How to Search SEC Filings for a Story (2026)
Search SEC filings by going to EDGAR, the SEC’s public filing database, looking the company up by name, ticker or CIK number, filtering the … Read more
Theo Candless
How to Track Lobbying Money With Public Databases (2026)
Tracking lobbying money means going past a filing download and building a trail you can defend line by line. The federal record is public, … Read more
How to Use FBI Crime Data Without Misleading Readers (2026)
FBI crime data measures reported crime, not all crime. Every figure in the Uniform Crime Reporting program sits several filters downstream of an actual … Read more
How to Avoid Common Statistics Mistakes in News Stories 2026
Most statistics mistakes in news stories are not arithmetic errors. They are framing errors: a percentage printed without its base, a change described in … Read more
How to Find the Story in a Spreadsheet: A Guide (2026)
Finding the story in a spreadsheet means running a fixed sequence of moves on a dataset — sort, filter, pivot, compute, compare — until … Read more
How to Make Charts Accessible for Color Blind Readers (2026)
To make charts accessible for color blind readers, stop letting color carry meaning on its own: pick a palette built for color vision deficiency, … Read more
How to Make a Chart That Does Not Mislead Readers (2026)
To make a chart that does not mislead readers, you match the visual to the data: a zero baseline for bar length, a defensible … Read more
How to Verify a Photo Found on Social Media 2026
To verify a photo found on social media, save the original file, run it through more than one reverse image search engine, look for … Read more
How to Visualize Election Results on a Map (2026 Guide)
An election results map takes the numbers from an election return and draws them onto real geography, so readers can see not just who … Read more
How to Pick Colors for Data Visualizations: Tips for 2026
To pick colors for data visualizations, first work out whether your data is unordered categories, values on a scale, or values sitting either side … Read more