Driven by movements for police accountability, civilian oversight agencies have become commonplace across the county. But often politically weak and under-resourced, they fail to live up to the aspirations of the activists that fight for them. In Providence, Rhode Island, a civilian oversight agency works to reestablish its legitimacy.

As e-scooter companies chose to ask for forgiveness, not permission while setting up shop across the country, cities worked quickly to pass regulations. MuckRock surveyed the different approaches they took.

In 1981, a group of Brown University students found a creative way of protesting a lecture by Central Intelligence Agency Director William Casey. Then, in keeping with the CIA’s campus fixation, the Agency kept tabs on the students as they defended their free speech rights.

In this week’s FOIA round-up, public records reveal the shady associations of President Donald Trump’s newly-appointed acting attorney general, tax preparation companies use FOIA to target a university professor, and surveillance video tells the story of police abuse in Indiana.

Crisis training scenarios using volunteers dressed as zombies make make for incredible FOIA fodder.