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Jimmy Cloutier

@jrcloutier.com

577 followers 1.7K following 118 posts

Level 33 human | Investigative Data Reporter @post-gazette.com | Previously at @opensecrets.org, News21 | Former Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia 🇦🇲 | Québécois + American Signal: @jrcloutier.92

Posts Replies Media

Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 12/09/2026

676 cases and counting: Pennsylvania just passed South Carolina this year after reporting 50+ new measles cases today. www.post-gazette.com/news/health/...

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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 02/09/2026

Pennsylvania health officials reported 40 new measles cases today, bringing the statewide total to 540. Pennsylvania has now surpassed Utah in total measles infections this year. www.post-gazette.com/news/health/...

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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 05/05/2026

The Venetoulis Institute, the new owner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, plans on holding listening sessions in the coming to months to learn how the region’s largest news organization can better serve the community.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Note to Readers
The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, which started The Baltimore Banner four years ago, takes ownership Monday of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
We are thrilled to have this opportunity to ensure that Western Pennsylvania maintains access to high-quality local journalism. We're grateful to the Block family for its civic leadership over nearly a century and take seriously our obligation to serve the community with fairness and integrity.
As newcomers to Pittsburgh, we have been careful to fill the organization with top-notch journalists and business leaders from the old Post-Gazette. We'll rely on them to help us get to know this great city and region. We'll also begin this spring hosting community listening sessions throughout the area to make sure we hear directly from you about what you need and want in your news organization.

Venetoulis was founded in response to the nationwide erosion of local news, with so many newspapers shutting down or being purchased by hedge funds with a single-minded focus on financial returns. We are driven, first and foremost, by a civic mission to bring trusted local reporting to communities that need it most. We're also determined to create a successful model for local journalism that can be refined in Maryland and replicated here in Pittsburgh — and perhaps elsewhere in the coming years. Progress at The Banner suggests we are on the right path, with strong business growth, an expanding newsroom, and a Pulitzer Prize last year in local reporting.

Over time, you will notice some changes in the PG as we take vital steps to build an even more relevant, compelling, and sustainable news organization that, on its best days, will serve as something of a town square for this community. For example, as a nonprofit organization, Venetoulis does not endorse candidates or, as an institution, take positions on matters of policy. That means we will be ending the Opinion section, though we are committed to vigorously reporting on key issues so that you can be an informed citizen, and we will continue to have columnists. At the same time, being a nonprofit allows us to raise donations from the community, which has proven to be an important ingredient in Maryland for building a resilient news business. We'll still be coming out twice weekly in print as well as delivering the daily e-edition. We're committed, as ever, to local news, sports, and investigative work.
And we'll focus on upgrading the experience on the website and app to better appeal to the growing base of digital readers.

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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 16/12/2024

I appreciate the shoutout in @localmatters.bsky.social. If you aren’t already, consider subscribing to this indispensable newsletter.

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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 20/11/2024

I guess I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.

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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 11/11/2024

Happy Birthday to the late great Kurt Vonnegut. Here is a letter he sent to the chairman of the Drake High School Board in North Dakota who ordered Vonnegut’s books burned. Seems as relevant today as then. fs.blog/kurt-vonnegu...

If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind.
They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely.
That is because people speak coarsely in real life. Especially soldiers and hardworking men speak coarsely, and even our most sheltered children know that.
And we all know, too, that those words really don't damage children much. They didn't damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us.

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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 10/11/2024

Outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin weighs in on Dave McCormick’s presumed victory in Pa. U.S. Senate race. Incumbent Sen. Bob Casey hasn’t conceded and the razor-margin could trigger an automatic recount.

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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 08/11/2024

I’m devastated for my former colleagues — and shocked that this news comes just days after the most expensive election in U.S. history.

SCOOP: OpenSecrets, the nonpartisan money-in-politics research nonprofit, laid off 10 employees yesterday due to financial difficulties. Much of the research team were among the casualties, which constituted around a third of the group's total headcount.

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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 07/11/2024

The latest from Sen. Bob Casey. Per AP, GOP challenger Dave McCormick leads Casey by about 30,000 with 99% reporting.

The Bob Casey for Senate campaign released the following statement on the ongoing vote count in Pennsylvania.

Statement from Maddy McDaniel, spokesperson for Bob Casey for Senate:
"The count in Pennsylvania is still continuing. Yesterday, the vote margin shrunk by 50,000 votes and this race is now within half a point, the threshold for automatic recounts in Pennsylvania. With tens of thousands more votes to be counted, we are committed to ensuring every Pennsylvanian's vote is heard and confident that at the end of that process, Senator Casey will be re-elected."
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Jimmy Cloutier @jrcloutier.com · 23/10/2024

Outside spending has surpassed $3.4 billion this election cycle, shattering records. Per @opensecretsdc.bsky.social: www.opensecrets.org/outside-spen...

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