Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Leon Yin

@leonyin.org

19K followers 660 following 160 posts

Investigative data journalist Bloomberg News "CTRL + F" and find out https://inspectelement.org

inspectelement.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Oct 11

NEW INVESTIGATION:
Uber and Lyft locked drivers out of work to game a NYC minimum wage law. We crowdsourced screenshots, monitored surge pricing and ran financial models to reveal the devastating impact on drivers. w/ Natalie Lung @awgordon.bsky.social Denise Lu
https://bloom.bg/3BIPTLB

How Uber and Lyft Used a Loophole to Deny NYC Drivers Millions in Pay

Uber and Lyft locked drivers out of their apps to game a NYC wage law, denying drivers millions in pay

bloom.bg

9 93 210

Reposted by Leon Yin

Dhruv Mehrotra @dmehro.bsky.social · Jul 21

Friday was my last day at WIRED. Today I started a new job at Bloomberg on a dream desk with @suryamattu.com and @jeffykao.bsky.social.

Got a tip? A dataset? Something we should look at? Find me on Signal at dmehro.89

In no particular order, here’s some stuff I’d like to continue to dig in to:

23 41 300

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Jun 18

Headed to New Orleans or my first @ire.org Conference. I'll be on a panel Friday morning (11:30) on crowdsourcing data for your next investigation w/ Cassandra Garibay and Sergio Olmos. schedules.ire.org/ire-2025/ind...

IRE 2025 schedule | June 19-22, 2025 | New Orleans

Welcome to the #IRE25 conference schedule!

schedules.ire.org

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Jun 6

Good "missing data" story

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · Jun 6

When Trump encounters a demographic he doesn’t care for, he “disappears” them–in many cases, the very record of their existence.
Meet America’s new “missing persons," and the govt campaign to delete statistical evidence of anyone who doesn't fit Trump’s idea of our new golden age.
w/ @ashendruk.com

Opinion | Here are the people Trump doesn’t want to exist

Women, people of color and those in the LGBTQ+ community are main targets.

www.washingtonpost.com

2 20 73

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Jun 6

Tried "vibe coding" ...
hated it! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Reposted by Leon Yin

WIRED @wired.com · May 29

NEW: The US government has collected DNA samples from 133,000+ migrant children and teenagers and uploaded them into CODIS, a national criminal database originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.

The US Is Storing Migrant Children’s DNA in a Criminal Database

Customs and Border Protection has swabbed the DNA of migrant children as young as 4, whose genetic data is uploaded to an FBI-run database that can track them if they commit crimes in the future.

www.wired.com

230 2.1K 3.2K

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 2

I see your point! I was just using the domain term to contrast from arrests at or along the Southern border. But yeah the North, (also Midwest) and elsewhere in the country, too. Thanks for tuning it!

1 2

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 2

Sounds like a cool project! Thanks for reading

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 2

Thank you for reading, I'll share that feedback with the team!

Reposted by Leon Yin

Will Craft @wcraft.bsky.social · May 1

This is a great story, the kind of great story you can do through using the data released by The Deportation Data Project: deportationdata.org

Every data reporter covering immigration should get familiar with the data here

1 13 16

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 1

100%, such a rich dataset. Thanks for sharing Will!

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 1

Our analysis uses records from the Data Deportation Project. They FOIA'd ICE for arrest and detention records of over 3.5 immigrants spanning Obama's second term to the first four weeks of Trump's second term. This data is available for anyone to use:
deportationdata.org/data.html

Data repository – Deportation Data Project

deportationdata.org

5 15

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 1

This trend is partially due to historic lows in border arrests (freeing up space in the largest ICE facilities), and an increase in interior arrests. However, interior arrests aren't at a historic high, and the NE's largest detention center in had over 400 beds open. bloom.bg/43am95w

