens born outside the U.S.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Milwaukee, WI: Now…”What do we do about ICE? 3rd District Town Hall... THIS EVENING - Monday, February 2 - meeting REMINDER from Alderman Alex Brower.” Overflow crowd, line to get in snaked around the block, watching on Facebook if not in the room. Looks like there’s a lot of interest. Tks Alex!
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
More commentary on the release of the Census Bureau release of the 2025 Population Estimates: jedkolko.substack.com/p/four-takea...
jedkolko.substack.com
Four takeaways from the new Census population estimates
Immigration declined dramatically. Census estimates now align with other government estimates. The 2026 Current Population Survey population base will be adjusted downward.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
On the heels of Lawler’s ICE backpedal op ed, he releases a bill that radically limits counting of immigrants for apportionment, contrary to 14A lawler.house.gov/uploadedfile...
119TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. ll
To require the congressional districts established by a State to meet certain
requirements, to prohibit States from carrying out more than one con-
gressional redistricting after a decennial census and apportionment, to
exclude aliens without lawful status under the immigration laws from
number of persons used to determine apportionment of representatives
and number of electoral votes, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. LAWLER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on llllllllllllll
A BILL
To require the congressional districts established by a State
to meet certain requirements, to prohibit States from
carrying out more than one congressional redistricting
after a decennial census and apportionment, to exclude
aliens without lawful status under the immigration laws
from number of persons used to determine apportion-
ment of representatives and number of electoral votes,
and for other purposes.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
2025 US Population estimates released today: www.census.gov/newsroom/pre... Commentary starting: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...
census.gov
U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration
U.S. population growth slowed to 0.5% between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, according to the newly released Vintage 2025 population estimates.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Wow! www.bbc.com/news/live/cn... "An ordinary American woman has brought down a British Prince..."
bbc.com
Prince Andrew stripped of 'prince' title and will move out of Royal Lodge
Buckingham Palace says he will now been known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Virginia Giuffre's family say she has
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
The data community needs to weigh in here, not just on “privacy,” but on data “stewardship,” the way data curators see their ethical responsibilities. The administration has a completely different understanding, namely that all “data” is fair game for their agenda. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/b...
nytimes.com
Trump Is Claiming Mortgage Fraud to Attack Enemies. Is Your Information Public?
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
More on Trump’s proposals for the census, and the federal statistical system…. apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
Trump seeks to change how census collects data and wants to exclude immigrants in US illegally
President Donald Trump has instructed the Commerce Department to change how the Census Bureau collects data, seeking to exclude immigrants in the United States illegally.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
More tinkering: When to report. Who does what, BLS or Census Bureau. What about private sector surveys? What else could one use to measure unemployment, a new question once the Social Security Act [1935] authorized unemployment “insurance.” More to come...
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
The “Current Population Survey” was born and has been around ever since. We have a “data series”!
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
4. Get the tabulation report out fast, preferably 2-3 weeks after the data collection. 5.Who’s going to pay for it? For ~10 years, a government “experiment,” originally the “monthly report on the labor force,” late 1930s-1940s, to work out kinks. [Skipping WWII here, a big part of the story.]
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
3. Let’s get the definition straight: a person was only unemployed if in the right demographic [not too old, not too young], and actually looking for work the week the sample surveyors came around.
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
2. Probability sampling [a hot new thing at the time], would permit frequent simple measurement [monthly!], so we’ll need a staff of “field interviewers.”
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
1. Unemployment fluctuates a lot with the cycles of the larger economy, and needs frequent measurement. A census is the wrong instrument to measure it. Too expensive, too slow for the reporting.....
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
The “data” were unsatisfactory, irregularly reported, long story short, the Depression accelerated technical work on the issue. [A truncated version of the issues…]
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datahistorian.bsky.social @datahistorian.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
A question for the “occupied” population went on the 1880 census, usa.ipums.org/usa-action/v..., asking the “number of months this person has been unemployed during the census year.” Stayed with changes until 1930 census, including a Congressionally mandated “unemployment census” in 1930 and 1931.
usa.ipums.org
IPUMS USA: descr: MOUNEMP
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