Kevin Schaul

Visual journalist/hacker

Posts

Recently December 20, 2023
Getting on the "Recently" blog post train. Time will tell how long this lasts ...
Writing a bad chess engine October 4, 2023
My bot just plays a random move so far. Can you write a better one?
Are you middle class? June 1, 2023
Some notes on the analysis and visualization techniques
Just pass in a CSS selector as a query parameter
I rebuilt our interactive mapping stack with open source technology
The federal government has tracked the path of every pain pill in the U.S. Here’s where they went and how they got there.
Mueller did so even as he declined to make a traditional judgment about whether Trump committed a crime.
There’s a new crop of lawmakers coming to Capitol Hill, about three generations removed from the current Democratic leadership.
The funding gap shuttered parts of several key Cabinet departments.
This can go two ways.
Democrats’ gains in the U.S. House on Tuesday reflected a stronger showing across white neighborhoods and suburbs of battleground districts.
Suburbs have the largest numbers of voters, so their subtle shifts can yield a decisive margin in votes.
Navigating the invisible boundary and physical barriers that define the U.S.-Mexico border
Dozens of Trump’s picks for lower federal courts have already been installed, leaving a conservative imprint on the nation’s judiciary.
They need 25 Republicans and all Democrats to force a vote.
There are 184 female candidates who are not incumbents who will be on the ballot in November. Many could make history — but most face a difficult road to victory.
Since taking office, President Trump has not been shy about expressing his thoughts on Twitter.
Excerpts from President Trump’s Jan. 2018 speech to a joint session
The 2018 races for the House of Representatives are Democrats’ best shot at regaining power in Washington.
There was little sign of the Trump surge that swept across GOP strongholds just a year ago and raised Republican hopes statewide.
The 3,000 ads were targeted at people by demographics including locations and interests.
The move opens up a seat in Arizona, which tends to vote just slightly for Republican candidates.
In the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, The Post asked readers whether we’re doing enough to prevent these attacks.
Throughout Southeast Texas, rainfall of biblical proportions has flooded tens of thousands of people out of their homes.
New aerial imagery from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has begun to reveal the extent of flooding in the area around Houston’s Addicks and Barker reservoirs.
We gauged where senators stand in relation to President Trump on a wide range of controversial issues.
Politicians from across the political spectrum have condemned President Trump’s reactions to the violent protests in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12.
The Senate rejected each of the GOP’s plans to overhaul health care offered this week, culminating in a dramatic 49-51 vote against a “skinny” repeal plan in the early hours of Friday.
Senate delays have played a role, but the White House has also been slow to put forward nominees for consideration.
Senate Republicans have pretty much no room for error as they try to rush through a health care bill in the next week.
More NHL and NBA teams have won consecutive championships than NFL and MLB. Here’s why.
A breakdown of who can get in under the new restrictions
Our quick-and-dirty app for scraping and juxtaposing TV commentary in real time
The Post tracked what cable news networks plastered across their viewers’ screens during the hearing.
President Trump suddenly fired FBI Director James Comey, and what to do about it is in the hands of Senate Republicans.
Only Obama has taken longer to fill out his Cabinet, though Trump was only one day shy of tying that mark.
House Republicans’ are facing decreasing opposition from moderates.
Enough Republicans publicly oppose the bill to kill it, but the White House is demanding a vote anyway.
It's unclear whether House leaders can attract enough votes at both ends of their party for passage.
A guide to the three-phase process Republicans plan to take to overhaul the nation’s health-care system.
Tracking these 662 executive branch appointments through the nomination process.
See which Zip codes are best and worse for real estate.
These logistical issues will be crucial to any border wall construction, no matter who pays for it.
Tracking the progress of Trump’s Cabinet picks
Trash the unpopular enemy or praise the controversial leader? This slight tweak in a speech’s framing implies a very different situation.
As state representatives listed off their delegate totals on the floor of Quicken Loans Arena, they also had some nice things to say about their home states.
Candidates do a lot of talking (some for too long), and it can be easy to just tune them out. So now we’re checking to see how well you’ve been paying attention.
Guns, abortion, foreign policy, terrorism, immigration. All have had their moments.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing at least 130 people in a string of terrorist attacks Friday in Paris.
