This year saw the release of MuckRock’s one millionth page of government records released under FOIA, and what’s more, half of that is from 2016 alone. Here are the stories, big and small, you helped uncover this year.

Six years ago, a MuckRock user appealed a comically inadequate CIA response to his FOIA request. This week, the Agency responded that they haven’t done anything in the meantime - and that the requester better let them know if he’s still interested, or they’d close out the appeal.

For the past year, MuckRock has been working on an appeal tool to help anyone understand public records rejections, see their options, and file a successful appeal. Now, we’re asking for FOIA hounds everywhere to help out: Send us your successful appeals!

MuckRock, with your help, has been filing requests around the country, and as we enter the new year, we’re recommitting to our mission to bring transparency and conversation to the policies and tools that are used to keep us safe.

Early last year, we wrote about getting a copy of the Air Force’s “Cyber Vision 2025,” which outlines where it wanted the military’s tech to be in the next ten years. Back then, we joked about how hard it was to understand. Now, however, we have our Official Jargon Translator take a crack at it, and in plain English, it’s pretty terrifying.

While some people found Dave Chappelle’s SNL opener to be a somberly soothing balm on this festering wound of an election, a little over a dozen FCC complaints released via FOIA show others were upset about Chappelle dropping a Quentin Tarantino’s movie worth of n-bombs in his opening monologue, and “implying” that the United States might be the tiniest bit racist.

In celebration of our 100th article in the Subjects Matter: FBI Files Project, we put together a chronological guide to the work we’ve done so far, documenting over a century of fear and filing cabinets.

Wrapping up your holiday shopping? Lighthouses, those beaming beacons of comfort on America’s shores, are just one of the fine properties that may be acquired via the General Services Administration.

In perhaps the most compelling response to our cell site simulator census yet, the Sunrise Police Department in Florida has informed us that for just south of $13,000, we can get our hands on 13,915 emails and other electronic records of the controversial devices - the largest trove we’ve yet seen.

In June of 2014, we announced what was then our first lawsuit: We were suing the Central Intelligence Agency over access to the CREST database, as well as a variety of metadata regarding how that database is used. We’re pleased that after a little over two years, our suit will result in greater public access to an important historical resource.

The passage of the PATRIOT Act has been decried as one of the most widespread attempts by the government to overreach in order to bypass the judicial and legislative restrictions that had otherwise been placed on it. The FBI file for former CIA Station Chief William F. Buckley details one such attempt, over a decade after his murder.

Law enforcement and protesters alike will one day find themselves studying the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, maybe in a guide just like the one distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to North Dakota law enforcement in September.

Richard Feynman’s sprawling FBI file covers two-thirds of the legendary physicist’s career, from drama over his invitation to speak a Soviet science conference to an unnamed colleague citing his hobby of cracking safes at Los Alamos as evidence he was a “master of deception and enemy of America.” But the file stops abruptly in 1958, and for a very Feynmanian reason: Feynman asked them to.

A letter released via FOIA documents FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s private fears that a CIA-backed cabal of ultra-liberal reformist economists were plotting a takeover of the American economy.

If there’s one thing we love here at MuckRock, it’s a good bad PowerPoint. So imagine our excitement when the Army Audit Agency hands over one of the best examples of “more is more” mentality we’ve seen - and even better, we have our Official Jargon Translator to explain what any of this means.

Talk of hate and fear has dominated the discourse in the weeks since the election, and MuckRock wants to start keeping track of the intersections where those two things coalesce in a crime.

It’s easy to focus on the challenges of public records, but behind every successful request is somebody who helped fulfill it - often with very few resources, a challenging balance of priorities, and a desire to help share their work with the public. Here are the agencies that MuckRock users and readers were particularly thankful for this year.

Read our weekly series looking at the stories public records made possible before its removed by court order.

The man who would climb the ranks of United States Intelligence, from his World War Two stint in the Office of Strategic Services to his post as Director of Central Intelligence for CIA to his appointment as ambassador to Iran, is remembered by the public for his secrecy, his lies, and his commitment to the cloak-and-dagger code of his agency - none of which, of course, appear (at least in the negative) in Helms’s FBI file.

Whether you find yourself venturing forth or just want to bone up on your hobo history, the NSA has a surprisingly thorough guide to all the pictographs used by those relying on the kindness of strangers during the Great Depression.

For months, the North Charleston Police Department - whose tumultuous history is underscored by the declaration of a mistrial in the case of former officer Michael Slager - has been stonewalling records requests for data about civilian complaints and use of force incidents, requiring a $1,500 deposit before it will begin a search.

Rochester Police Department in New York responded to our Cell Site Simulator Census with a rare look into the pricing and packaging of the cellphone surveillance tech: a completely unredacted quote list of Harris Corporation products.

MuckRock wants to know how to conduct a recount near you. Submit your town and county below, and we’ll ask how one can take on the task.

In a surprising turn, a request for complaints submitted to the FCC regarding the controversial conservative site Breitbart News instead yielded a series of attacks on other media outlets, citing Breitbart articles as evidence - as well as a few misogynistic Bible verses and one outright call to end the FCC.

On August 30th, the DEA filed a notice of intent to temporarily designate Kratom as a schedule 1 drug. That notice listed 33 footnotes, but the actual references themselves were not included in the document itself. The same day, a FOIA was filed for that information … to which the agency responded with with press releases and copies of federal laws.