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Michael Morisy

@morisy.bsky.social
1.6K followers 2.4K following 634 posts

civic transparency for a better tomorrow. founder, MuckRock. also caretaker of DocumentCloud, FOIA Machine, and many other internet friends.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Michael Morisy
Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 4h
Not a great sign when your 12-person private fundraiser includes someone who hates you enough to leak damaging audio
The audio of Mr. Paxton was shared with The Times by an attendee who recorded him speaking at a private fund-raiser in Washington attended by roughly a dozen people. The person, who opposes Mr. Paxton’s campaign and provided the recording to The Times, was granted anonymity because Mr. Paxton’s remarks were private.
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Kashmir Hill @kashhill.bsky.social · 2h
And this is almost an aside in the story, but also absolutely bonkers. Meta claimed Zuck as a "researcher" to get a $355 million tax break on his $4.1 billion stock-based compensation.
Screenshot from New York Times article: "Meta is already in one sizable dispute with the I.R.S. over this tax break, for using it to subsidize its chief executive’s multibillion-dollar pay package. In 2013, Meta claimed that $4.1 billion of stock options exercised by Mr. Zuckerberg counted as a research expense because he helped invent new software, such as Facebook’s News Feed. The I.R.S. is trying to claw back the company’s resulting $355 million in tax savings, court filings show."
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 3h
New: Through a series of complex agreements with cities, the White House built a massive license plate camera database accessible to the feds. The program aggregates data across license plate companies (Flock, Axon, more) & is searchable by many agencies: www.404media.co/how-cities-a...
404media.co
How Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance Program
How the federal government built a massive database of license plate reader data through an anti-drug trafficking program.
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Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 3h
We got data on thousands of patients harmed at hospitals. We need you to analyze it and help gather more data. www.muckrock.com/news/archive...
muckrock.com
We got data on thousands of patients harmed at hospitals. We need you to analyze it and help gather more data.
This week, MuckRock’s Data Liberation Project is publishing data on thousands of incidents where patients were harmed in four states so that journalists and grassroots investigators can continue to il...
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Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 3h
Love what RW has built. There's so many areas where a singular focus can have impact and build an audience, with the big caveat that it has to be done well.
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Mike Lissner @michaeljaylissner.com · 21h
Welp, this is our last open API endpoint, I think, so hopefully the last time this happens. Yay?
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Martin Shelton @mshelton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Come work with our team! We're hiring a Sr. Digital Security Trainer. You would lead digital security trainings for journalists, conduct organizational risk assessments, contribute to our editorial efforts, and help to develop our curriculum. freedomofthepress.na.teamtailor.com/jobs/708479-...
freedomofthepress.na.teamtailor.com
Sr. Digital Security Trainer - Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF)
FPF is hiring a senior digital security trainer to conduct in-field digital security training with journalists and newsrooms.
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Josh Sawyer @jesawyer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
There have been two occasions in my career where I had to go to war with teammates against mistaken understandings of probability. In both cases, it was because people expected large numbers of d6s to occasionally result in maximum damage. But the curves for 3d6 and 15d6 (e.g.) look like this:
Two curves showing the distribution of results across 3d6 and 15d6.  At the extreme ends of the first, 3 and 18 are both 0.46% likely.  On the second curve, the extremes are 15 and 90 damage, but the probability drops below 0.00% below 29 and above 76.
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Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Spam bots are clowning on me.
AI marketing spam that congratulates me on my audience engagement on LinkedIn, then notes "3 reactions and 0 comments show how much your voice resonates with those passionate about transparency."
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Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
one of the fun things about digging up older surveys is that you get a lot of practice with the game of "am I more offended by the underlying question or the choice of scale"
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Matt Hodges @matthodges.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This graph from @josephpolitano.bsky.social surprised me! Reading is way down, but book sales are way up! www.apricitas.io/p/ai-and-the...
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Andrew Quemere @andrewqmr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
LOL: Flock sent a letter to the mayor of Lowell complaining about comments he made during a city council meeting about how Flock sells data. Flock claimed that it does not sell data, but the mayor responded by pointing out that Flock advertised this feature to Lowell.
lowellsun.com
Flock vs. Lowell: Surveillance company defends product
LOWELL — Flock Group, Inc. is not only watching license plates in Lowell, but it is also watching the City Council meetings.
