On Monday, we rolled out The Rainmakers, a look at the top 50 individual and top 50 group donors to California state political campaigns between 2001 and 2011.

Michael Corey
Senior Data Editor
Michael Corey is a former senior data editor. He led a team of data journalists who seek to distill large datasets into compelling and easily understandable stories using the tools of journalism, statistics and programming. His specialties include mapping, the U.S.-Mexico border, scientific data and working with remote sensing. Corey's work has been honored with an Online Journalism Award, an Emmy Award, a Polk Award, an IRE Medal and other national awards. He previously worked for the Des Moines Register and graduated from Drake University.
Notes on svg_mapper, our new vector mapping library
Last Friday, we posted what I suppose we’ll call a beta version of svg_mapper, a library of Python code for drawing vector-based maps that will work in both modern and legacy browsers.
Database: 125 suspicious activity reports from Mall of America
NPR News Investigations and the Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed 125 reports of shoppers and incidents at Mall of America that mall security personnel and local police identified as suspicious persons or activities potentially related to terrorism. The documents included personal information on the subjects, as well as detailed incident narratives written by mall security […]