In the summer of 2017, the Chicago Police Department did something on social media that would usually be unremarkable: it changed its profile picture.

Last month, a federal court ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency can selectively disclose classified information while shielding its release from FOIA in order to protect “intelligence sources and methods.” That ruling ignores the Agency’s history of arbitrarily applying that label to everything from beer brands to cafeteria names and using it to hide behavior that was embarrassing, illegal, or both.

A couple years ago, we offered a peek into the MuckRock offices to see how the FOIA is made. Since then, we’ve moved (twice), brought our founders on full-time, and gone from processing hundreds of requests a month to thousands, releasing over a million pages of government records into the public domain. Today, we wanted to welcome you back to meet the staff and see what’s changed.

There have been a few interesting FOIA discoveries this week, including the extent of Fox News’ Sean Hannity’s real estate empire and photographic evidence of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin admiring that eclipse back in August - despite his claims otherwise.

Time moves at a different pace in the current FOI universe, and in keeping with tradition, we’re wrapping up our annual race to the completed request, FOIA March Madness 2018, well past the 20-day mark.

Records requests can take anywhere between a few days to sometimes even years. But how much does the level of the agency impact how long you’ll have to wait? Eesha Pendharkar sifted through the last four years of our request data to find out.

An eight page document unearthed in the Central Intelligence Agency’s declassified archives offers a standardized procedure for remote viewing, the psychic espionage technique utilized by various agencies during the government’s decades-long researcher into the militarization of ESP.

Troy Thibodeaux, the Associated Press’ data desk editor, joined us on MuckRock’s Slack channel to talk about how to get and use data.

As part of efforts to rebuild and restructure Puerto Rico after last fall’s destructive hurricane season, the island territory is actively planning to use private prisons on the mainland to house a third of its current inmate population.

Unsurprisingly, the Central Intelligence Agency’s declassified archives show the Agency closely monitored the public statements of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, grouping them into categories from general “destruction of capitalism” lines to “atypically harsh statements.” Somewhat more surprisingly, one of those categories was “colorful statements,” which covered all the times no one was quite sure what Khrushchev was talking about - including his infamous “whistling shrimp” metaphor.

This weekend, images of a heavily-armed law enforcement presence at a white supremacist rally and counter-protest in Newnan, Georgia again brought the issue of growing police militarization to the forefront. A review of records originally released as part of Shawn Musgrave’s project to track the Pentagon’s transfers of military equipment to local police departments through the infamous 1033 program show that not only did the NPD receive close to a million dollars in gear from the program but also non-lethal ordinance specifically intended for use as crowd control.

While President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier this year regarding the possible establishment of a “Space Force,” FOIA shows that not everyone in his own administration is so keen on the idea. In a series of recently released emails from last year, Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson made clear her opposition to the establishment of a semi-autonomous “Space Corps,” insisting that it be the USAF in charge of militarizing the cosmos.

What’s considered public record or not is not a new debate. But the increasing prevalence of social media use amongst government agencies and officials, such as Twitter, brings up a new debate: If you delete social media posts on an official account, is it a violation of public records laws?

MuckRock’s Eesha Pendharkar sifted through the last four years of our request data to create a series of visualizations of of what transparency looks like across the country.

When you send thousands of FOIA requests, you are bound to get some very weird responses from time to time. Recently, we here at MuckRock had one of our most bizarre gets yet - Washington State Fusion Center’s accidental release of records on the effects of remote mind control.

Adam Marshall recently joined us to talk about government surveillance and answer common questions that can stump FOIA requesters. Find out what you missed and details on Friday’s upcoming FOIA chat.

After a month of phone calls, letters, emails, faxes, and failed FOIAs, we’ve reached the final two competitors in our annual match-up of federal Freedom of Information Act offices. We began with the same request - a broad, arguably “burdensome” call for all “talking points” emails since Election 2016 - sent to 64 different FOIA agencies, and today we’re left with two offices that have worked hard to clarify the request, limit the results, and get us a sample of the information we’re after.

A recent FOIA release from the Internal Revenue Service show that leading up into the inauguration, the IRS received hundreds of emails asking for the Commissioner to end the audit of President-elect Donald Trump’s tax returns, and report all violations to the Attorney General.

This tax day, consider a deductible donation to help better track where those dollars are actually going. MuckRock’s only possible thanks to generous supporters, and requests filed through the platform have shed light on everything from wasteful spending and questionable contracting to how government programs fail to deliver on their promises.

The official record on the 2015 death of Mikhail Lesin deems the event an accident, the result of falling and suffering a number of “blunt force injuries” in his hotel room after a days-long alcohol binge. But while others have cast doubt on that account, attributing it to more nefarious external actors, materials released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation don’t contradict the accidental death determination.

This was a quiet week as we continued to test and refine a new request composing tool. While it’s not quite ready to roll out publicly yet, but we’re still looking for more feedback.

Chicago Police Department can’t use blanket “investigatory techniques” exemption to deny records regarding controversial social media surveillance technology according to a recent appeal determination by the Illinois Assistant Attorney General.

If you’re looking for FOIA Friday inspiration, you’ve come to the right place. See how others are using public records to open up government and keep our democracy informed.

This February, Paul Galante filed a FOIA with the Central Intelligence Agency for its files on the 1993 shooting outside Agency headquarters involving Pakistani national Mir Qazi. This week, the CIA responded, saying they would release over 650 pages related to the four-year long investigation, if Galante pays $55 in processing fees. You can can chip in and help.

A public records request with the Columbus Police Department revealed that until a year ago, the department tagged rape kits in evidence as “other,” a designation also used for shopping carts and cell phones.