Derek Willis

New: At least 80% of Stacy Garrity's recent fundraising haul came from the operators and distributors of skill games, including $2 million from an Pittsburgh man accused by a grand jury of running an illegal gambling ring with his father. www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/10...

I'll believe we've reached AGI when the agent responds, "WTF dude, that's insane."

"The number of federal donors giving through WinRed, the major GOP online fundraising platform, is down, with roughly 1.5 million donors so far this cycle compared to 2.2 million at this time in 2022."

This "leaked email" appeared in July: secure.winred.com/rogers/elon-...

It’s going great, gang:

Pretty proud of this one. @jaclynkettler.bsky.social and I dive deep on increasingly psychotic fundraising practices, with assists from our pal @dwillis.bsky.social and the deep research by @adambonica.bsky.social and @shanegoldmacher.bsky.social. www.boisestatepublicradio.org/podcast/scan...

Said it before, will say it again: Kaila Charles is my favorite Terp.

Seven musicians to get to know you: Bob Mould Grant Hart Roger Miller John Coltrane Keith Elam (Guru) Al Yankovic Louise Post

How do you say "spit-take" in Portuguese?

My main takeaway from the first 3 days of early voting (plus mail-in ballots) in Maryland is that Talbot County voters, mostly Democrats, seem *very motivated*: Highest return rate for mail ballots (59.9%) & highest % of early voters (9.6%). newsappsumd.github.io/skipjack/tur...

the "protect women's sports (insofar as it does not inconvenience or eclipse in any way men's sports)" theory remains undefeated

No. No we are not doing that. www.upworthy.com/what-is-gen-...

Really incredible analysis by @spettigrew.bsky.social & John Lapinski looking at scenarios for control of the House. Highly recommend reading the article: nbcnews.com/politics/202... And there's a fun interactive showing how vote shifts impact seat count: nbcnews.com/politics/202...

After three years of work, I am honored to share that my dataset of US Secretary of State speeches (1997-2026) is now public! Jay Revolinsky and I introduce a novel corpus of all remarks delivered by US SoS's throughout the post-Cold War (~17,700 speeches) including Rubio. github.com/revolins/sos...

cc @dicknixon.bsky.social

If we had kept images on the Internet the way they were when dial-up was the main way to connect - when you had to wait forever and then stitch together multiple files to make one picture - that would be preferable to what we have in some ways.

Sure, this is laughable, but maybe Coach AI doesn't require a $25 million buyout?

Great timing, Maryland Athletics!

Chat, is it good to not stop a potential pandemic?

We looked at how much money California billionaires spent against Prop. 40. It's 0.07% of their wealth: www.latimes.com/politics/sto...

As they typically do every election cycle. Sometimes it's $10M, sometimes $20M. GOP committees do this, too (tbf the article mentions this at the end).

Just as a private equity firm buys out a corporation and strips it for parts, a consultant class is raiding the Democratic Party and getting “generationally wealthy” along the way New from me and @adambonica.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...

Is it weird that I read about this in the Banner and not, idk, any campus publications? Yes, yes it is weird. www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Just finished reading Bob Woodward's piece in the New Yorker and it confirms my only personal experience of him, when he invited the Post's investigative team over to his house for breakfast ~20 years ago: the man is an odd duck.

Maryland not only fired the football coach, they apparently fired all the athletic staffers who understand that they work at a public university. Crazily wrong behavior to call the cops on student journalists standing in public.

The Guardian spent 9 or 10 months on our justice of the peace investigation. A total of 15 people worked on it at one point or another. 11,000 pages of court records, responsible AI tools, and a custom-made browser extension: read all about how we got it done

Mentions of "data center" in political fundraising emails by week since October 2026: thescoop.org/political-em...

I study right wing politics and political communication for a living and... yea this probably is the GOAT in terms of being evil

Cleveland.com made a big deal about using AI to write stories so it could free up reporters to do more reporting. This ain’t it.

Good, necessary work that's worth your money.

Tonight @terpswbb.bsky.social begins its season with an exhibition game against Virginia Tech. To help you prepare for #NCAAWBB I've built a roster database: sports-roster-data.github.io/womens-colle...

After Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, lost his primary, his campaign picked up the tab for some meals, airfare, and lodging in Europe. docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/form...

Found a YouTube video of Jawbox performing “Savory” and the top comments are from the child of two of the band members and two others who had the bassist as their 8th grade teacher. Incredible.

I hate picking favorite Terps but Kaila might be my favorite Terp.

More details in my newsletter, SELECT *: buttondown.com/dwillis

A cricket stadium

My first cut of 2026-27 women's college basketball roster data is out, along with a new website for browsing and filtering it! sports-roster-data.github.io/womens-colle...

🚨🚨🚨dope ass job alert🚨🚨🚨

Measles saw the price of diesel rising and said, "hold my beer." www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/us-m...

Well past time for news organizations to recognize Meta for what it always has been: a company only interested in its own products, not yours.

🚨 🚨 🚨 Iran’s missiles/drones have struck Gulf infrastructure w/ precision while often concealing extent of damage. Despite repeated gov statements that the damage came from debris, Reuters found the equipment struck was, time and again, exactly what mattered most. www.reuters.com/investigates...

Elon Musk is now officially the biggest-ever disclosed midterm donor. Here's where the $$ went: Before tonight - $91 million to back Republicans. Tonight's filings - $158 million to SLF PAC to back Ken Paxton, plus $88 million to his America PAC TOTAL SO FAR: $337 million. & more coming tonight.

Happy #FECFilingDay to all those who celebrate! Today we'll see reports covering fundraising and spending activity from July 1 - September 30 from many congressional candidates and some committees.

That's my student, and I'm proud of her.