2010 Census

Census Workers Have Been Attacked By Animals 24 Times, Assaulted 88 Times

Justin Elliott | June 21, 2010, 4:22PM

There were 409 threats or assaults on Census workers making home visits between May and last Friday, 24 of which were animal attacks and 13 of which involved shots fired, according to data given to TPMmuckraker by the Census Bureau.

The Washington Post had a good story Sunday looking at the hazards of Census work. The paper noted that this year has seen more than double the 181 incidents reported last time around, in 2000.

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Republican National Committee

In Rebuke To GOP, House Votes 416-0 To Ban Misleading 'Census' Mailers

Zachary Roth | March 10, 2010, 5:29PM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

The House has voted 416-0 to ban misleading mailers designed to look like official communications from the Census Bureau of the kind that two national Republican groups recently sent out.

Under the bill, co-sponsored by two House Republicans as well as several Democrats, mailers marked "census" will have to state the name and address of the sender, along with an unambiguous disclaimer that it's not affiliated with the federal government. It will be taken up by the Senate soon.

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Republican National Committee

GOPers Blast RNC 'Census' Mailers: 'Nothing Could Be More Wrong'

Zachary Roth | March 4, 2010, 5:28PM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Two Congressional Republicans today blasted those RNC fundraising mailers that appear made to look like official Census Bureau communications. "Nothing could be more wrong," said one.

During a hearing of the House Oversight committee, which is looking into the mailers, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) declared: "I am obviously a member of the Republican Party. I have seen the Republican Party send out documents that say 'census.' I think it's wrong, I think it's deceptive, and I wish they wouldn't do it. I would hope our party would cease from doing that."

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Republican National Committee

Despite Criticism, RNC Sends Another Fundraising Mailer Designed To Look Like Census Document

Zachary Roth | February 25, 2010, 3:35PM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

It's one thing for a political party to send out a fund-raising mailer designed to look like an official Census Bureau document, in the apparent hope of bamboozling some confused recipients into opening it. After all, who among us hasn't done that at some point?

But it takes some chutzpah to double down on the tactic, even after the Census Bureau itself, as well as members of Congress from your own party, have complained about it -- and to do it in the same year that the actual Census is being conducted.

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NRCC

'Nancy Pelosi' Sends Out Fundraising Email For GOP

Zachary Roth | February 18, 2010, 9:16AM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

A fundraising email sent yesterday by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) appeared under the name "Nancy Pelosi," and was addressed to "Dear Naive Republican."

No, the Speaker hasn't switched parties. Rather, the email, obtained by TPMmuckraker, seems to have been a crude stab at satire by the NRCC, designed to highlight what the committee sees as the failure of the stimulus plan.

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Bill Sparkman

Police: Sparkman Committed Suicide, Made It Look Like Murder For Insurance Scam

Zachary Roth | November 24, 2009, 2:19PM

Bill Sparkman

Census worker Bill Sparkman committed suicide and deliberately made it look like murder as part of an insurance scam, Kentucky state police have concluded.

State police, working with the FBI, said at a press conference moments ago that Sparkman had recently taken out two life insurance policies that would not pay out for suicide. It appears Sparkman hoped that the scheme would benefit his son, Josh Sparkman.

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Census Bureau

Investigators Probing Whether Sparkman Manipulated Death Scene For Insurance Scheme: Report

Zachary Roth | November 13, 2009, 2:46PM

Bill Sparkman

The probe into the death of Census Bureau worker Bill Sparkman continues -- and authorities may now be considering a whole new theory of the case.

Two law enforcement sources tell the AP that investigators are considering whether Sparkman committed suicide, but intentionally made it look like murder in order to allow his son to make a life insurance claim. Most life insurance policies don't cover suicides, at least within a certain time frame after the policy begins.