Create your own definition of “mass shooting” with this tool
In the fourth Republican debate of the 2016 election cycle, candidates began to differentiate themselves on specifics of their policies.
Here’s how the other GOP candidates responded to Trumps conversation dominance.
For the first time in 41 seasons of “Saturday Night Live,” a presidential candidate near the top of the polls will host the show. Donald Trump is scheduled to host Nov. 7.
Rubio and Cruz had breakout performances.
Having a child brings obvious new expenses – diapers, cribs, strollers and babysitters, to name a few. But for women, having children also has a noticeable effect on how much money they make.
A roundup of what we know about the attacks in Benghazi and how Hillary Clinton was involved.
Take a look at the issues discussed and exchanges between candidates.
Even the most crowded U.S. urban areas seem rural compared to others across the globe.
It's clear: Horrific violence grips us, then we forget.
Christians were reportedly singled out in the Oregon shoot. This is how often Christians suffer hate crimes.
At Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate, 11 candidates will take the stage in an unexpected order – with the outsiders very much on the inside.
Who makes the debate stage is based on many tough decisions about polling.
For all the drama that might unfold in Thursday night's debate, history tells us that it's unlikely to have a huge impact on the polls — though it could matter for a candidate or two.
The world leaders involved in the Iran nuclear deal used their public power as a negotiation tool. Many of the requirements, “red lines” and other strongly worded provisions leaders insisted on do not appear in the final agreement.
The State Department is in the process of releasing 30,000 emails from Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State. Catch up on the controversy and read the emails below.
When Hillary Clinton handed over 30,000 e-mails to the State Department, she did so in a very 20th-century way: She had them all printed out.
The global wild tiger population is estimated at less than 4,500 animals, with about half of them living in India.
67 years of missing flights December 29, 2014
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch laid out this sequence of events in the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, assembled from physical evidence and witness testimony.
Fewer voters show up for midterm elections than in presidential years. The chart shows which party did better in matching its presidential vote in states with Senate races.
The Washington Post’s live election results pages.
If Scots vote to bid cheerio to the United Kingdom, the country would be independent as of March 2016. Here are some of the biggest changes that would occur.
Reimagining Union Station September 12, 2014
The best beer in baseball August 8, 2014
Do you know Africa? August 1, 2014
A field too far? June 26, 2014
Can you find Benghazi? June 17, 2014
Leagues of the World Cup June 12, 2014
The circular files May 13, 2014
Beer Me, Minnesota! March 13, 2014
I'll be kicking off my career with the Washington Post in April as a graphics editor, and I am absolutely thrilled.
A Web of Influence December 22, 2013
Choose Your Own Donation December 22, 2013
How ranked-choice voting works September 15, 2013
The Ad Campaign July 15, 2013
Depict aims to easily render fallback images for complex visualizations. (IE 8, I'm looking at you.) Given a url and css selector, depict outputs a .png of the rendered element. With depict, charts based on living data can be rendered into flat images at regular intervals, no human interaction required.
A Nation of Wineries July 7, 2013
The brilliant Krzysztof Dorosz has developed csvpys, an extension to the data journalist must-have csvkit.
Introducing: Binify April 19, 2013
There’s nothing less funny than listening to a journalism professor joking that we’re all in this field because we can’t do math. Some of the best journalism being done today only exists because journalists overcame their fear of numbers and dug deep into the data.
Guns and deadly streets March 16, 2013
Minnesota's Radon Zones February 8, 2013
Data-driven opinion February 4, 2013
It's interesting that you compare these software processes to building wrist watches. As a journalism and computer science double major, I am always looking to apply techniques from one area of study to the other.
Stay classy, Seattle August 25, 2012
I'm leaving Facebook August 3, 2012
Looking back April 5, 2012
Editorial arrogance January 3, 2012
I finally got around to seeing Page One last night, a documentary about the New York Times, and a certain point hit harder than the rest.
This past week, I worked with election data for the first time. Beth Hawkins, education reporter at MinnPost, wanted to do something special for the school district levy election. She forwarded me a document from the Minnesota Secretary of State containing information about the then upcoming election. She was hoping for a way to display, on a map, which school districts passed their referendums.
What's in a web app? May 13, 2011