After the Marines Corps refused to release Beyoncé’s vocal tracks, I filed a request for the processing notes. What I found: Beyoncé truly is a law unto herself.

Airbnb users and hosts have submitted 38 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission since the company’s founding in August 2008. Gripes ranged from inaccurate advertising

Police in Newport News, Virginia are feeling slightly deflated. Last August, FEMA denied the department’s request for $240,000 to purchase a “tethered aerial surveillance balloon system” to patrol the Port of Hampton Roads.

Feel like your public records request is taking forever? You’re not alone: MuckRock contributor Anais Vaillant crunches the numbers to look at just how much of a waiting game public records have become. Listen in to this week’s episode.

In the mid 1970s, the FBI considered approaching expert negotiator Roger D. Fisher to gather information on a Soviet diplomat the Bureau believed to be a KGB spy. Unable to uncover any dirt on the professor, agents decided they didn’t have enough leverage to bring Fisher to the table.

David Jackson’s Pulitzer-winning investigations cover topics from real estate and elderly care to youth policies and coal mining. In this week’s Requester’s Voice, Jackson stresses the importance of learning from unsuccessful requests and doing your legwork before submitting a FOIA.

A series of documents from the May 30 event, disclosed to MuckRock in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, describe the purpose of the facility, which was billed as a boon for the country’s cyber security and Utah’s economy.

Redactions arrive at MuckRock often and in varying shapes and sizes; they range from the plausible to the irksome to the utterly maniacal. But there’s a lot to be gleaned from even the opaquest of black boxes.

George W. Bush’s presidential records are now available to the public. According to the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are exempt from public disclosure for the first five years after a president leaves office. That clock started on January 20th 2009; today marks the five year mark since George W. Bush left office.

Kel McClanahan is the Executive Director of National Security Counselors. His work in national security and information and privacy law often lands him in the world of public records. In this week’s Requester’s Voice MuckRock caught up with McClanahan to discuss strategy, the FOIA officer’s disposition, and paying it forward.

Day-by-day, the FBI is evolving. From January 6 to January 7, the Bureau’s primary function looked very different.

While General Alexander and the NSA saw their FOIA caseload increase by 1,000% following the Snowden leaks, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper barely saw any uptick in requests at all. But ODNI is still tracking all FOIAs related to the leaks.

Despite a distraught father’s fears that she had “corrupted” her daughter with European wanderlust, the FBI declined to investigate Professor Hannah Arendt in 1956.

After an “exhaustive search,” the Office of the Secretary of Defense insists it is unable to locate any database of military drone crashes. Trouble is, the Secretary told Congress last year that it compiled this exact data for the FAA.

The federal government is withholding records on TD Bank’s role in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme despite a series of settlements, charges and fines against the bank in the four years since the fraud collapsed.