Documents released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first black major-party candidate for president, reveal that in 1973, the FBI investigated a smear campaign concerning Chisholm as a part of their Watergate investigation. The campaign, allegedly the work of the infamous Committee to Re-elect the President, involved a falsified press release full of racist and sexist insults, typed on what appeared to be official Hubert Humphrey campaign stationery.

From backlogs at the federal level to legal limitations at state and local, requesters are no strangers to the barriers met in access to information. But every now and then, an agency will make a demand so brazen or just plain bizarre that it’ll bring even the jaded #FOIA community to pause.

Last weekend, an anonymously-attributed presentation entitled “FOIA Strategies and Tactics” started making the rounds in the #OpenGov community, offering something for beginners, veterans, and fans of vintage Tex Avery alike. While the whole thing’s worth a read, today we wanted to focus on the five points brought up in the presentation’s conclusion, as they address some often-overlooked elements of the whole FOIA process.

From restrictive laws contributing to prolonged response times, and high fees stopping the release of records, the State of State Public Records Laws is on a bumpy ride. To get a better sense of what’s going on at the state and local level, we’ve been analyzing our MuckRock data and finding the trends in records requesting.

Earlier this week, we took a look at what you likely could (and couldn’t) get of the Special Counsel’s Report through FOIA. A number of readers were interested in filing their own requests for materials, or in getting updates as these requests were fulfilled. So we’ve made it easy for anyone to file, signing on to a group FOIA for a copy of the Mueller Report as well as other materials we thought would be worth getting into the public domain

Ernie Pyle, the legendary journalist and war correspondent who died in Japan at the end of World War II, had a typically complicated relationship with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Idaho legislators are the first in the nation to pass transparency protections addressing concerns about risk assessment tools in the criminal justice system.

It’s been just three days since Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III passed his report on to Attorney General William P. Barr, and already Freedom of Information Act lawsuits are flying. Here’s what’s likely to be released and how you can follow along for instant updates on related requests.

Later this week, we’re revamping how you manage your account and site features to offer the ability to be a member of multiple organizations, more easily add and remove members, and a lot more. In preparation for the upgrades, the site will be down Friday from 10 a.m. Eastern as we migrate data.

In just a few hours, we’ll be switching off the brackets, powering up the Request-O-Matic, and sending out the same request to 64 federal FOIA agencies in a quest to find this year’s Most Responsive Agency.

In this week’s FOIA round-up, the U.S. Army charges an environmental group with a hefty FOIA fee, researchers discover that a sub-agency in the Department of Commerce is employing pictures of immigrants, dead people, and abused children in their facial recognition test program, and Texas public records are increasingly harder to get.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is making headlines again following charges for soliciting another to commit prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Day spa in Florida. This time around, Kraft’s lawyers are seeking to work around Florida’s public records law and block video recordings showing Kraft engaging in sexual acts at the parlor.

The January decision in the case of Millions March NYC v. NYPD represented a decisive victory for transparency around cell site simulators and could be an example to agencies across the country, but transparency and privacy advocates remain concerned about StingRays.

In order to get a better sense of what’s truly going on with public records laws, we decided to take a look at data from over 2,600 agencies in MuckRock’s API. The numbers show the staggering differences in state and local average response times as well as the number of requests filed and completed in those states.

Beacon Hill lawmakers continue to talk transparency and new ways of regulating access to public records. This time around, Representative Antonio Cabral has proposed a new bill, H. 2676, that would take a multifaceted approach at strengthening records law.

Richmond School Board offers a special lesson in how the Virginia Freedom of Information Act is not supposed to work.

Federal Communications Commission complaints about the Super Bowl are an annual tradition here at MuckRock, and after a string of rather lackluster offerings in recent years, we’re happy to report that the latest batch shows the country is back in fine moral outrage form.

More than two months since President Donald Trump signed into law the First Step Act, the development of a risk assessment tool central to its implementation is still stalled.

A memo uncovered in Ronald Reagan’s Federal Bureau of Investigation file reveals the FBI’s concerns that the 1964 film “Seven Days in May,” which depicted an aborted military coup of the U.S. government, would be used as Communist propaganda - and was therefore “harmful to our Armed Forces and Nation.”

We’ve officially unveiled Muck.Rocks, a new resource that provides daily FOIA inspiration. Part of the goal of the project was to explore new ways our Assignments crowdsourcing tool could be used to solicit, manage, and incorporate audience submissions, so we’re taking a look behind the scenes at how the site works.

Prison administrators are not known for their transparency and developing strong sources in and outside the system rarely comes easy. But since 2016 the Houston Chronicle’s Keri Blakinger has used Texas’ (relatively) strong public records laws to get scoop after scoop on her beat, even though most of the institutions she covers are over an hour away.

As we wrap up Sunshine Week 2019, we’ve compiled the ultimate list of transparency bills currently making the rounds throughout state houses and senates.

We’re submitting the same request to 64 Freedom of Information Act offices. You’re predicting the agencies that’ll fulfill them. It’s FOIA March Madness year four, and there are stickers.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s “The World Situation in 1970” report was a strange mixture of realistic concerns, candid admissions, and forced optimism. In one of its more realistically optimistic moments, the CIA reported that the Soviets believed “rational Americans” would want a stable Europe. In response, President Richard Nixon asked if anything could be done to “cause more trouble” instead.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s only remaining files on Hedy Lamarr, the famous actress and scientific inventor, contain no mention of her World War II frequency jamming technology, and instead focus on Lamarr’s attendance at suspicious parties.