Despite his outspoken views on pretty much everything, famed astronomer Carl Sagan’s surprisingly light FBI file only concerns an investigation into a letter he received in 1983, identifying Dr. Sagan as one of the few figures capable of preventing a global apocalypse. Eerily enough, the reason the letter caught the Bureau’s interest was its prediction that the space shuttle Columbia would explode - a prediction that would come true almost exactly twenty years later.

In a very special edition of Must Seethe TV, we take a look at a massive collection of FCC complaints regarding BRAVO’s Real Housewives franchise released to Tom Nash. As Tom himself put it: “these docs are my greatest contribution to the public’s understanding of government to date.”

When Henrico County Public Schools banned the use of an educational video on racial disparity last month, it noted having received “numerous emails and phone calls objecting to the video” in an email to parents and school staff. It assured community members that the school board was taking further steps to ensure “racially divisive materials” would not be used in the future and apologized to “those who were offended.”

In 2010, the NYPD taxis briefly made headlines on the internet when a video of a cab pulling over a car surfaced on YouTube. Since then, occasional sightings have led to the expansion of the myth of the undercover “cop cab,” but little has been proven. However, communications released via FOIL reveal that as of August 2015, at least five such vehicles are in current use.

Tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of Food Not Bombs handing out its first free meal outside of the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston. Despite seemingly the non-controversial nature of the activist group’s titular three-word mission statement, FBI files released earlier this week show that serving up home-cooked vegan moussaka is apparently enough to warrant suspicions of terrorism.

Gotham, the fictional city where crimes rules, the police are corrupt, and the “homosexual agenda” is forced upon everyone. Of the 12 complaints submitted to the FCC about FOX’s Batman origin story Gotham, four were about the shows depiction of same-sex couples, while the rest were about violence, or as one complaint put it, “A continuous barrage of unspeakable torture exceeding humanities worst potential.”

The hunt is on! You answered our call and sent in some great tips, which we’ve used to start filing. Plus: a new computer is discovered.

The mid-March doldrums are here, and people everywhere are caught in the throes of Madness. Some of us mean basketball. Some mean (b)5 exemptions. And, yet, not everyone can settle on or in or even anywhere near the court. Which is why this year we’ve brought that unifying tried-and-true bracket bonanza of college ball to the friendly competition of FOIA requests, and we’d like to you to play.

When we kicked off Sunshine Week, we noted that FOIA reform — already passed by the House — was being considered by the Senate. Now, with some important modifications, it has passed the Senate, so let’s take a look at what will change for requesters.

Ever since “John Hancock” became synonymous with signing one’s name, it’s been no secret that public servants like to leave their mark in style. Since 2014, MuckRock has been featuring the most most impressive signoffs in transparency as part of our “Great Signatures of FOIA” series, and now, for the first time, in honor of Sunshine Week, we’re putting them all in the same place.

The records community was practically built on a communal necessity to avoid gaslighting-by-government. And if Sunshine Week is the annual choral concert, then Bureau of Prisons basically asks to have its discord sung.

If you only have a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail - and as we’ve learned over the years from many an overenthusiastic FOIA officer, if you only have a Sharpie, then every document looks classified. As part of our Sunshine Week coverage, we put together a list of the most ridiculous redactions we’ve (un)seen.

This Sunshine Week, as the Freedom of Information Act nears 50, take a moment to imagine how public records should work for the people in 2016 and beyond. Share your ideas of how to #FixFOIABy50, and also take a minute to celebrate what an amazing process FOIA and your state public records laws already are.

Next week’s Sunshine Week is a special one as we approach the Freedom of Information Act’s 50th anniversary, so I decided to speak with someone who hasn’t had public access as a right for as long as we have in the States. In the United Kingdom, Right to Know was only put into practice in 2005 — and has come under repeated fire by politicians ever since.

When Lana Peters - AKA Svetlana Alliluyeva, AKA Josef Stalin’s daughter -died in Wisconsin at 85, she had accrued a Federal Bureau of Investigation file over 200 pages long. But the FBI’s involvement with her was limited, mostly capturing their sideline vantage the year she defected, beginning two decades of something like her American Dream.

When John Kirsch got a “neither confirm nor deny” rejection from the CIA regarding their files on noted JFK assassination researcher Mary Ferrell, he got suspicious. So he filed for their processing notes on his request. Over a year later, they responded … by releasing nearly identical copies of Kirsch’s own request, with the only change being that the very deceased Ferrell’s social security number was now redacted.

March 8 is International Women’s Day. Born of socialist roots and now officially celebrated by the United Nations and multiple countries around the world, IWD is meant to be a global celebration of women’s achievements and progress, and MuckRock wants to help you join in this year.

A black man successfully brandishing a pen was cause enough for alarm in Hoover’s FBI. Hundreds of pages released in response to a request by MuckRock user Conor Skelding sketch the Feds attempts to keep track of African-American novelist James Baldwin, capturing soundbites from the stir of sixties’ Civil Rights Movement that continue to resonate today.

Two of America’s most famously secretive institutions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Apple, are squaring off over encryption and backdoors, and three FOIA exemptions stand in the way of those wanting a document-driven view of the fight. That doesn’t mean FOIA fans should give up asking questions though. Here’s our advice on getting documents to help better understand the FBI, Apple, and the fight over keeping devices secure while maintaining national security.

As millions of Americans head to the polls this Super Tuesday to do their civic duty, it’s time to take a moment to reflect on almost a year’s worth of election coverage … and how very, very, very mad people got about it.