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Welcome to my portfolio! My name is Casey He, and I'm a rising senior at Northwestern University studying journalism, political science and legal studies. I'm currently a news intern at The Dallas Morning News covering local government accountability.

An aspiring journalist and storyteller, I'm especially interested in covering topics and issues at the crossroads of politics, business, technology and community.

You can read some of my best work below. Thanks for stopping by!

About Me
Dallas News •

From schoolhouse to hub of hope: Esperanza Community Center aims to uplift neighborhood

A weathered red sign stood outside J. Frank Dobie Pre-K School on a recent afternoon, two months after it announced the last day of classes — and the end of the school itself. Across the street, Victoria Gonzalez, 59, has been keeping an eye on the schoolhouse. Her family has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, and she worries that the building would sit empty and attract vandals. “We were pretty upset when they closed it, because we were like, ‘Wow, this is the perfect pre-K bui...
Dallas News •

D-FW suburban rental markets surge amid affordable homeownership hurdles

Three years ago, a new job at Advanced Micro Devices in Plano brought Samuel Owens and his family to Dallas-Fort Worth, and they needed a new home. “I started with Plano and just circled out from there, trying to stay within a roughly 60-minute-or-less commute time,” Owens said. “There are definitely more apartments that are in my price range, but we were hoping to get an actual home.” Owens, 41, said the family ultimately settled down in Princeton, where he pays around $2,000 a month in rent...
The Daily Northwestern •

Evanston resident Rachel Ruttenberg prioritizes economic justice, policy expertise in state Senate bid

Rachel Ruttenberg (Medill M.S. ’04) wears many hats: attorney, advocate, policy advisor, local party leader, community organizer and more. But when asked why she’s running for public office, she reached — without hesitation — for a personal answer.
“I am the parent of two young girls, and they are growing up in a country where they have fewer rights than I did at their age,” the Evanston resident said. “That is a key driver of why I am in this work. I want to be building and making people’s live...
The Daily Northwestern •

Illinois legislators, advocates rally to shield federal prescription drug discounts

Amid potential cuts to Medicaid funding from Washington, some Illinois lawmakers, advocates and medical practitioners are pushing to protect access to a federal program that discounts prescription drugs in what could be a clash with the nation’s top drug makers.
Legislators in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly are currently considering a bill that would prohibit pharmaceutical companies from restricting or interfering with drug discounts under what’s known as the 340B Drug Pricing p...
The Daily Northwestern •

In Focus: Colectivo Coffee workers allege toxic workplace environment, lack of accountability under current management

Interviews with seven current and former employees and internal communications obtained by The Daily reveal that the chain has faced a host of mismanagement allegations, including “inappropriate” behavior from the Evanston store manager, a “toxic” workplace culture and a lack of support from upper management.

These allegations contrast with the chain’s public image — Colectivo leaders have called their company “a deeply progressive organization,” and its members have been represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union since 2021.

“(Colectivo) say what they need to say and do certain things on the public scale that look good, that look like they are very pro-workers’ rights,” Ridenour said. “They want to look like a collective for Colectivo, and it’s not at all how they actually run their stores.”
Midstory •

How America’s Quintessential Battleground Broke Down

As Ohio goes, so goes the nation. At least, it used to. The Buckeye State — the seventh most populous and 34th in size among the states — has been a longtime focus of politicians, pundits and political scientists alike for a simple but peculiar reason. In each presidential election between 1964 and 2016, the candidate that won Ohio also won the presidency. Ohio’s streak stands as the longest in American history. During this period, Ohio was not only a bellwether, but also the quintessenti...
Midstory •

A New Federal Program Aims to Create the Nation’s Next Silicon Valleys — in the Midwest

When Silicon Valley — the iconic northern California tech cluster home to thousands of companies like Apple, Google and Netflix — started in the 1950s, it had all the right ingredients for innovation and tech-fueled growth: pioneers of the semiconductor, personal computer and internet industries, scholarship and research at area universities, and generous government funding. Now, a new federal program is trying to reproduce this recipe for the 21st century around the country — including in Am...
Midstory •

From ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’ to the ‘Great American Comeback Story’: How a Wisconsin Town Becomes the Focus of Re-Industrializing the Midwest

In 2017, Taiwanese electronic manufacturer Foxconn announced its plan to build a $10-billion, 13,000-people display factory in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. But the factory never came, and much of the land it claimed remains empty. Now, residents are hoping Microsoft will follow through with building an artificial intelligence data center at the same site.
The Daily Northwestern •

Downtown lease sparks concerns over cost, transparency amid discussion on Civic Center’s future

Growing up in Evanston in the 1980s, Emilio Vargas remembers the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center as the building at the center of the city. His mother would bring him to art shows, book fairs and other events. Now, as an adult, Vargas said he most recently went to the Civic Center to vote.
The city, however, is poised to leave the Georgian Revival-style building at 2100 Ridge Ave. — the building that has been the heart of Evanston civic life since 1979 — before the end of the year. 
At its Jan....
Medill News Service •

After China’s surprised chip breakthrough, Washington has new worries about future of export controls

WASHINGTON – When Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was in Beijing in August to discuss trade with economic officials, she and others in the tech industry were shocked by a new smartphone, unveiled by Chinese telecom giant Huawei. The phone was named the Mate 60 Pro, featuring a seven-nanometer processor developed by a Huawei subsidiary and produced at the Chinese semiconductor fabrication plant SMIC. It immediately set off alarm bells among Western nations because it meant that China had achieve...
Medill News Service •

Biden signs executive order, takes ambitious step toward AI regulation

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden signed a long-anticipated executive order on artificial intelligence Monday, marking the federal government’s most comprehensive effort to rein in the technology to date. “One thing is clear: to realize the promise of AI and avoid the risks, we need to govern this technology, and there’s no other way around it,” Biden said during the signing ceremony. The executive order expanded upon a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” the Biden administration issued in 2022...
The Daily Northwestern •

‘Democracy working in action’: Evanston, NU collaborate on participatory budgeting pilot program

PB Evanston invites community members to develop proposals for their ideas and then allows the community to vote on how the money is spent, according to the program website. Evanston received $43 million from the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and 2022 to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hoping to identify areas of need, the city put $3 million toward a novel solution: participatory budgeting. The program allows residents, with the support of city staff and volunteers, to submit their ideas...
The Daily Northwestern •

‘More representation, more visibility’: Evanston’s Asian American community claims its voice in participatory budgeting

When Melissa Raman Molitor, a first-generation Filipino-Indian-American, moved to Evanston in 2011, she saw little recognition for the city’s Asian, South Asian and Pacific Islander American community. “There have been no spaces or organizations that specifically support or offer resources for the ASPA community in Evanston,” Molitor...