For this week’s FOIA round-up, we’ve got the numbers on Scott Pruitt’s excessive security spending, an impending FOIA request about the enforcement mechanisms for President Donald Trump’s promise to ensure families aren’t separated at the border, and a (possible) resolution to an infamous Federal Bureau of Investigation case, thanks to FOIA.

Pride month means rainbows have covered the country and social media, but it also means cities around America spent thousands of dollars painting rainbow crosswalks, often sidestepping federal highway administration guidelines.

After a couple decades of wholesomeness, terror, and wholesome terror, the National Security Agency’s security posters took a turn for the mellow in the ’70s. Here’s five of our favorites.

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s FOIA office in the Records Management Division prepares to release a file that it deems significant, newsworthy or controversial, it issues what’s known as a High Visibility Memoranda. These memos, circulated to different parts of the Bureau and often to the Director’s Office as well as outside agencies, outline the proposed releases and their possible fallout. A recent release of over 500 pages of these memos serves as a list of files for FOIA requesters to file new requests for so the files can be published online, as well as showing government reactions to the requests themselves.

Austin Evers is the executive director of American Oversight, an independent watchdog that uses litigation to access documents the public is rightfully entitled to under FOIA protections. After serving as senior counsel to the State Department for transparency-related matters under the Obama Administration, Evers founded American Oversight in response to the election of President Donald Trump. Evers shared his experience in FOIA litigation and offered advice to requesters in an interview with MuckRock.

Though Arthur H. Rosenfeld would later rise to prominence as the “father of energy efficiency” for his role in creating new global standards for sustainable energy use in the ‘70s, the physicist’s FBI file is focused on a younger Rosenfeld being a high-profile target for Soviet spies. In addition to his coveted “Q” clearance guaranteeing a stash of nuclear secrets, Rosenfeld’s criticism of what he felt was extremism in defense of liberty - including an impassioned political debate that took place entirely on the margins of a table mat - had the Bureau wondering the extent to which Rosenfeld could be trusted at academic conferences held behind the Iron Curtain.

Last month, Governor of Hawaii David Ige signed a bill into law preventing state-licensed medical professionals from performing sexual orientation or gender identity conversion therapy on anyone under 18, making the state the 12th so far to implement a ban.

Are you a news nerd head out to SRC CON later this week? Come to our session or say hi to learn more about ways to help make FOIA stronger for everyone. If you’re not coming to Minneapolis, here is what’s new on MuckRock plus how you can contribute.

Records released this week show taxpayers paid almost $20 million for the Coast Guard to protect President Donald Trump during visits to Mar-a-Lago, and a Michigan State Police captain is under investigation for favoring a towing firm in exchange for sports tickets. Plus, records show the Department of Education has closed more than 1200 Obama-era civil rights probes, and the Environmental Protection Agency is making FOIA requesters wait for documents - with an average processing time for complex requests of 388 days.

Last week, a newly discovered report left Florida struggling to explain how a year passed before anyone noticed it was issuing concealed carry permits without a federal background check, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement emails suggest that Attorney General Jeff Sessions may have misrepresented the expected yield of recent raids in California.

This week we pushed out a number of bug fixes and subtle improvements, while also making it easier for developers to get up to speed if they want to help contributing to MuckRock. We’ve also (temporarily!) removed one of our most charming and beloved features: The magnifying loupe, which made it easier to read screenshots of documents in our news articles.

A search through the Central Intelligence Agency’s archival photography reveals the Agency once classified a picture of a birdhouse. Help us figure out why.

Despite ample evidence of premeditation, public knowledge of political and personal clashes, and a taped confession, Dan White was charged with voluntary manslaughter after he assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Previously processed Federal Bureau of Investigation records released to Emma Best reveal details about White’s alleged antisemitism and homophobia, and lend credence to accusations that the State’s prosecution of White was performed with “reckless and wanton disregard of normal prosecutorial standards.”

Back in 2013, MuckRock user Jasper Craven filed a FOIA request with the State Department for records regarding Dennis Rodman’s 2013 trip to North Korea. After nearly two years of processing, the agency released 18 pages of cables, almost completely redacted under the b(1) national security exemption.

We are thrilled to announce that DocumentCloud and MuckRock are merging. The reason is simple: Mission. Our organizations share a core belief that institutions should be open, transparent and accountable to the people they serve. We’re excited to get to work to make that vision a reality.

Last week was quiet, with only one new user facing feature (although one we think will enable some other cool stuff in the near future). If you’d like to hear the latest about what we’re up to and happen to be at IRE this year, come say hi!

In this week’s FOIA round-up, we’ve got dirt on a Federal Communications Commission cover-up effort, long-awaited Chicago stop-and-frisk data, copies of environmental policy executive orders sent to President Donald Trump by a major coal executive, and document devouring tips from a New York Times investigative reporter.

Two hundred pages into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s copious file on the famed physicist Richard Feynman, and the reader is treated to a quite the surprise: A bizarre collage of what appears to be Feynman’s face alongside large swaths of redacted text, with a few cryptic phrases like “doubt everything” and “is a God” left intact. It is unclear if the redaction are original, or are the work of the FBI.

A pair of stunning photographs unearthed in the Central Intelligence Agency’s archives depict the D-Day invasion from the perspective of the planes buzzing overhead. Remarkably, these photos were only declassified in 2013, just a year shy of the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Vanessa Nason, who runs our “Counting the Uncounted: The Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Project,” reflects on a year spent tracking down the extent of the rape kit backlog in America.

As we wrote last week, the school districts of Attleboro, Brockton, Leicester, Middleborough, and Quincy, all found the highest levels of lead in their school buildings. Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at all of them.

Last week, we had a number of smaller bug fixes plus a bunch of improvements and new features for the Assignments tool. Read all about them and find ways to contribute code, design, and other skills to help make MuckRock even better.

Our contest to crowdsource #RummysSnowflakes is officially over, so now it’s a time to congratulate the winners and see the results!

Records released this week through FOIA requests show the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid millions for a ‘half-empty floating hotel’ last hurricane season. Plus, Michigan State University struggles to keep up with records requests about Larry Nassar, Humana’s “reverse FOIA,” and an exciting job opportunity with the New York Times, all in this week’s round-up.

We are excited to announce that earlier this year Nabiha Syed and Cori Zarek joined MuckRock’s board of directors, becoming the first two board members beyond the organization’s founders and helping us continue to fighting for a more open and accountable democracy.