Fair Lines News Today

A federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a public records lawsuit on the 2020 census based on a Websters dictionary definition of one obscure word: “whereby.”

A federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a public records lawsuit on the 2020 census based on a Webster's dictionary definition of one obscure word:

Redistricting lines have created battle lines in New York.

Close FILE - College students begin moving in for the fall semester at N.C. State University in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, July 31, 2020. By the end of the U.S. head count last year, the Census Bureau lacked data for almost a fifth of the nations occupied college dorms, nursing homes and prisons, requiring the statistical agency to make eleventh-hour calls to facilities in an effort to collect resident information or use a last-resort statistical technique to fill in the gaps. Gerry...

1 of 3 Colorado redistricting commissioners, from left, Carlos Perez, Blanca O’Leary and Jolie Brawner, with more commissioners who joined remotely, discuss suggested changes to the preliminary draft maps with members from the public this month in Arvada.

But that isn’t entirely what’s been going on. In at least one example at the commissions’ public input hearing Tuesday in Arvada, a woman who painted herself as an everyday Jane Q. Public and implied no political connection gave specific map suggestions to the commissions after being coached by a paid political consultant. After The Gazette began asking questions about the episode, it has been reported as part of a paid lobbying effort. And while that’s not against the law, the constitu...

When U.S. Census Bureau workers couldn’t find out any information about some households after repeatedly mailing them questionnaire reminders and sending census takers to knock on their doors, the statisticians turned to an obscure, last-resort statistical technique known as “imputation.” Less than 1% of households were counted using the technique during the 2020 census. But…

The U.S. Census Bureau had a last-resort solution for getting information on households that failed to respond to the once-a-decade headcount

This cycle, the stakes could not be higher.