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Fast Company
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Fast Company
These geeks are building an early warning system for disappearing government data
To a certain brand of policy wonk, January 31, 2025, is a day that will live in infamy. It had been nearly two weeks since President Donald Trump took office for the second time—days that passed in a swirl of executive orders to cut federal spending and rid the government of now-forbidden ideas—when suddenly, vast troves of government data began to disappear in a single day. 'My inbox exploded, and it was just people emailing saying, 'Hey, do you know where this dataset went?'' says Meeta Anand, senior director of census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. By The New York Times 's count, more than 8,000 web pages housing information on topics like vaccines, hate crimes, Alzheimer's disease, and environmental policy simply went poof in a matter of hours. While most of those websites quickly came back online, there was no telling whether or how they had changed while they were dark. This was the moment Chris Dick and Denice Ross had been fearing—and the one they'd been preparing for. After the November 2024 election, Ross (who was, until January of this year, President Biden's chief data scientist) began thinking about how to protect the data that underpins policies Trump was promising to undo. She reached out to Dick, previously an Obama-era Census Bureau official, to come up with a plan. 'When I'm worried about data, Chris is the person I call,' Ross, who is now a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, says. For years, experts feared that a president known for pushing 'alternative facts' would try to alter or erase fundamental knowledge. When Trump first took office in 2017, researchers raced to archive climate data and other government resources that looked vulnerable. After the 2024 election, archivists sprung into action once more, with a group called Data Rescue Project becoming a clearinghouse for the many simultaneous efforts to preserve government information. That was vital, but in many ways Ross and Dick saw it as a first step. What the country needed wasn't just a snapshot of data from January 2025, but a way to keep that data flowing—and a way to know what data might soon be at risk. The result of their collaboration is a new project called America's Data Index, which Dick describes as a sort of weather forecast for government datasets. Using a combination of automation and human review, the site is tracking roughly two dozen widely used datasets—from the National Crime Victimization Survey to the Census of Agriculture—to identify in real time any changes that are being made to the websites that host them. 'There are more changes to the federal statistical system and the federal government overall than we have seen at least in my lifetime,' says Dick, who now runs his own data firm, Demographic Analytics Advisors. Keeping tabs on how these changes are impacting people is 'more important now than it ever has been,' he says. The White House did not respond to Fast Company 's request for comment. The Data Index also monitors other signs that data might be at risk of disappearing. Federal law, for instance, requires agencies collecting data on people to seek new approval every three years. The Index monitors which datasets are set to expire and whether the White House has moved to renew them. Another signal of potential change comes in the form of legal requests the White House must submit each time it wants to change how data about people is collected. In some cases, the public has a chance to comment on those changes, known as Information Collection Requests; in others, where those changes are deemed minor, it doesn't. The goal, Dick says, is to alert anyone who might rely on that data—be it legal advocates, healthcare systems, journalists, or businesses—so they can respond before a crisis hits. 'Weather forecasts are useful both in blue skies as well as in storms,' Dick says, 'but they're more useful before storms.' To come up with an initial list of datasets worth monitoring, Dick and Ross worked with groups like the Leadership Conference to find out what data civil rights leaders were most concerned about losing. Anand says she viewed the Data Index as, in some ways, even more critical than an archive. 'It's one thing to preserve the data that's already been collected, but you can't manufacture data that was never collected at all,' she tells Fast Company. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vast majority of change requests have related to executive orders the president has signed—most notably a January 20 order that, among other things, instructed government agencies to remove all statements, forms, and other internal and external messages 'that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.' As public reporting has shown, that order and others triggered a widespread purge across the federal government of terms like gender ideology, nonbinary, transgender, and more than 100 other words and phrases. But the change requests reveal exactly where and how that censorship is being carried out. In just a three-week period in May, for example, the White House Office of Management and Budget submitted 62 change requests related to the gender executive order. Those changes include, for instance, removing a question from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey asking young people if they're transgender. Another request proposed altering questions about gender identity and hate crimes in the National Crime Victimization Survey. In many cases, these changes were submitted as 'non-substantive,' which means they can slide under the radar, without allowing for public comment. Yet these changes stand to wildly distort what we know about the country, by, say, pretending entire populations of people simply don't exist. 'People's lived experiences need to be reflected in the data so that we are able to have a democracy responsive to people's needs,' Anand says. It can be difficult, of course, to get anyone worked up about protecting data at a time when so many other rights and institutions are being toppled. 'Who's going to march in the streets to save NOAA's [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] vegetation health index data?' Ross says. But part of what Dick and Ross are trying to do is help a wider circle of people, beyond their fellow data nerds, understand how their lives are impacted by government data. As part of this project, they've launched another site, called America's Essential Data, which is collecting individual stories of heroic uses of data. Already, they've amassed accounts of government data being used to deliver tornado warnings in languages that local refugee communities can understand, businesses designing new products based on demographic data, and, yes, farmers using NOAA's vegetation health index data to seek out tax relief during droughts. Dick and Ross may not be able to stop the Trump administration from dismantling government data, but they can at least help us see the damage more clearly.
