I joined the L.A. Times, the newspaper I grew up reading, in 2013 as a fellow in the Metpro training program. Across nearly eight years as a journalist there I covered a variety of topics, always with an eye towards telling compelling stories after thorough data analysis.
I utilized a variety of technical tools to accomplish this: R and python as an everyday starting point with data, QGIS for geospatial analysis, PostgreSQL databases for especially large queries and the front-end development stack of HTML, CSS and JavaScript to publish my work for a digital audience.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of work in which I played a major or minor part. In a few cases, I’ve also linked to some code behind the analyses on GitHub. If you have questions about anything listed below, please get in touch.
The toxic legacy of California’s abandoned oil wells
A look at the history of drilling for oil in California and the legacy wells – many uncapped despite years of neglect and abandonment by their owners – leave behind. After joining state records with census data, we estimated that nearly 2 million Californians (half of them in Los Angeles) live in close proximity to unplugged wells, residents who face daily risks of contaminated air and potential leaks.
The toxic legacy of old oil wells: California’s multibillion-dollar problem [2020-02-06]
Deserted oil wells haunt Los Angeles with toxic fumes and enormous cleanup costs [2020-03-05]
L.A.’s proposed outdoor sleeping ban
An analysis of a City Hall attempt to limit where people experiencing homeless would be able to bed down for the night. By using GIS tools to draw buffers around restricted sites laid out in the proposed legislation, we estimated that one-quarter of the area of Los Angeles would be blocked off for sleeping, on top of other existing restrictions.
Maps: L.A. might ban homeless people from sleeping on many streets. What about your block? [2019-09-19]
Many of L.A.’s sidewalks would be off-limits for homeless people to sleep if plan passes [2019-09-19]
Behind every race for votes is a battle for money. These stories and graphics were the result of comprehensive research into campaign finance records across various local and state elections, aiming to identify who was spending big to influence politicians and voters, and why.
Billions have been spent on California’s ballot measure battles. But this year is unlike any other [2020-11-13]
How eight elite San Francisco families funded Gavin Newsom’s political ascent [2018-09-07]
Fueled by unlimited donations, independent groups play their biggest role yet in a California primary for governor [2018-05-27]
A few rich charter school supporters are spending millions to elect Antonio Villaraigosa as California governor [2018-05-16]
The cannabis industry has a clear favorite in the race to be California’s next governor [2017-07-27]
Tracker: The millions funding the campaign to recall California’s governor [2021-11-15]
Tracker: The mega-donors and police unions pouring millions into the L.A. County district attorney race [2020-11-03]
Tracker: The millions flowing into California’s race for governor [2018-08-06]
Tracker: The money that fueled the California primary for governor [2017-05-01]
How L.A. cops and firefighters gamed the city’s unusal pension program for lucrative time off
A comprehensive look at the city’s Deferred Retirement Option Program, or DROP. By joining a city database containing the daily time cards of LAPD and LAFD employees to the list of enrollees in the controversial pension program, we found abuse to be rampant. City officials reformed the parameters to how much absent employees can collect while in the DROP, in response to our reporting.
Battling treacherous office chairs and aching backs, aging cops and firefighters miss years of work and collect twice the pay [2018-02-03]
Veteran L.A. cops and firefighters can work one shift, then collect double pay for years [2018-02-18]
Garcetti, council members ignored 2016 report finding waste, flaws in police and fire retirement program [2018-03-03]
L.A. police and firefighters rush to join controversial retirement program [2018-04-15]
Workers claim injuries all over their bodies for big payouts — but continue their active lives [2018-07-15]
Before becoming LAPD chief, Moore retired, collected a $1.27-million payout, then was rehired [2018-08-11]
Controversial retirement program for L.A. police and firefighters would be reformed under new proposal [2018-08-24]
Reforming controversial retirement program for L.A. police and firefighters would save millions of dollars [2018-10-31]
Lawler’s Law: “First to 100 wins. It’s the law.”
Formers Clippers television broadcaster Ralph Lawler’s oft-repeated phrase had been the subject of my personal fascination for a long time. I analyzed NBA data to write about The Law’s origins, its accuracy, what it says about the way basketball is played and how the man who coined the phrase never changed during his long career. It ran as the Column One, a spot for special feature stories, on Apr. 16, 2019.
Does the first team to score 100 points usually win? We checked 27,000 NBA games to find out [2019-04-16]
Behind the story: How basketball stats bolstered math theory for one number-crunching reporter [2019-04-16]
Code: Gathering, analyzing and plotting the data [2019-04-17]
Students and the education system
Only 35 L.A. public schools get an A in supporting the arts [2015-11-02]