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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
New York Journo Nerd Bluesky: Do you also have problems getting anybody in the state of New York to respond to FOIL requests, or am I uniquely terrible at getting the University of Buffalo to respond to goddamn anything I submit
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is what they do when you give them endless money. $20.5M in fees and costs for buying 7 warehouses they're now going to sell. $10M for unused Guantánamo tents, and unneded food. ICE bought 11 warehouses for $1.07B without any plan. Taxpayer money, burned. www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-spe...
cbsnews.com
ICE wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in rapid push to expand detention capacity, government watchdog finds
With an unprecedented budget, ICE spent billions in a rush to expand its detention network, wasting millions in the process, the Government Accountability Office found.
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Federal US domain bot @fed-us-domain-bot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
🚀 NOTICE: Federal US website newly registered. trumptv.gov Action taken by the nan (Executive Office of the President) at or around 2026-09-24 11:21:17.
trumptv.gov
trumptv.gov
Federal US website registered. Content may not be visible yet.
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Adam Steinbaugh @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
BREAKING: An Iowa state court dismisses President Donald Trump’s frivolous lawsuit against veteran pollster J. Ann Selzer (represented by @thefireorg.bsky.social) and the Des Moines Register newspaper, a victory for First Amendment rights. Opinion here: www.fire.org/research-lea...
This case sets a President, a member of Congress, and a former state senator against a pollster and a newspaper, and it arises out of an election. A case of that kind invites the reader to look for a political result. The Court’s role is narrower. It is to sit as an impartial arbiter, to apply the law without passion or prejudice, and to rule without regard to the politics of the day. As such, the only question before the Court is whether the Petition states a claim the law recognizes. At its core, the Plaintiffs’ Petition seeks to stretch both Iowa statutory and common law beyond their current bounds, turning speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into a liability. After considering the parties’ arguments, the Court must conclude that the protection is too great and the reach is too far. The case must therefore be dismissed.
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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 23/09/2026
Five cops in Indianapolis were just criminally charged with abusing Flock to spy on their ex-wives, their wives' ex-partners and women they met on duty. Audit was triggered by us at the @washingtonpost.com, the prosecutor said. From last month: wapo.st/4yfNHng
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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is something my colleague @billybinion.bsky.social writes about all the time. Cities regularly refuse to compensate people when police trash their property in the course of chasing someone else.
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Marc Poris @marcporis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Filing public records requests is fun! (I mean, the software the City of Portland uses for it is awful, but, you know, sometimes you get back something interesting.) bsky.app/profile/kate...
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Tim Marchman @timmarchman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In the least plausible claim since the Belichick-era Patriots said no one believed in them, the box for Super Stuffed Pop Tarts, which feature 50% more filling, assert that “They said more filling would be impossible.”
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Bethany Lindsay @bethanylindsay.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Another new database from the IJF! This one is special — it brings together government contracts and lobbying records, so you can trace the connections between money and influence in Canada.
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ICIJ @icij.org · 22/09/2026
Update: ICIJ reporter Micah Reddy has been released from custody in Djibouti. He is safe and will soon reunite with his family. We are grateful to everyone who shared their support for Reddy, his family and ICIJ's efforts to bring him home. buff.ly/Uh160cS
buff.ly
Statement on missing ICIJ journalist Micah Reddy - ICIJ
ICIJ lost contact with our colleague Micah Reddy, ICIJ's Africa coordinator, and local journalist Mohamed Willo Ismael ("Kooki Mahmoud"), in Djibouti City on Saturday, Sept. 19.
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Rebecca Williams @rebeccawilliams.info · 21/09/2026
a wonderful use of @muckrock.com
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
New: we are starting to get data showing what cops are using Axon's license plate cameras for, which are replacing Flock around the country. But we need your help: is your city using Axon? We have written the request you need to get this data yourself. Get it here: www.404media.co/is-your-city...
404media.co
Is Your City Using Axon License Plate Cameras? We Need Your Help
404 Media is filing public records requests around the country to find out how cops are using Axon's ALPRs. Here is how you can do that too.
