Jeremia Kimelman

👋 I'm a data journalist at CalMatters, focused on quantifying the money and influence in California politics from Sacramento.

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jeremiak@journa-host.mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2025-02-13 21:47:30

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@nprofile…mgef Check must've gotten lost in the mail. Again!

2025-02-13 21:07:00

New slogan from the Internet Archive on a call just now about archiving federal data faster than it can be removed: "If you see something, save something"

2025-02-13 21:03:21

Sometimes I feel like the role of a journalist is to watch the world burn and tell people about it, though I don't think the pay is generally commensurate with that job description.
Anyway, took a week off social media and feeling... IDK, better but like the world is still on fire?

2025-01-24 20:00:43

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@nprofile…7sqx That's one helluva friday!

2025-01-20 19:57:24

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Lollll I’d give myself a C/C- on this attempt. The stick pile was like a 24 inch cube and this is all I got and some of it clearly turned to ash
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/862/443/349/707/900/original/b1476666fed78a41.jpeg

2025-01-20 19:54:14

Attempting to turn a huge-ish twig and wood pile into some homemade biochar in my small, urban backyard and not sure I nailed it tbh
Anybody have tips on how to achieve pyrolysis without special equipment?
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/862/433/367/909/114/original/a24c10fd3e1914b0.mp4

2025-01-18 17:54:02

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@nprofile…92y4 @nprofile…qz4x Too true, I’ve had a similar thought most days since Luigi v. Brian

2025-01-15 22:53:05

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In his reporting, Alastair talked to Alexandra Syphard, a senior research ecologist & adjunct prof at San Diego State who said not only would clearing brush from the whole area not have made a big difference on this fire, it might make things worse!
https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/dry-danger-zone-california-fires-climate-change/#h-brush-clearing-wouldn-t-help-much-experts-say

2025-01-15 22:53:05

The fires in LA seem to be particularly destructive for an array of factors but a major one is just how dry it is in the area!
Soil moisture levels across southern California are between just 2% and 5% of average, "leaving dust where there should be mud" and resulting in alive plants burning like they're already dead, reports Alastair Bland
https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/dry-danger-zone-california-fires-climate-change/
#news #california #lafires

2025-01-15 20:01:34

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Per a city spokesperson Chan will be paid $340,812.60 annually (he got $593,240 when he was city manager) and will get "all benefits under that classification for up to 12 month" in his new role

2025-01-15 19:04:58

Ummm I have no real idea what nostr is but I do know that every reply I get from there is semi-unintelligible, somehow about BTC, and the usernames make no sense. I guess that's just part of the federation game

2025-01-15 18:17:22

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FWIW, $352,000 for a city manager in California is nowhere near the top of the highest paid list. Here's the pay for city managers across the state
https://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/Cities.aspx?year=2023&rpt=9

2025-01-15 18:17:22

Last night #Sacramento City Council approved the contract for Interim City Manager Leyne Milstein (previously Asst. CM) with an annual salary of $352,000
But look who's back (or maybe just never left?): Howard Chan as "Special Advisor to the City Manager"
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/833/740/968/958/048/original/7674a09fc2b7d407.png

2025-01-14 21:51:55

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@nprofile…wv2t Holy shit from ~45% to 97% is a lot to accomplish in one year! That’s more than doubled! Hats off to everyone involved

2025-01-14 19:24:18

The fires in LA now cover an area larger than 40,000 acres, a huge swath of land roughly the size of Washington, DC.
Still having a hard time visualizing the size? Use my latest interactive map for CalMatters to compare it to a place you know much better: where you live.
https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/la-fires-size-mapped/
#lafires #dataviz #datavis

2025-01-14 06:27:57

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Here's a screenshot of a neighborhood in Altadena with the data showing where homes were damaged & by how much
Also drives home the point that fire perimeters are just that: perimeters - they don't mean that everything within them has burned
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/825/289/084/787/800/original/090f497705a0dcb3.png

2025-01-14 06:27:57

CalFire's data continues to get better and better! Or I just keep finding new stuff.
Either way, came across this #EatonFire dataset that has damage assessments per house & gets updated frequently. Not only that but it looks like there's a similar dataset for other recent major fires.
#opendata #gis #lafires
https://gis.data.cnra.ca.gov/apps/2e9b269c863c43a7a8cffadb951e19f1/explore

2025-01-14 05:27:33

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All the photos are stunning but this one really got me - I'm finding it nearly impossible to imagine my neighborhood reduced to ash & chimneys
This photo, taken by Jules Hotz, shows only a fireplace remaining after a home was burned down by the Eaton Fire in Altadena on Jan. 8, 2025
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/825/049/197/435/150/original/984ecad93d854c63.webp

2025-01-14 05:18:46

There's no shortage of heart-breaking photos from the fires in LA (support your local media with $$ or it might not be there next year!) but the CalMatters visuals team published a sad and harrowing collection today
https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/la-fires-photos/

2025-01-14 03:55:52

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@nprofile…0w8e That's a reasonable critique though I disagree. I don't think the Legislature isn't doing its job but:
* There's an insurance crisis made worse by the LA fires
* Sen. Rubio's spokesperson told Ryan that she didn't want the job and that she told McGuire that before his Jan 3 announcement of committees
* It's the *only* standing committee in the chamber without a chair

2025-01-13 21:30:20

The state Senate Insurance Committee doesn't have a chair as the huge fires in LA escalate the state's insurance crisis because of questions around a federal corruption investigation reports Ryan Sabalow for CalMatters
https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/01/california-democrat-senate-bribery-investigation/
#caleg #calmatters

2025-01-13 02:26:03

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@nprofile…xyvy lol, sick burn dude.
I encourage you to go ahead and read all of my pieces and let me know if you find anything amiss

2025-01-12 08:34:00

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@nprofile…dvrt @nprofile…5lc3 Not trying to take away from @nprofile…yg87 at all, he is the creator of Markdown. He also says that it "is *much* better thanks to Aaron’s ideas, feedback, and testing." I don't think Aaron handedly created CC either.
Anyway, I love Markdown and write in it every day so thanks John for creating it and Aaron for helping to make it so wonderful use!

2025-01-12 08:06:48

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@nprofile…fv4z Such a tremendous loss

2025-01-12 08:04:29

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@nprofile…mtgp What does zap mean?

2025-01-12 08:02:19

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@nprofile…kmhz Yo I’ll be honest - I don’t know what that means

2025-01-11 19:17:26

Thinking of Aaron Swartz today & I’m stuck on this photo - he & OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (both circled) each scraped 1000s of docs but one did it to make the knowledge free for all while the other did it to make $$$$ through probabilistic plagiarism. The US DOJ only came after one of them & the other is feted by tech bros and executives.
Thank you Aaron for so much, for RSS, for Markdown, for Creative Commons and more. I’m sorry our society failed you.
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/811/327/922/659/611/original/36bee08268222420.jpeg

2025-01-04 23:39:35

I had the cutest alarm clock this morning
#catsofmastodon
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/772/722/504/347/949/original/175cef014cf15521.jpeg