News
Original reporting, commentary, and analysis of public records by MuckRock’s staff and affiliates, with new articles every weekday.
Admiral Grace Hopper’s landmark lecture is found, but the NSA won’t release it
In a vault at the National Security Agency lies a historical treasure: two AMPEX 1-inch open reel tapes containing a landmark lecture by Admiral Grace Hopper, a giant in the field of computer science. Yet this invaluable artifact remains inaccessible, trapped in an obsolete format that the NSA will not release, stating that the agency is unable to play it back.
Elected officials are opting out of secret Koppers community meetings about air pollution.
The Illinois EPA has created a Koppers resource website, with documents related to all four Illinois EPA violations, due to “significant public interest” in the facility. And the state attorney general’s office said it received more information from the Illinois EPA related to Koppers’ alleged violations in December, saying in a statement that it is “evaluating the matter.”
For the Record: Celebrate the Fourth with FOIA
Get in the spirit of the holidays by making your own public records request or taking some inspiration from your fellow MuckRockers.
Release Notes: Knight Election Hub, more OCR tools and expanded raw email access
Over the past few weeks, the MuckRock tech team has focused on several key updates and additions. These include the development of the Knight Election Hub, which offers vital resources to U.S. newsrooms for comprehensive coverage of the 2024 elections.
For the Record: How to background political candidates through public records
As November inches closer, June’s #FOIAFriday session explored what type of public records can be used to investigate political candidates who are running in the 2024 election cycle. Friday’s session covered how to request these overlooked documents, including military personnel records, voter lists and Paycheck Protection Program loans.
FOIA 101: Tips and Tricks to Make You a Transparency Master
How data can power public health investigations — through collaboration
In a new story with DataJournalism.com, reporters Dillon Bergin and Betsy Ladyzhets shared how MuckRock collaborates with both experts and other reporters to pursue major data journalism projects.
Air Quality Access: How local government is planning (or not) to protect your air
In the late 1980s, an area of the Jurupa Valley in Riverside, California began a transformation that would turn it from a community of sprawling dairy farms to hub for enormous warehouses. David Danelski, then an investigative reporter for the Riverside-Press Enterprise, unraveled the details through public records on town planning and found one important document missing from projects approved by county officials for more than a decade: the environmental impact statement. Here are his tips on this and other key records requests you can file.
Air quality access: Using complaints, violations and fines to pinpoint local polluters
Freelance journalist Monica Vaughan was reporting on air pollution in California’s San Joaquin Valley when the words of one mother changed her perspective. “I just scan the stories looking for the sentence about whether or not it’s safe to live here. And I can never find that,” Vaughan remembered the woman saying.
In a second guide on air pollution, we bring together advice from reporters like Vaughan and examples that might help you uncover unsafe air in your community. From intial complaints to sustained violations, we give you the tools to ask your local government how it regulates polluters in your area
Air Quality Access: Three requests to help you scrutinize local environmental standards
In 2004, Dina Cappiello discovered some Houston residents were exposed to cancer-causing toxins at a level 20 times higher than federal guidelines — for toxic waste dumps. “Everybody was like ‘nothing to see here,’ but I was like something doesn’t add up,” Cappiello said. In this guide, we share tips and examples from Cappiello and other reporters of what you can request in your community to understand how dangerous the air is and even pinpoint potential polluters.
Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret
MuckRock and partners recognized for its journalism
MuckRock has won the First Amendment Coalition’s Free Speech and Open Government Award for its data journalism collaborations and was named a finalist for the National Institute for Health Care Management Awards and Sigma Awards.
‘Smoke, Screened’ findings on EPA exceptional events presented at scientific conference
At the American Geophysical Union conference this week, MuckRock and The California Newsroom presented findings and methodology from the “Smoked Screened” investigation.
Midwest pollution spiked dramatically this summer because of Canadian wildfires. Now officials may erase those days from the books.
Dozens of states and the EPA are so concerned they may exclude the smokiest days from the legally binding score cards that determine whether they’re doing enough to fight pollution, according to a joint collaboration between the Tribune and the nonprofit news site MuckRock. Now some states are considering banding together in a joint effort that could trigger the largest exclusion in the history of the federal Clean Air Act
Smoke, Screened: As U.S. wildfires pollute the skies, a loophole is obscuring the impact. Can it be fixed?
Everyone agrees it’s time to change the Clean Air act’s exceptional events rule, but has different solutions.
Dangers in Our Air: Mapping Chicago’s Air Pollution Hotspots
Microsoft abandons project mapping Chicago’s air pollution
MuckRock and its partners have investigated neighborhood-level air pollution, unexplained pollution spikes, and smoky air on the Fourth of July using Microsoft’s Project Eclipse data. But after two years of offering a view of Chicago’s air pollution that residents had never before seen, the project has ended with little details on what comes next.
We want to hear from residents of Cicero about their experiences with air pollution
MuckRock and the Cicero Independiente are also looking for volunteers who are interested in having a free air quality sensor installed outside their home or business. Fill out the form in the article for more information.
