Here’s a sampling of what inspired us, what challenged our assumptions, and what became most beloved in our browser tabs.

Make It Stop

(Boston Globe, June 16, 2016)
It’s hard to look away from this gut-punch of an opinion piece. Simple animation clocks a spray of bullets, while forceful prose and elegant design work in tandem to build a scathing argument. (And let’s not forget the print edition.)

Here are All the Congresspeople who Took NRA Money and Tweeted Prayers for Orlando

(Fusion, June 13, 2016)
Which NRA-backed members of Congress tweeted their prayers for the victims of the Orlando shootings? A whole bunch—more than a hundred. Fusion lays it all out, with links to each Twitter account.

Plus: Over at the Washington Post, browse this huge constellation of lawmaker’ written statements—and this cutaway floor plan of the Pulse nightclub, created soon after the shooting, which used sources such as “Orlando Planning Commission, Orange County Property Appraiser, Pictometry International, law enforcement, Google Earth and staff reports.”

The Tampa Bay Times created this 3D interactive walkthrough of Pulse, showing how luck, and the layout of the building, affected the odds of survival.

The UK in Europe: a visual guide to Brexit

(Financial Times, June 16, 2016)
This guide breaks Brexit’s history and issues into manageable chunks, ahead of a historic EU vote.

Making The Grades

(BuzzFeed, May 26, 2016)
In a piece that features lots of primary sources and linked documents, Buzzfeed investigates a Silicon Valley college that “has turned itself into an upmarket visa mill… while generating millions of dollars in tuition revenue for the school and the family who controls it.”

Suburban Speed Traps? See Where Out-of-Towners are Most Likely to Get Ticketed

(Chicago Tribune, June 10, 2016)
The Chicago Tribune looks at three years of traffic stop data in the Chicagoland region and lets users search for their own towns, or the towns where they might want to steer clear.

How does ‘Hamilton,’ the non stop, hip-hop Broadway sensation, tap rap’s master rhymes to blur musical lines?

(Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2016)
Just… revisit this one again. Last week was a tough news week. Then read how the team made it, and check out their discussion with us on our most recent community call.

Even More

The Orlando Sentinel leapt into action with a lean staff on the night of the Pulse shooting, and other newsrooms quickly sent over digital resources, including code for a remembrance page, and info on starting a pop-up newsletter. (Oh, and food.) An early interactive timeline of events used Timeline JS.

And Also These

Look at all these excellent news nerd repos. Or these beautiful maps of the way the UK used to be. Maybe you need an RSS reader for your team. The agony and ecstasy of the CMS. Badger, badger, badger, Snke.

Here at Open News, we’re prepping for SRCCON, and getting ready for our next community call: July 14 at 12 ET. See you there.

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