Jeff Larson

Reporter

Housing Segregation: The Great Migration and Beyond

Explore the great migration of African Americans from 1940 to 2000 and segregation in Northern cities.

Anatomy of a News Map

Behind the scenes on our great migration graphic.

Iraq Blocks Syria's Request to Fetch Combat Helicopters from Russia

Mystery solved. Syria had requested to ferry attack helicopters from Russia over Iraq, but the flights hadn't happened. Now, the Iraqis say they denied permission.

To Retrieve Attack Helicopters from Russia, Syria Asks Iraq for Help, Documents Show

Documents show that Syria asked Iraqiauthorities to grant air access to fly in refurbished attack helicopters fromRussia, putting a spotlight on Iraq’s role in the nearly two-year conflict.

Syria Claims Turkey Committed 'Air Piracy,' New Documents Say

Hackers with the online group Anonymous posted new documents giving Syria’s version of how Turkey impounded a Syrian Arab Airlines passenger jet last month. The documents could not be authenticated.

Flight Records Say Russia Sent Syria Tons of Cash

The records of overflight requests show more than 200 tons of "bank notes" from Moscow to Damascus.

New Open Source Project: Daybreak, a Simple Key/Value Database for Ruby

A couple of weeks ago, in an article about the science behind the Message Machine project, we mentioned the custom key-value store we built to store non-relational data. Today, we're open sourcing the library which we're calling Daybreak.

Message Machine: Tracking Political Targeting

Political campaigns send many variations of each email to supporters. We've been collecting emails from political campaigns and tracking the variations. You can be a part of this project by forwarding political emails you get to [email protected].

Message Machine Starts Providing Answers

Political campaigns use massive databases to target their constituents. ProPublica's Message Machine is beginning to find some answers on how they do it.

How ProPublica's Message Machine Reverse Engineers Political Microtargeting

How the message machine works.

Campaign Email Overload? We've Got a Website for That

The political conventions are upon us, and with them a new flood of campaign emails. ProPublica debuts a new campaign emails Tumblr.

Explore Hundreds of Campaign Emails in the Message Machine

Today we're opening up the political campaign emails we have collected from our readers.

Message Machine Update: A Cameo by Sheldon Adelson

On Saturday the Obama campaign sent an email to supporters mentioning Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul who has donated millions to Republican super PACs.

Message Machine: Dinner at Sarah Jessica Parker’s House

Last Monday, the Obama campaign sent out an email about a dinner with the President at Sarah Jessica Parker's house this coming Thursday. We received 7 versions of it.

North Dakota Spills

With the help of hydraulic fracturing, energy companies have doubled North Dakota's oil production in the past two years. But the oil boom has come at a cost: these companies are spilling and leaking oil and wastewater at an increasing rate.

Help Us Track How Politicians Target You

Political campaigns are using increasingly sophisticated methods to target messages to voters, methods that are not at all transparent. We need your help to uncover and understand them.

Announcing Simpler Tiles

Today, we're releasing Ruby bindings for Simple Tiles, so you can generate tiles from Ruby.

When Are 190 Emails Like Six Emails?

Reverse-Engineering Obama’s Message Machine

How different are a campaign's emails to different voters? President Obama's re-election campaign tried at least six different messages sent on behalf of campaign deputy manager Julianna Smoot in an email blast last week.

Message Machine: Reverse Engineering an Obama Email Campaign

Campaigns are increasingly tailoring their messages -- and their funding requests -- using massive databases of personal information about potential voters. Here are six variations of a Thursday night message from the Obama campaign, based on emails submitted by 190 recipients across the country.

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