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Bill Sparkman

AP: Authorities Look At Possibility Of Suicide In Death Of Census Worker

Justin Elliott | November 5, 2009, 4:21PM

Bill Sparkman

Anonymous officials tell the AP they are looking at whether Bill Sparkman, the Census worker found dead in rural Kentucky in September with the word "fed" written on his chest, may have committed suicide.

The wire service reports that investigators have recently "grown more skeptical that 51-year-old Bill Sparkman died at the hands of someone angry at the federal government." It continues:

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Bill Sparkman

KY Police: Speculation About Sparkman Death Has Hampered Probe

Zachary Roth | October 28, 2009, 10:00AM

Bill Sparkman

Are investigators edging away from the idea that Census Bureau worker Bill Sparkman was killed in an act of anti-government violence?

Kentucky police have been largely silent for weeks now on the probe of Sparkman's case, in which the part-time Census worker was found dead in a rural area of the state, blindfolded and gagged, with a rope around his neck and the word "Fed" written on his naked chest.

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Republican National Committee

RNC Mailer Appears Designed To Look Like Census Survey

Zachary Roth | October 26, 2009, 11:39AM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Michele Bachmann may be raising outlandish fears about the Census -- but Michael Steele's operation seems to be more than happy to associate its political efforts with the national survey.

The Republican National Committee is sending a mailer to GOP voters that aims to gather information and raise money. Nothing wrong with that. But the mailer appears clearly designed to mislead recipients into thinking that it's an official Census Bureau survey, which people are required by law to fill out.

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Barack Obama

Indicted Man Threatened To Kill President And Scrawl "Fed ..." On His Chest

Zachary Roth | October 16, 2009, 12:57PM

President Barack Obama speaks at a Human Rights Campaign event.

In the latest unhinged threat on Barack Obama's life, a California man has been indicted by a federal grand jury after allegedly writing a deranged and racist email screed that urged recipients to "kill the 'president,'" and seemed to invoke the recent death of a Census Bureau worker in an apparent act of anti-government violence.

On September 28th, according to the indictment filed by prosecutors and examined by TPMmuckraker, John Gimbel of Crescent City sent an email whose subject line read:

Operation kill big-[epithet]-rig: kill the 'president' [epithet], then write 'fed shit' on his chest with a felt tip.

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Bill Sparkman

Witness: Sparkman Was Bound, Gagged, And Naked When Found

Zachary Roth | September 28, 2009, 2:25PM

Bill Sparkman

When Census worker Bill Sparkman was found dead earlier this month, he was naked and gagged, with duct tape over his eyes. Duct tape also bound Sparkman's hands and feet.

That's according to the man who found him, Jerry Weaver, who spoke to the AP over the weekend. Weaver, who lives in Ohio, was in Clay County, Kentucky for a family reunion, and was visiting some family graves with his wife and daughter when he found Sparkman's body on September 12th.

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Census Bureau

Dead Census Worker Was Warned To "Be Careful" In Rural Kentucky

Zachary Roth | September 24, 2009, 4:48PM

Bill Sparkman was warned about the danger of going into rural parts of Kentucky to conduct Census interviews, a retired state trooper who knew him told TPMmuckraker.

Gilbert Acciardo, who ran an after-school program at a southeastern Kentucky high-school where Sparkman was a substitute teacher, said that when Sparkman -- a Florida native -- first started doing the Census work, "I said, you're going into rural Kentucky, isolated areas. Be careful over there -- people may not understand that you're there to gather statistics."

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Bill Sparkman

Census Worker Found Dead In Kentucky -- What Do We Know?

Zachary Roth | September 24, 2009, 2:54PM

Over the last 24 hours, we've been tracking a gruesome story developing involving the death of a Kentucky Census Bureau worker. The potential political implications of what happened are already generating a lot of attention around the internet -- so it's worth taking a moment to lay out what we know.

On September 12th, the body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year old part-time Census worker and teacher was found in a remote area of the Daniel Boone National Forest, in Clay County, in rural southeast Kentucky. Sparkman reportedly had died on the morning of the day before.

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