As we approach the end of the year and the beginning of a new presidency, let’s give some thought on the everyday, mind-boggling ways that being a prisoner in America is absolutely terrifying.

In 2005, the FBI launched an investigation into the “Church of the Hammer,” a fundamentalist Christian sect which called for the wholesale slaughter of practitioners of the goth subculture. Two years later, the investigation was closed, on grounds that the Church didn’t exist.

Parker Higgins wanted to get development docs for the Bay Area Rapid Transit’s adorable mascot, the BARTmobile. What he got was abject terror.

For over a week, MuckRock has been accepting your submissions for our social media surveillance survey, and as of today, over a hundred of you have suggested towns and cities nationally as subjects for our inquiry.

The Government makes some pretty terrible powerpoints. We know because we’ve gotten them with FOIA. Now, we’re going to hand over these presentations to people who have never ever seen them before and ask them to present it like their career depended on it. It should be pretty funny.

Back in 2011 the Center for Disease Control (CDC) came up with a brilliant idea to inspire people to make emergency kits and plans for a disaster scenario: a zombie survival guide.

During his time as a Los Angeles County attorney, Vincent Bugliosi successfully prosecuted over 99% of his cases, including the murder trial of the still infamous Charles Manson. Two in particular, according to materials recently released by the FBI, warranted further investigation as evidence of Charlie’s appeal even beyond prison walls.

In southeastern Massachusetts the swamp yankees have supposedly lived side by side with many members of the spirit world, but finding official records of supernatural encounters in the area known as the Bridgewater Triangle can be tough.

With so many hot takes being offered on WikiLeaks these days, we thought it would be good to clear the air with a simple primer on the difference between information obtained via the Freedom of Information Act and information obtained from leaks.

Even as states continue to confront the federal government’s strictly illegal, Schedule 1 stance on cannabis, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) maintains that its Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program is worth its over $14 million budget. Find out how much your state got to weed out weed this year.

How is your local police coping with the Clownpocalypse? Help us find out.

What’s spookier than the mysterious disappearance of half of a university’s rare brain collection? The inadequate record-keeping that ensures they’ll stay gone.

It’s fair to say that after the Edward Snowden leaks, the National Security Agency (NSA) has had a bit of an image problem, which in turn has affected recruiting efforts. So what is the NSA doing to combat all this bad PR? Summer camps.

In the Bay State, the grotesque black holes of bureaucracy sometimes take on an added Groundhog Day-esque tint. Like when your request is rejected. But you win your appeal. And then your request is rejected again.

Since May 23rd, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Venkat Balasubramani of Focal PLLC have been helping fight a series of lawsuits against MuckRock over requests filed by Phil Mocek regarding so-called “smart meters” in the city of Seattle. Yesterday, the last of those suits was finally dismissed.

In order to preserve their value to the historic record, FBI files on prominent individuals and groups are routinely handed over to the National Archives for safekeeping. It’s a nice idea. It would be even nicer if anybody could remember what exactly they handed over and where they put it.

Last month’s inmate labor strike highlighted the trouble of getting real time news from behind bars and any news at all about our prisoners work conditions.

Emma Best’s attempt to mine the FBI file of the father of would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr. for evidence that could confirm or debunk some of the conspiracy theories regarding the attempt on Reagan’s life took a rather weird turn - as in imaginary, time-hopping Nazis weird.

Last week, Twitter announced its renunciation of data from social media surveillance software Geofeedia, and MuckRock asked you to find out more from your local police departments. Since then, 21 have taken the charge to bring greater transparency to the ways law enforcement is monitoring your Newsfeed.

It took four years of rejection and appeals for MuckRock user Jason Smathers to get less than a week’s worth of emails from a single CIA officer. But that effort was not in vain - within that batch is an agency newsletter containing a tantalizing prospect for transparency fans with sweet tooth: a call for submissions to the CIA’s cupcake contest.

Public records requests can often turn into frustrating back-and-forths between the requester and the almighty records custodian, and one defense mechanism is providing only some of the requested documents - but maybe just enough to make the requester go away.

When a Massachusetts agency tries to charge a requester a fee for “segregation” (also known as “redacting”), that agency is supposed to cite the applicable exemptions to the Public Records Law. While it’s not uncommon for an agency to cite two, three, or even four exemptions, when Andrew Quemere asked the Massachusetts State Police for its internal evidence audits, the department cited a whopping 17 of them to justify its $615 fee.

Twitter joined Facebook and Instagram in blocking access to its data by Geofeedia. As part of a project on protester surveillance with Color of Change, MuckRock has received materials from, among other places, Cooks County, home of the social media monitoring software company, and we’d like you to help us look at similar policies near your home.

Ah, what a difference a year makes. Last September, following a particularly heated Republican primary debate, Fox News commentator Rich Lowry described then-nominee Donald Trump as having been, shall we say, gelded by another candidate. Trump was not happy, and called on the FCC to fine Lowry. As complaints received by the agency show, Trump supporters heeded that call.

In early 2014, hoping to learn more about StingRay cell phone surveillance by the Chicago Police Department, Lucy Parsons Labs started filing a few requests - and began a two-year journey into unveiling a secret, multimillion dollar surveillance program.