Ottawa Citizen
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Gearey: The public service needs honest discussion about the real world
At this year's APEX (Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada) Leadership Conference, executives from across the federal public service gathered under the banner of Building Trusted Connections to reflect on leadership. Article content 'Culture' took centre stage, with speakers such as global values expert David Allison, well-being guru Neil Pasricha, and Juno-nominated Peter Katz, who emphasized that behaviours executives elevate become culture, and over time they become legacy. Article content Article content Article content As engaging as the sessions were, there was a noticeable absence of discussion about the external forces reshaping the work of the federal public service. Article content The leadership conference offers prime ground for meaningful dialogue with a highly engaged audience. I personally look at the summit as a barometer for where leadership's attention should be focused in the year ahead: what's put on the table is just as telling as what's left off. Article content Culture matters, but when it comes at the expense of outward awareness, it loses its lustre. I couldn't reconcile the general content of the conference with the absence of substantive discussion on the intensifying geopolitical instability; the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence; or the ramifications of what's happening to diversity and inclusion south of the border. Article content Geopolitical turmoil is pressing on our public service; Canada is navigating the consequences of a more protectionist United States, increased cyber threats, supply-chain fragility and the growing complexity of national security and economic priorities. Article content Article content The effects of conflict, economic instability, disinformation campaigns and shifting global alliances don't stay in foreign affairs briefings. They affect procurement, immigration, trade, cybersecurity, communications and much more. A candid lecture at APEX from someone working at the intersection of these global forces could have helped public servants think critically about how external realities are already influencing their work. Are such conversations reserved for only a select few? Are they too politically sensitive, or are we underestimating the public service's ability — and responsibility — as a whole to be part of them? Article content
New York Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
For Trump, Civil Rights Protections Should Help White Men
In his drive to purge diversity efforts in the federal government and beyond, President Trump has expressed outright hostility to civil rights protections. He ordered federal agencies to abandon some of the core tenets of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, on the basis that they represented a 'pernicious' attempt to make decisions based on diversity rather than merit. But in recent weeks, Mr. Trump has turned to those same measures — not to help groups that have historically been discriminated against, but to remedy what he sees as the disenfranchisement of white men. The pattern fits into a broader trend in the administration, as Trump officials pick and choose which civil rights protections they want to enforce, and for whom. Across the government, agencies that have historically worked to fight discrimination against Black people, women and other groups have pivoted to investigating institutions accused of favoring them. 'The plain message that they are conveying is: If you even think about, talk about or claim to be in favor of diversity, of equity, of inclusion, of accessibility, you will be targeted,' said Maya Wiley, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. 'They're conveying that white men are the most discriminated against people in American society,' she added, 'and therefore entitled to affirmative action.' The White House has defended its actions as part of an effort to put merit ahead of diversity. 'The Trump administration is dedicated to advancing equality, combating discrimination and promoting merit-based decisions, upholding the rule of law as outlined in the U.S. Constitution,' said Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman. During his campaign for president, Mr. Trump expressed concern about what he called 'a definite anti-white feeling in this country.' Now in his second term, he has made quick work of addressing it. He has made a major push to root out programs that promote diversity, which he has suggested lead to the hiring of incompetent people. In recent weeks, agencies have launched investigations that signal the administration's shift in its civil rights enforcement. On Monday, the administration said it had opened a civil rights investigation into the city of Chicago to see if its mayor or others had engaged in a pattern of discrimination by hiring a number of Black people to senior positions. The investigation came after Chicago's mayor, Brandon Johnson, praised the number of Black people in top city jobs during remarks at a local church. Speaking to congregants, Mr. Johnson said some of his detractors had claimed he only ever talks about 'the hiring of Black people.' 'No,' he continued. 'What I'm saying is when you hire our people, we always look out for everybody else. We are the most generous people on the planet.' The head of the civil rights division at the Justice Department, Harmeet K. Dhillon, said the comments justified investigating the city's hiring practices to see if they discriminated against people who are not Black. The Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department is investigating whether Chicago's public school system is violating the Civil Rights Act with its 'Black Students Success Plan,' alleging that it favors one group of academically underperforming students over others. And last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission launched an investigation at Harvard University, alleging that the school had engaged in discriminatory hiring because it showed a significant increase in the percentage of minority, female and nonbinary faculty earning tenure over the past decade while the rates for white men declined. In a letter sent to the university on April 25, the acting chairwoman of the E.E.O.C., Andrea R. Lucas, said she had started the investigation based on the university's expressed desire for 'demographic diversification of the faculty.' Ms. Lucas said she believed the university may have violated the Civil Rights Act by intentionally treating individuals of certain groups differently from another protected class. While she wrote that other groups could have been discriminated against, including Asians, men, or straight people who applied for jobs or student training programs, her justification was focused almost exclusively on the outcomes of white men. In her letter, Ms. Lucas cited now-deleted statistics retrieved from the university's archives that showed