1 2 14

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 1

When immigrants are transferred across state lines they often need to get new legal counsel. ICE detention facilities in the South and SW are remote, with immigration lawyers few and far between. The avg distance to the closest immigration lawyer in Louisiana is over 100 miles.
bloom.bg/43am95w

1 3 16

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 1

In prior years few immigrants detained by ICE in the Northeast were sent to the South & SW. Virtually nobody sent to New Mexico, and less than 1% of ppl sent to Texas or Arizona. In Trump's first month, 12% of ppl detained in the NE were sent to Texas, 4% to NM and 3% to AZ.
bloom.bg/43am95w

The Rising Cost of ICE Flying Immigrants to Far-Flung Detention Centers

The increase in long-distance transfers makes it harder to fight deportation and boosts taxpayer expense.

bloom.bg

1 7

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 1

Getting transferred to the South and SW reduce detained immigrants' chances at staying in the country. 70% of people detained in Louisiana and New Mexico end up deported, which is double that of the Northeast and the Nat'l Avg, which is about 50%.
bloom.bg/43am95w

The Rising Cost of ICE Flying Immigrants to Far-Flung Detention Centers

The increase in long-distance transfers makes it harder to fight deportation and boosts taxpayer expense.

bloom.bg

1 4 18

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · May 1

NEW: @bloomberg.com analysis of +13 years of ICE detentions shows immigrants transferred to the South and SW from interior US at unprecedented rates. Reducing the odds of winning their cases. w/ @elenamejia.bsky.social @racheladhe.bsky.social
@pollymosendz.bsky.social
bloom.bg/43am95w

8 89 140

Reposted by Leon Yin

Deeedjay 🇨🇦 @deeedjay.bsky.social · Apr 9

ICE will be working with IRS now.

New data-sharing document signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will allow ICE to use IRS data. Acting Commissioner resigns over it.

apnews.com/article/irs-...

IRS acting commissioner is resigning over deal to send immigrants' tax data to ICE, AP sources say

The Internal Revenue Service’s acting commissioner is resigning over a deal to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people i...

apnews.com

15 160 310

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Mar 23

Can’t wait to read, thank you for sharing

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Mar 22

New gift link (3/22 - 3/29):
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

How podcasters like Joe Rogan and Logan Paul turned young men, a once apolitical demographic, into a massively powerful voting bloc

www.bloomberg.com

3 11

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Mar 22

They expire every 7 days, here's a new gift link to our investigation on political podcasters/streamers on YT:
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

How podcasters like Joe Rogan and Logan Paul turned young men, a once apolitical demographic, into a massively powerful voting bloc

www.bloomberg.com

Reposted by Leon Yin

Piotr Sapiezynski @sapiezynski.bsky.social · Mar 5

This Friday at @ire-nicar.bsky.social myself and @leonyin.org will be teaching how to can find and use undocumented API and build your own datasets. Come say hi and learn something new!

An announcement for the "Finding and using undocumented APIs" tutorial at NICAR 2025, Friday, March 7 at 3:30-4:30pm. Located at Gray's Bay, 8th floor. Images of Leon Yin and Piotr Sapiezynski.

2 15

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Feb 26

After a big story we (reporters) go back to zero. It's a lifeless and cold wasteland. Sometimes we shine a light down a new rabbit hole and see new potential to start digging again.

1 8

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Feb 24

come on down and say what up! (if you're going NICAR)

1 1

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Feb 24

Thanks! The impact is a result from our super team, especially @natalielung.com for her continued reporting on the topic!

Leon Yin @leonyin.org · Feb 24

I'll be speaking about crowdsourcing data using WhatsApp at @ire-nicar.bsky.social NICAR in about a week with @asiafields.bsky.social and @jeremybmerrill.com Friday March 7th at 10:15am. Come say hi!
schedules.ire.org/nicar-2025/i...

NICAR 2025 schedule | March 6-9, 2025 | Minneapolis

Welcome to the #NICAR25 conference schedule!

schedules.ire.org

1 1 7