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Hannah Recht

@hannahrecht.bsky.social

340 followers 230 following 160 posts

Data and graphics journalist. Census, health policy, R and open source. Now: freelancing. Past work for The Washington Post, KFF Health News, Bloomberg News. https://www.hrecht.com/

www.hrecht.com

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 11

🚀 I made a tracker that shows when the Census Bureau adds or removes datasets from their APIs.
Dashboard at www.hrecht.com/census-api-d... and follow @censusapitracker.bsky.social for major updates.

I've been wanting to build this for years but now seemed an especially important time to keep track.

Tracking Census Dataset Changes

See when the U.S. Census Bureau adds or removes datasets.

www.hrecht.com

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 1d

all the GIS in R all the GIS in R ALL THE GIS IN R

arcGIS who???

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 6d

Introducing {pmtiles}: an #rstats package to create, view, and interact with PMTiles.

PMTiles is one of the most exciting geospatial innovations in recent years. Map tiles are stored & served from a single file, making massive geospatial data visualization widely accessible.

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 1d

If not for the government shutdown we'd be getting the September Current Population Survey data release in the next few days. Now: 🤷‍♀️

Census API Tracker @censusapitracker.bsky.social · 15d

The Census Bureau APIs added 1 dataset: 2024/sipp
See the full tracker: www.hrecht.com/census-api-d...

Tracking Census Dataset Changes

See when the U.S. Census Bureau adds or removes datasets.

www.hrecht.com

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 7d

The main Census Bureau page is back up now, tiny cheer.

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 7d

From a quick check it looks like the Census FTPs are up, which is good: a lot of bulk datasets live there. But you'd need to know the direct file path to get there.

I use a bunch of Census datasets that live only on the main website in annoying Excel files, which are now unreachable.

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 7d

Shutdown day 1: The Census website and data.census.gov are offline.
The APIs do appear to be working for now but not all data lives there. Vital that we have alternate data hosters like IPUMS.

Screenshot of census.gov error message saying there is an unknown error with the web host.

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 9d

Not much surprises me anymore but this landlord screening software that forces prospective renters to grant direct access to their workplace payroll accounts and/or sit on a three-way call with their banks is not something I dreamed up www.404media.co/landlords-de...

Landlords Demand Tenants’ Workplace Logins to Scrape Their Paystubs

Screenshots shared with 404 Media show tenant screening services ApproveShield and Argyle taking much more data than they need. “Opt-out means no housing.”

www.404media.co

Reposted by Hannah Recht

Martin Austermuhle @maustermuhle.bsky.social · 23d

A news tidbit: This week the D.C. Council will vote on an emergency bill from @cmchenderson.bsky.social that will allow pharmacies to administer the COVID-19 vaccine without a doctor's prescription. Because of changes at the federal level, local pharmacies have been requiring a prescription.

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 27d

It's here: 2024 American Community Survey 1-year summary data!
AND the 2025 CPS-ASEC supplement microdata plus the monthly August 2025 CPS release. Big day for data nerds.

Census API Tracker @censusapitracker.bsky.social · 27d

The Census Bureau APIs added 7 datasets
See the full tracker: www.hrecht.com/census-api-d...

Tracking Census Dataset Changes

See when the U.S. Census Bureau adds or removes datasets.

www.hrecht.com

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 28d

Tomorrow should be the first major data update since I created the Bluesky bot @censusapitracker.bsky.social - happy American Community Survey Release Eve to all who celebrate.

🤞 🤞🤞 will my bot post correctly?? will it fall flat on its face?? we'll find out tomorrow, together 🤪

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 28d

It's alive! 🎉 My Census data tracker captured its first real (not test) minor data update yesterday: time frame update to the historical poverty dataset. 2024 is now available.

There have been a couple major data updates (data endpoints added) but this is the first minor! github.com/hrecht/censu...

Code difference screenshot from Github showing a change in timeframe from 2023 to 2024 for a dataset

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 29d

Make sure to read this absolute banger ChatGPT FOIA investigation from KNKX in Washington state if you haven't already www.knkx.org/government/2...

Washington city officials are using ChatGPT for government work

Records show that public servants have used generative AI to write emails to constituents, mayoral letters, policy documents and more.

www.knkx.org

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · 29d

Can't wait to FOIA the HHS ChatGPT logs.