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Joshua Eaton @joshuaeaton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The hilarious thing about this — its basement was also home to Spare Change News, where I was once editor-in-chief, as well as @muckrock.com.
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 18/09/2026
INBOX: Science retracted a news article this week after editors found that the author (likely an AI agent) impersonated the identity of an established science journalist, both with editors and sources in the story. Furthermore, two of the quotes provided were plagiarized: (h/t @wudan.bsky.social)
science.org
Your heartbeat quietly shapes how your brain processes information
Frequently ignored bodily rhythms may be skewing neuroscience experiments
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Will Craft @wcraft.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
BREAKING: Records obtained through a FOIA lawsuit shows that despite record number of pregnant women are in detention, ICE has lost count of the number of miscarriages. A Deleted Data/Immigration/Guardian investigations collab
theguardian.com
Revealed: ICE lost count of miscarriages, while detaining a record number of pregnant women
ICE says it has no updated information on the number of miscarriages after 3 October 2025. Lawmakers, advocates and immigration attorneys have raised alarms that pregnant detainees are not receiving b...
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RJI Innovation Team @innovationrji.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Civic Strata: A shared foundation for data, documents and community reporting. rjionline.org/news/buildin...
rjionline.org
Building a civic information hub
Civic Strata: A shared foundation for data, documents and community reporting.
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Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
1961 Cartoon of a captain telling his crew "and all liberty is canceled until morale improves."
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Matt Hodges @matthodges.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
ATTENTION: every person in their late 30s on this website github.com/arnegiacomo/...
github.com
GitHub - arnegiacomo/fugleramme: E-ink bird frame for Raspberry Pi - real-time bird detection by audio, fully local AI, rendered as real, hand-cut 1800s bird illustrations.
E-ink bird frame for Raspberry Pi - real-time bird detection by audio, fully local AI, rendered as real, hand-cut 1800s bird illustrations. - arnegiacomo/fugleramme
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Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I strongly believe there's been more in-depth, widely consumed, nuanced policy discussion the last few election cycles than I've ever seen, but a) you have to sit through hours of podcasts/videos to get to it, b) politicians are the least interested in participating.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 14/09/2026
NEW: Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin Umar Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses at Donald Trump Jr.’s lavish wedding, including renting out a private island and paying for the fireworks show.
propublica.org
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
If there any other anglers out there using data analysis and public records, please message me, because that is awesome and I'll write a fun story about it.
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Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · 10/09/2026
Heads-up everyone in digital humanities and/or cultural AI: this is a hugely valuable resource. It does the systematic cleaning and segmentation — of a million books — that we have always wanted to have, for computational research, and have never quite produced in a way that stuck.
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
ALSO: It's not a big deal, but not only was the Missouri AG's Office late in filing Hoskins's response to the show cause order—which, yikes—but they literally blamed a paralegal for it in a really tawdry paragraph in their brief asking for the court to OK the 6-minute-late filing (which it did).
4. Counsel for Respondent prepared the Respondent's Response for filing
before 12:00pm on September 9, 2026. However, when Counsel's paralegal
entered the CaseNet system for filing, she encountered an error which
prohibited her from filing. This error required her to restart CaseNet in order
to file. After restarting CaseNet, she promptly filed the Response at 12:06pm.
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MuckRock @muckrock.com · 09/09/2026
Are you working on an accountability or transparency tool? Let us know how joining our ecosystem could support your work! muckrock.notion.site/25af88926963...
muckrock.notion.site
Submit your reporting tools to the MuckRock ecosystem | Notion
Hosted by Notion Sites — The easiest way to get a website up and running.
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Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This collection includes access to expert-curated data sets, info monitoring tools, news geolocation. Fantastic suite of services from an awesome group of partners - something for everyone*! *Except people who hate transparency.
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Project Salt Box @projectsaltbox.com · 09/09/2026
ICE is sole-sourcing tacticool phone cases and chargers now, too. This week: a pending no-bid award to Juggernaut Defense for VELOX phone-mounting kits. The company's website lists the mount alone at $1,750 to $1,850, and a charging dock at $3,900. Responses to the notice are due tomorrow.