that the percentage of tenured white male faculty dropped from 64 percent in 2013 to 56 percent in 2023. She also noted that while white men made up 56 percent of tenured faculty, they represented only 32 percent of tenure-track faculty. The data, she wrote, gave her 'reason to believe that these trends and the underlying pattern or practice of discrimination based on race and sex have continued in 2024 and are ongoing.' The E.E.O.C. investigation, which was first reported by the conservative news site The Washington Free Beacon, is one of several the administration has launched in its battle to get the nation's oldest university to bend to the president's agenda. Both the E.E.O.C. and Harvard declined to comment for this article. Ms. Lucas's letter to Harvard was sent two days after Mr. Trump issued an executive order banning the use of 'disparate impact,' a legal theory that helps determine whether certain policies disadvantaged certain groups, even unintentionally. Conservatives have denounced disparate impact because it relies on outcome data to allege and prove discrimination — the basis on which Ms. Lucas lodged her charge against Harvard. Even those who have criticized the use of disparate impact in the past said the E.E.O.C. investigation smacked of hypocrisy and retribution. 'This is obviously hypocritical on its face,' said Michael J. Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank and a vocal critic of disparate impact analyses. 'Here the administration is using statistics to launch an investigation, and just two weeks ago, they said that they were going to ban this practice. So, which is it?' The E.E.O.C., the nation's primary litigator of workplace discrimination, has become a powerful tool for the Trump administration as it tries to pressure institutions that do not align with the president's agenda. Last month, it began questioning the hiring practices of 20 of the country's biggest law firms, claiming that their efforts to recruit Black and Hispanic lawyers and create a more diverse work force may have discriminated against white candidates. The E.E.O.C. investigation into Harvard was also unusual, former E.E.O.C. officials said. Using diversity statements and data as evidence is extremely rare, as was a charge of this nature being initiated by a commissioner rather than an individual claiming workplace discrimination. Jenny R. Yang, a former chairwoman of the commission, said that the basis for the investigation would not make for a strong case on either disparate impact or disparate treatment theory. 'Aspiring to promote diversity is not the same at all as considering race and gender in an individual hiring decision,' Ms. Yang said. 'They're essentially doing what they falsely disparaged disparate impact of doing.' In a statement, Mr. Fields, the White House spokesman, reiterated the administration's position on Mr. Trump's civil rights goals, and the president's grievances against Harvard. 'The Trump administration is committed to advancing equality, combating antisemitism, promoting merit-based decisions and enforcing the basic terms of government contracts,' Mr. Fields said. But civil rights experts said the administration's goals are clear. Catherine E. Lhamon, who previously served as the head of the Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department, said the investigations showed a pattern of 'performative misapplication of federal civil rights law.' 'The Trump administration's transparently vendetta-driven investigations categorically do not focus on fulfilling Congress's guarantee that federal nondiscrimination protections apply equally,' Ms. Lhamon said. 'Civil rights, properly understood, do not pit one group against another but protect all of us.'
India Today
21-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Zero tolerance is India's new doctrine: Raghav Chadha hails Op Sindoor in Seoul
Operation Sindoor has sent a clear message that India will strike deep to dismantle terror safe havens and the world must come together for a united front against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said at the Leadership Conference (ALC) in South said that while India mourns its victims, the country has also demonstrated unprecedented resolve in responding to terror threats and "Zero tolerance is India's new doctrine".advertisementOperation Sindoor was not just a military strike, it was a message, he said. "India does not seek conflict, but will never shy away from defending its people," Chadha asserted, calling for a united global front against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. He hailed the operation as proof that India can strike deep and dismantle terror safe havens and emphasised the need for global solidarity in the fight against a packed audience of global leaders and delegates at what is often called the 'Davos of the East', Chadha said, "Operation Sindoor has sent a loud and clear message: India will strike deep and dismantle terror safe havens. We must come together to ensure that such infrastructure finds no shelter anywhere in the world."He invoked India's dual legacy of peace and resistance, citing Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence alongside the courage of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Yahoo
Area correctional officers learn how to better their facilities at annual conference
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Correctional officers and law enforcement professionals from all over the northeast gathered at the National Correctional Employees Union Leadership Conference. Man injured in accidental shooting on Pasadena Street in Springfield The NCEU represents approximately 3,000 corrections, communications, and law enforcement professionals in the northeast, and Wednesday, they were back at the birthplace of the union. The National Correctional Employees Union was formed in Springfield, and now includes public employee locals in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Attendees learned techniques to make their facilities a better place to work and serve. 'What we're trying to do is educate, gives tools and resources to our members and leaders in order for them to take it back to their particular groups and move everything forward so that they feel confident in doing their job,' said Christopher Murphy, President of the NCEU. Contributing to that goal was a program of speakers on topics ranging from labor management to de-escalation tactics, how to respond to conflict professionally, rather than act personally. 'In the verbal judo world, we ask people, we tell them why we want them to do things, and we give them options,' said Robert Doherty, Associate Instructor at the Verbal Judo Institute and speaker at Wednesday's conference. 'And those options more often than not steer people towards a positive outcome for all.' Methods learned are keeping local public employees well-equipped to manage not only inmate populations, but larger populations as well. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
