As the late Henry Kissigner once famously said, “Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, ‘The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.’ But since [FOIA], I’m afraid to say things like that.”
Welcome to MuckRock’s “For the Record” column — the essential weekly guide to the latest on FOIA, transparency and accountability battles, threats and wins. This week, we’re highlighting pickleball drama played out in public records, a new Supreme Court ruling in Florida that affects public disclosure and more.
Have a tip or submission to include in For the Record? Email MuckRock’s engagement journalist, Kelly Kauffman, at kelly@muckrock.com.
The Update
- Apply to the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Award: The Brechner Freedom of Information Project sponsors an annual $3,000 award recognizing excellence in journalism that centers on the public’s right to know and draws on government documents and data that uncover official secrecy.
- Freedom of Information Act training: Chicago’s Better Government Association is hosting a free, beginner friendly Illinois-focused FOIA workshop in collaboration with South Side Weekly today at 1 p.m. Central.
- Marsy’s Law does not protect names from public records: Florida’s Supreme Court ruled last Thursday that the constitutional amendment called “Marsy’s Law” does not guarantee that crime victims can withhold their names from public disclosure, reports Florida Politics. Despite the ruling, the state legislature could still enact legislation on what can be exempt under Florida’s public-records law, and might do so.
FOIA Finds
- Pickleball drama plays out in public records: Pickleball is “one of the fastest growing sports” in the U.S. but is causing drama for local governments. Jason Koebler at 404 Media requested and reviewed a variety of public records that show how pickleball’s surging popularity is overwhelming under-resourced parks departments in city governments all over the country.
- Air traffic controllers are ‘exhausted and demoralized’: Thousands of pages of federal safety reports and internal Federal Aviation Administration records, obtained by The New York Times, reveals that air traffic controllers are sometimes forced to work six-day weeks and 10-hour days, which has caused several of them to develop physical and mental-health problems.
- Mortality rates in U.S. prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic: Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have published a new analysis of mortality data in U.S. prisons collected from public records requests from 48 departments of corrections, along with publicly-available data on MuckRock, to provide the most comprehensive understanding to date of in-custody deaths during 2020.