Screenshot of a SAM.gov contract notice description. Highlighted text reads: "firm-fixed price Purchase Order on a sole source basis to Juggernaut Defense LLC" and "Juggernaut VELOX kits and accessories." Full text states this is a notice of intent, not a request for quote, for DHS/ICE's Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs to award a sole-source purchase order to Juggernaut Defense LLC for VELOX kits and accessories.Product photo of Juggernaut Case's VELOX system components on a white background. A six-bay charging dock holds five rugged tan-and-black phone cases upright with charging status lights along the front. To its left sit a plate-carrier armor mount, a USB-C charging cable, a connector module, and a sixth rugged phone case lying flat.
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OpenSecrets.org @opensecrets.org · 09/09/2026
Join us & @muckrock.com for "Campaign Finance with OpenSecrets," a webinar for journalists on 9/10 at 1 pm ET. Learn how to best use our tools to search political data. 💻 Registration link below: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
us02web.zoom.us
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Campaign Finance with OpenSecrets. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Campaign Finance with OpenSecrets. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
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Jeff Stein @jeffstein.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞 Big news: The Washington Sun launches w/: — Huge investment in DC & local reporters — Legend Tom Sietsema — Capital Weather — Newsroom of +100, w/ great reporters (& me) Comes after Bezos's enormous cuts to WaPo To support, sign up for (free!) newsletter: washingtonsun.com/newsletters
washingtonsun.com
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Adam Steinbaugh @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
This is an important, targeted strike at the authority the federal government is using to harass non-citizens for speech. Solid First Amendment victory.
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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 28/08/2026
"Foreign countries generally should not be putting money into the PACs of American politicians." @benrhodes.bsky.social and @timmiller.bsky.social react to the Israeli government buying ads on Ted Cruz’s podcast, whose ad revenue helps fund Cruz’s political PAC.
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Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press @rcfp.org · 28/08/2026
A Pennsylvania police department is ignoring a reporter’s request for records related to the agency’s partnership with ICE — even after he won an appeal. Now, on behalf of @lancasteronline.bsky.social, an @rcfp.org attorney is urging a court to order the department to release the records.
rcfp.org
LNP | LancasterOnline sues for cost of Susquehanna police partnership with federal immigration enforcement
A Reporters Committee attorney is representing the news outlet and one of its reporters.
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Michael @1999ad.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Back on my blogging horse, spitballing ideas about the economics (and safety) of warp cores in #MothershipRPG: 1999ad.blogspot.com/2026/08/warp...
1999ad.blogspot.com
Warped Beyond Intuition
Like myriad unfortunates before me, I find myself compelled to jam the square peg of Mothership's loosely sketched economy into the round ho...
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maddy varner @regret.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Incredibly useful (and alarming!) dataset👇
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conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
found a cute point of comparison: Anthropic and OpenAI together have a little more revenue than Target epoch.ai/data/ai-comp... finance.yahoo.com/quote/TGT/fi...
Line chart titled "AI companies" showing annualized revenue in USD from 2023 to 2026. OpenAI and Anthropic demonstrate rapid exponential growth, with Anthropic surging past OpenAI in mid-2026 to reach roughly $65 billion, compared to OpenAI's $40 billion. Other tracked companies—including Z.ai (Zhipu), Cohere, xAI, Mistral AI, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek—remain near the $0 mark along the bottom axis.Financial dashboard screenshot showing Target Corporation (TGT) stock trading at $170.42, up +4.98 (+3.01%). Below is an annual income statement bar chart comparing Revenue and Net Income from 2023 through 2026 in USD, showing steady annual revenue around 100 billion dollars and net income under 10 billion dollars each year.
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betsy ladyzhets 😷 @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Help us grow our newsletter! pages.viral-loops.com/share-the-si...
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Reference:
Famous National Lampoon magazine cover with picture of hand pointing gun at dog and title, "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog"
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Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Instantly the image that came to my head, though not the first time in the last few years.
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izzy kestrel @iznaut.com · 26/08/2026
sometimes i think linux was a mistake and then i remember why it's all worth it where else could i type stuff like this and have it do something useful
sudo pacman -S grim slurp
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