Visitors to Federal Websites Are Into Taxes, Weather, and…Recalling Puerto Rico’s Governor

A surprising finding from the newly launched Chartbeat for civics nerds.


Today the federal government officially launched analytics.usa.gov, a website that shows online traffic to nearly 300 official sites (out of 1,350 executive branch domains). Think of it as Google Analytics or Chartbeat for civics nerds.

Given that Tax Day is right around the corner, the Internal Revenue Service’s “Where’s My Refund?” page predictably lands at the top of the list of sites with the most current visitors. Next is the National Weather Service’s forecast by region page.

But one entry on the top 10 list doesn’t fit in with Americans’ interest in taxes and weather: A petition calling for the removal of Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla that’s posted on the White House’s We the People site. Its appearance on the list is a testament both to its popularity and just how few people hang out on federal websites.

petitions.whitehouse.gov

As of midday Thursday, the petition had about 95,000 signatures, short of the 100,000 mark that would compel the White House to formally respond. Most of the rancor toward García Padilla stems from the island’s current economic crisis and the governor’s recent proposal to implement a 16 percent value-added tax to help pay down billions of the commonwealth’s debt.

Whether the Obama Administration could actually remove García Padilla is a complicated question. As a commonwealth, the island and its 4 million residents (most of whom are US citizens) has its own constitution, which includes a provision for impeachment. But the federal government could also theoretically remove the governor under a provision in the US Constitution that says that Congress has the power to “dispose of” laws in US territories.

It’s not clear what percentage of the visitors to the anti-García Padilla petition page live in Puerto Rico.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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