Collaborations editor André Natta provides some background about what led to the development of the Transparency Corps initiative and some insight into a broader vision for approaching collaborative projects moving forward.

In a normal, pre-pandemic year in Cook County, between 40,000 and 42,000 people die. But in 2020, that figure topped 52,000. In 2021 it remained high, at more than 47,000. It will likely stay unusually high in 2022.

A new analysis of state data from the Documenting COVID-19 project and the Idaho Capital Sun shows the impact of those crisis standards: As they filled up, Idaho hospitals were forced to transfer patients at least 6,300 times, making unusual moves as they scrambled to find open beds.

The initial cohort of three journalists will work to build transparency skills while working on a collaborative public records project and help in the development of a broader initiative.

Each year during Sunshine Week (March 13-19), The Foilies serve up tongue-in-cheek “awards” for government agencies and assorted institutions that stand in the way of access to information. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock combine forces to collect horror stories about Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state-level public records requests from journalists and transparency advocates across the United States and beyond. Here are this year’s “winners.”

Utah legislators have systematically gutted Test to Stay, experts say, chipping away at its effectiveness at multiple points until it had little hope of catching outbreaks before the virus spread between students, according to data and records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune and the Documenting COVID-19 project.

Today, we’re launching Add-Ons, which makes it easier to launch, maintain, and share new capabilities right within DocumentCloud, ranging from exporting notes to applying machine learning techniques.

Protections have been put in place and rental assistance rolled out. But did landlords in your area use them fairly?