‘This is really concerning:’ Chicago air quality sensors show disparities across the city — and unexplained spikes in pollution
Nearly two years after the tech company Microsoft installed more than 100 air quality sensors atop bus shelters across Chicago, a MuckRock analysis of the data documents the neighborhood-by-neighborhood hotspots and disparities — and raises questions about how air pollution continues to affect the city’s fenceline communities.
Air Quality Access: How local government is planning (or not) to protect your air
In the late 1980s, an area of the Jurupa Valley in Riverside, California began a transformation that would turn it from a community of sprawling dairy farms to hub for enormous warehouses. David Danelski, then an investigative reporter for the Riverside-Press Enterprise, unraveled the details through public records on town planning and found one important document missing from projects approved by county officials for more than a decade: the environmental impact statement. Here are his tips on this and other key records requests you can file.
Uncounted: An investigation of U.S. death certificate errors and the undercount of COVID-19 deaths
Lawmakers consider bill to raise training standards for Missouri coroners
A case in Cape Girardeau County, where the coroner is charged with stealing from the dead and lying on death certificates, is spurring action to strengthen qualifications for public officials who handle deaths.
New CDC and state data shows how the COVID-19 pandemic led to a startling rise in maternal deaths
With the help of maternal mortality experts, MuckRock is releasing a first-of-its-kind dataset that includes nationwide and a selection of statewide data on maternal deaths during the pandemic. We’re also asking for people who have experienced the death of a family member or friend from pregnancy-related complications to tell us their stories.
The ‘Uncounted:’ People of color are dying at much higher rates than what COVID data suggests
Unspecific, unknown deaths rose 10 times more among Black, Hispanic and Indigenous people than among white Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis by MuckRock. The true toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on many communities of color is worse than previously known.
We found dozens of ‘Long COVID’ deaths across the U.S., as defined by the CDC. Here are some of their stories.
In a first-of-its-kind analysis, we have detailed death certificate records in Chicago; California’s Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego; Minnesota; and New Mexico, allowing us to search for words associated with Long COVID. Here’s what we found.
Disappearing Day Care: Child Care Crisis in the U.S.
Missouri child care deserts include nearly half of kids 5 and under, new data shows
An investigation by MuckRock and The Missouri Independent found that despite hundreds of millions in federal pandemic relief money pouring into the state, child care facilities are facing huge staffing shortages and parents are struggling with long waitlists for care.
Five things we learned about Missouri’s child care crisis
MuckRock and The Missouri Independent analyzed the supply and demand of Missouri child care programs since 2019, drawing from public records and data provided by the advocacy group Child Care Aware.
Michigan aims to boost child care supply by helping entrepreneurs navigate red tape
A new Michigan initiative, Our Strong Start, pairs child care entrepreneurs with a staffer from the state licensing agency who helps with paperwork and obtaining inspections. The program seeks to address problems raised in MuckRock’s “Disappearing Day Care” investigation, which found that Michigan’s child care supply is even more limited than experts thought.
What We Learned About Michigan’s Child Care Crisis From Parents and Providers
We received more than 170 stories from parents and providers about Michigan’s child care crisis, many of which included detailed policy proposals. Here are seven of those ideas.
The Obama-Biden Revolving Door
Revolving-door riches: How Obama-Biden officials cashed in during the Trump years
How lucrative is the swamp? A first-of-its-kind analysis shows 77 officials who served under Obama and Biden boosted their assets by an estimated 270% from 2017 to 2021.
Atomic Fallout: Records reveal the federal government downplayed, ignored health risks
MuckRock and partners recognized for its journalism
MuckRock has won the First Amendment Coalition’s Free Speech and Open Government Award for its data journalism collaborations and was named a finalist for the National Institute for Health Care Management Awards and Sigma Awards.
Florissant homes built on Coldwater Creek may sit on radioactive contamination
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is drilling through basement floors in the Cades Cove subdivision of Florissant to determine whether there is radioactive contamination under residents’ homes.
Missouri House bill would allow further testing for St. Louis radioactive waste
‘There could potentially be some areas surrounding those known areas where there could still be contamination that is yet to be identified,’ says the bill’s sponsor.
Health risks from nuclear contamination in St. Louis denounced at congressional hearing
The United States should not expand nuclear energy use, at least until the federal government can make up for the harms caused by previous nuclear projects, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri said at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
Help track PPP loans associated with 2024 election candidates
MuckRock is working to obtain PPP loans by candidates in the 2024 election by using public records.
For the Record: Recapping MuckRock @ NICAR
See what you might have missed from this year’s NICAR conference.
Six things to know about Mazi Pilip and Tom Suozzi, the candidates who sought to replace former Rep. George Santos
The special election to fill the congressional seat of disgraced and expelled former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is on Tuesday, with New York state legislator and “rising star” Mazi Melesa Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Israeli émigré, competing against an establishment Democrat, former U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi.
How MuckRock found the backstory of a mystery congressional candidate in Southern California through public records
The congressional campaign of TV executive Margarita Wilkinson in California’s 49th District, despite being a political novice and never having held elected office, is a case study in what major political parties are looking for, above all else, in a hyper-politicized 2024 campaign season, experts say: Wealth and a blank political slate.