In September, the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records released its proposed update to public records regulations that would be used to carry out the long-awaited public records reform that goes into effect January 1, 2017. Here’s what’s in them.

We’ve already received a number of wonderful applications to the MuckRock Thiel Fellowship, and even more organizations and individuals have reached out to support highlighting companies connected to Peter Thiel. Selected fellows will now collectively receive over $5,255 in FOIA assistance, funds to pay request fees, and reporting stipends.

You never know what you’re going to find digging through old government records. Case in point: how Abbie Hoffman’s FBI file uncovered an arcane law regarding Smokey Bear.

Today, this 28th day of September 2016, marks International Right-To-Know Day, currently celebrating 250 years of Right-To-Know legislation on the Earth. In 1766, a full ten years before the United States birthed itself, Sweden adopted “His Majesty’s Gracious Ordinance Relating to Freedom of Writing and of the Press,” and so set an example for open access to governments around the world - at last count, 113 in total.

Since 2013, the Montgomery County Model (MCM) has been hailed as the gold standard for community-based Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs across the country. Despite these accolades, there is little indication that MCM has been able to resolve the concerns raised by Muslim and civil rights groups about these counterterrorism programs - in fact, MCM seems to have proceeded simply by ignoring such concerns, helped by the secrecy with which the program operates.

This summer, MuckRock submitted requests to all 50 state Departments of Correction for their materials related to the transportation of inmates. Following up on a stunning story by The Marshall Project on privately-operated prisoner transport, the requests, worded broadly, sought the policies and contracts that are being employed across the country. Two months in, here’s what we’ve found so far.

Curious about what criteria the CIA have for determining if they “can neither confirm nor deny” something? So did Jason Smathers, who back in 2010 filed one of MuckRock’s earliest requests for exactly that. Six years later, he still doesn’t know.

As government agencies and other entities are inundated with requests for public information as more and more citizens become aware of their rights under FOIA, obscuring information is evolving into a craft that requires a little more creativity than an old fashioned sheet of paper doused in black ink.

FTC complaints released to Robert Delaware regarding the uber-popular augmented reality game Pokemon GO run the gamut from allegations of fraud, to concerns about privacy, all the way to full-on “these pokemons are going to kill us all” hysteria.

A recently released Government Accountability Office report solved the mystery of the government’s oldest computer, which surprisingly enough, isn’t a technically a computer in the conventional sense. Even more surprisingly, The Simpsons accurately predicted the winner back in 1998.

Listeners from all across the country have come to the FCC with the same desperate entreaty: please, do something, anything, to put an end to Rush Limbaugh’s “bullsh*t.”

Back in May, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) graciously offered to represent MuckRock in court after three companies sued us for hosting public records released to Phil Mocek. So far, two of those suits were dropped, and this week, EFF has filed to end the third.

In 1974, Department of State spokesman Joe Reap left this world, survived by his wife, children, and a legacy seemingly so persistent, he was still speaking for the agency decades after his death.

While won’t know the full extent of Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis’ 75,000 page FBI file until it’s released, but there are a number of things that are certain to be in it - paramilitary activities in Cuba, his ties the Kennedy assassination, confirmation of his employment of the CIA - very little of which has had any official documentation made available to the public.

Missouri State Congress overrode the veto on Senate Bill SB656 last Wednesday with a Republican supermajority, eliminating previously-required training to obtain concealed carry permits and strengthening the right to use force in situations where an individual fears for one’s safety. It’s unclear how the new law will affect concealed carry reciprocity agreements with other states.

As part of our collaboration with Campaign Zero, MuckRock requested use of force policies from the 100 largest police departments in the country, including Tulsa PD. In the wake of the recent release of the video of the shooting of Terence Crutcher, we wanted to give you a chance to read the policy yourself.

Quick: It’s the 1940s, and you’re not sure if a celebrity is still alive. With the internet still decades away, where do you turn? Why, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, of course!

Peter Thiel - co-founder of both PayPal and Palantir and an early Facebook investor - has profoundly reshaped industry after industry and, ultimately, remade the world to better fit his radical vision of the future. With MuckRock’s Thiel Fellowship, we want to help journalists and researchers better understand this pivotal figure’s work and share what they learn with the public.

A couple years ago, Robert Delaware requested from the NSA any entries from its Intellipedia - the agency’s internal answer to Wikipedia - regarding the micronation “The Conch Republic.” The agency later released four pages, which is a fairly impressive feat considering that, strictly speaking, the Conch Republic doesn’t exist.

Fees, bane of the FOIA requester’s existence, are an unfortunate everyday hurdle in the fight for the freedom of information. But some states go beyond the common reimbursements that agencies - local to federal - levy against individuals for the costs of copies or the self-determined hours of disruption caused by searching.

An Intelligence Assessment of terrorist plots against the United States and U.S. interests between 2001 and 2010 concluded that “a broadening U.S. military presence overseas and outreach by Islamist ideologues” was behind an 11 percent increase in plotted attacks since 2006. And yet, by focusing on Muslim communities, Obama’s counterterrorism program sidesteps questions about US policies which continually produce terrorists.

After initially rejecting a request for its talking points to Congress regarding medicinal marijuana, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division is now claiming to have no responsive records. So what happened to the two pages it had previously located?

Brian Sparks’ FOIA request for the FBI’s file on an American anarchist killed while fighting the Islamic State was rejected on grounds that it was part of “pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding,” or the “open investigation” exemption. What that investigation is is anyone’s guess.

Back in July, Brendan Kenny successfully crowdfunded the release of records connected with the Hae Min Lee murder case featured in season 1 of Serial. Just last week, those records came in, and you can read them below.

For over two years, dozens of articles, and thousands of public records requests, Beryl Lipton’s Private Prison Project has given much needed scrutiny to the incarceration industry. In anticipation of a talk Beryl will be giving on Friday, we interviewed her regarding her motivation for starting the project, her methodology for getting records released, and what she’s learned along the way.