This March, Florida state legislators passed a law that allows local sheriff’s departments to train school faculty to carry concealed weapons on campus, a measure President Donald Trump has repeatedly supported. The arrangement is formally known as the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program, which was named in honor of the football coach who died while protecting students against an active shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

On Monday, Democratic Congressional candidate Abigail Spanberger shared that a complete, unredacted copy of her federal security clearance application, known as an SF-86, was released to a Republican opposition research group America Rising through FOIA. Here’s some background on what that means, how it might have happened, and the potential fallout.

Three Massachusetts school districts are deploying electric school buses for the 2018-2019 school year after a pilot period from fall 2016 through early 2018 showed environmental benefits but mixed results in energy efficiency and savings.

Our goal at MuckRock is to help you get the records as quickly and affordable as possible. Help us with our goal by sharing your FOIA fee story! Your input will help create useful resources in tackling request fees and developing strategies that all requesters can use.

A recently released copy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation file for Central Intelligence Agency Director Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter reveals that shortly after his retirement, Hillenkoetter admitted to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that elements of the Agency were corrupt.

Last Friday, MuckRock’s Sam Whitmore Media Survey Fellow Jessie Gomez joined us for our weekly Friday FOIA Chat on MuckRock’s Slack Channel. Gomez is currently working on building FOIA resources for researchers and journalists, and one of the problems she is looking to tackle is the complicated, varying, and often baseless FOIA fees. Here’s some strategies that came out of the conversation.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s declassified archives include several copies of one of its long-term plans, produced in 1980 and originally classified SECRET. The copies of the Summary Report reveal two things about the Agency: it was, in the immediate lead-up to the Reagan administration, determined to expand its scope of operations and collections, and seemingly to increase its covert activities, and it’s either negligent or incompetent when it comes to figuring out what’s actually classified and deciding what files can be released.

Ambush marketing. Debit card readers. Summer Internships. Sustainability. Horchata. What do these have in common? They’re all part of wide-ranging multi-million dollar contracts many American colleges and universities have with Coke and Pepsi.

For back-to-school week last year, we combed through the Central Intelligence Agency archives to find connections between colleges and the Agency. This year, we’re doing things differently, tasking you with finding the strangest tie between your alma mater and the intelligence community.

It’s not uncommon for requests to have dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of attachments. Now you can get the all pulled together for easy download with just a click.

We spoke with experts around the country for advice on using the Freedom of Information Act to dig into military contracts. Here are their top tips.

A 1951 letter to the Central Intelligence Agency from a former spymaster warned of Russian infiltration in North America’s northern territories. Despite being described by the CIA’s cover letter as discussing the Soviet threat to Alaska and Canada “in very general terms,” its information and warning were considered important enough to send to J. Edgar Hoover in a package marked SECRET, and it remained classified until late 2018 - 67 years after it was written.

This week’s FOIA round-up shows a light at the end of the tunnel amidst shady for-profit colleges and a local lawmakers accident prone behavior. Plus, a bill to bring some long-overdue transparency to Congress.

In response to a recent public records request, MuckRock received healthcare and health insurance-related complaints from the Massachusetts Division of Insurance and Attorney General’s Office. These complaints reveal that while gender-affirming treatment access in the state has progressed in recent years, policy barriers persist.

Of the 159 Georgia county Sheriffs’ Departments that received our request, 63 have completed it, 14 have claimed to have no responsive documents, and another 15 are requesting payment for the materials. (You can help us pay for these fees by contributing to the crowdfund on the project page.)

Jessica Huseman of ProPublica joined us last Friday for our Friday FOIA chat on MuckRock’s Slack channel. Here’s a few tips she’s gleaned from massive investigations built off of public records requests filed all over the country.

The CIA’s FOIA office has for years relied on a single fax machine, prompting jokes and criticism regarding the otherwise cutting-edge CIA insistence on the ‘80s technology instead of email. So why, in 2016, when the CIA finally implemented an email account for FOIA for requesters to use, wasn’t there greater fanfare? Because the CIA never told requesters about it.

Throughout the ’60s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s infamous COINTELPRO operations targeted what it called “Black Nationalist Hate Groups,” for surveillance, infiltration, and ultimately, disruption. It was to that end in March 1968 that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sent a memo to the New York field office, authorizing the use of the Bureau’s secret weapon against the Nation of Islam: the zine.

Two week ago, we asked you, lovely readers, to submit your towns and cities to us for a look at the ways municipalities are investing your tax dollars. Since then, five dozen of you have gotten back to us, and we’ve sent off requests to your many great suggestions.

No major releases over the last week, but we’ll be at Code for Boston tomorrow if you want to meet up in person, or join or Slack to talk about contributing to our efforts.

The FOIA round-up hits hard this week as reporters find thousands of records showing startling police use of force, lead infested army housing ignored for years and Environmental Protection Agency officials neglecting clean-up in cancer cluster communities.

Earlier this month, on the same day that GEO Group execs held a Second Quarter earnings call with shareholders detailing its immigration-based growth, the company issued a Cease and Desist order to the group Dream Defenders, in part a response to its organizing a day of action against the company.

High profile school shootings in recent years have offered enterprising insurance companies with a business opportunity - and burdened districts budgets with thousands of dollars in new expenses.

As part of our ongoing project to document Central Intelligence Agency activities around the planet, we’re compiling a curated list of links to records in the CIA archives, divided by country and presidential administration. Today we’re looking at the Today we’re looking at Sub-Saharan Africa (Central, Eastern, Southern, and Western Africa).

Investigative data reporter for Buzzfeed Kendall Taggart joined us for MuckRock’s Friday FOIA Chat last Friday on Slack to talk about where to find data - and more importantly, what to do with it.