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 29d

New: HHS has told all employees that they should start using ChatGPT, continuing the administration's AI-ification of everything, its trust in tools that hallucinate, and the general sense that getting things right is not important or worth trying to do:

www.404media.co/hhs-asks-all...

HHS Asks All Employees to Start Using ChatGPT

The agency tells workers "we should all be vigilant against barriers that could slow our progress toward making America healthy again."

www.404media.co

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Sep 5

diabolical

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Sep 5

DC: CVS MinuteClinic has the new covid vaccine, appts still available later today, this weekend. Got mine today. I had to attest to eligibility but didn't need proof.

It will be billed as an office visit for the MinuteClinic assessment (probably, NP wasn't 100% sure.) Took about 15 minutes total.

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 29

Thank you! Appreciate the work you're all doing.

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 29

Do you know if they're requiring rx for people over 65 too?

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 29

I'm having serious CVS-covid rx deja vu today. Access in name vs reality.

My investigation from 2022 into how the federal covid test-to-treat program was initially dominated by CVS, who made it literally impossible to actually book an appointment in many cases. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

How the Test-to-Treat Pillar of the US Covid Strategy Is Failing Patients - KFF Health News

The federal “test-to-treat” program was designed to be a one-stop shop for people to get tested for covid and to receive treatment. But as covid cases rise again, many communities have no participatin...

kffhealthnews.org

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 29

Crucially: how is CVS communicating all these constant changes to its pharmacy staff on the ground? A few days ago CVS staff at a pharmacy in DC were saying that the covid vaccines weren't in yet, seemingly not aware that they wouldn't be able to give them without a prescription.

Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · Aug 29

Updates on the pharmacy vaccine situation today: CVS is now requiring a prescription in 13 states and not offering shots at all in three others; Walgreens appears to be requiring prescriptions in 16 states, but not all the same ones as CVS. The lists of states are in the article. Gift link:

CVS and Walgreens Clamp Down on Covid Vaccines in Many States

www.nytimes.com

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 20

"We need a government-wide changelog." - yes. strong cosign and thanks @flowingdata.com for the shoutout to my lil Census tracker flowingdata.com/2025/08/20/t...

Tracking changes to Census data

Hannah Recht is tracking data through the U.S. Census Bureau APIs: The Census Bureau doesn’t maintain a public changelog or regularly share updates about changes to their sprawling API universe. As…

flowingdata.com

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 19

the world may be full of swirling chaos but I have finally started really using Svelte, so at least my front-end code is peaceful and calm

Reposted by Hannah Recht

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 19

Good thing no one uses Microsoft Excel for anything related to legal, regulatory or compliance business functions

www.theverge.com/news/761338/...

Microsoft Excel adds Copilot Al to help ...
theverge.com
The Verget-4.1-mini Al model | 5
successor to the LABS.GENERATIVEAI function Microsoft started experimenting
with in 2023.
Microsoft notes that you can combine its new Al function with other Excel functions, including IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS. The company adds that information sent through Excel's COPILOT function is "never" used for AI training, as "the input remains confidential and is used solely to generate your requested output."
The COPILOT function comes with a couple of limitations, as it can't access information outside your spreadsheet, and you can only use it to calculate 100 functions every 10 minutes. Microsoft also warns against using the AI function for numerical calculations or in “high-stakes scenarios” with legal, regulatory, and compliance implications, as COPILOT "can
give incorrect responses."
Copy Share Select all Web search Dictionary
...

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 19

yours are animated though!!! so fun

Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 19

new protest art spotted in DC

photograph of a construction site with an art print of a protestor in black and white holding a large colorful sub sandwich, preparing to throw it. the print is repeated 3 times.

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Hannah Recht @hannahrecht.bsky.social · Aug 19

love to see the transit 🤝 emoji graphics still going strong www.bloomberg.com/graphics/201...

Penn Station Is NYC's Commuter Nightmare, and It’s About to Get Worse

Misery ahead.

www.bloomberg.com

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Reposted by Hannah Recht

Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · Aug 19

What happens when government disinvests from public transit? Commutes get longer & more frustrating. A NJ Transit case study from me, @suryamattu.com and @mariepastora.bsky.social : www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

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