John Osborn D’Agostino is the Data and Interactives Editor at CalMatters.
John is passionate about experimenting with different ways to tell digital stories. In particular, he enjoys telling stories with game mechanics: he spearheaded “Gimme Props“, an interactive that allows users to explore how they may want to vote on certain ballot measures, designed and developed a game that allows prospective students to explore the complexities of financing college, and allowed users to explore how they would spend California’s record surplus in 2022.
John also heads up major data-driven projects, some of which have won awards, including a dashboard utilizing water data that explores many of the complexities and challenges California faces when managing drought and wet years. He also helped launch a similar-spirited dashboard exploring wildfires across the state, helping to contextualize how wildfires have impacted the state.
Previously, John worked with The Hechinger Report, EdSource, the East Bay Express, Berkeleyside, and the North Coast Journal. He graduated from Cal Poly Humboldt and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
The Park Fire just pushed California’s wildfire season into overdrive. It has grown rapidly since it started near Chico on July 24. Within two days, the blaze had consumed some 178,000 acres, then it doubled the next day. By Sunday, the fire had devoured more acres than all of this year’s other fires to date […]
El costo a nivel nacional para tratar o reemplazar el agua potable contaminada se estima en 1,500 millones de dólares al año. Estas sustancias químicas omnipresentes, relacionadas con el cáncer y otras enfermedades, se acumulan en las personas y el medio ambiente.
The nationwide cost to treat or replace contaminated drinking water is estimated at $1.5 billion a year. The ubiquitous chemicals, linked to cancer and other diseases, build up in people and the environment.
“This has been a long time coming,” Fox News host Sean Hannity says in a hype video. It sure has. And many in the political world seem to be treating tonight’s long-awaited face-off between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a sporting event. So we’ve got the political debate version of […]
When budget season arrived in 2022, state lawmakers enjoyed the excitement and possibilities over how to spend a record $97.5 billion budget surplus, a shocking figure coming at the end of a bruising COVID-19 pandemic. But the two ensuing years have played out like a mirror universe as the state stares down a budget deficit […]
The new state Legislature is the most diverse ever, but by some measures, it still isn’t fully representative of California. See details in our interactive tool.
En Resumen La nueva Legislatura estatal es la más diversa que ha existido, pero por algunas medidas, todavía no representa completamente a cómo luce California. Read this article in English. La Legislatura de California que se vuelve a reunir hoy es la más diversa de la historia: Incluye un número récord de mujeres, ocupando 50 […]
California is in position to spend a jaw-dropping surplus. Gov. Gavin Newsom has outlined his plans for the money, and the Legislature has ideas of its own. What are yours?