It’s a new year, but the battle for public records continues.

At the end of 2023, we highlighted our first elections-related story, in collaboration with Sunlight Search, on Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s lawsuit, and this is just the beginning.

MuckRock will be taking a closer focus on the local and national races across the county in 2024. We’ll be providing training and support for journalists and the public to explore political races and candidates. We also want to hear from you, about your ideas for stories or what voters should know.

The Update

• Newark moves to online portal for public records requests: As of Jan. 1, Newark will no longer accept requests for public records by email, and instead will require requesters to use an online portal requiring them to open an account, reports Steve Strunsky at NJ.com.

• Who owns Pennsylvania’s digital historical records: Alec Ferretti, a director at Reclaim The Records, has been embroiled in a court battle with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, to get all of their digital files released to the public for free, reports Angela Couloumbis at SpotlightPA.

• Making death penalty tapes made public in Virginia: After airing excerpts from four audio tapes of executions recorded by the Virginia Department of Correction, NPR discovered that the department had recorded tapes, and asked to review them under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The state denied the request — and took back the four tapes from the library. Now the families of executed prisoners want these tapes public.

FOIA Finds

• Search Supreme Court disclosures: ProPublica has created a new database, where you can now search for organizations and people that have paid Supreme Court Justices, reimbursed them for travel, given them gifts and more.

• Investigating cops with extremist ties: In their monthslong investigation into Chicago police officers with extremist ties and how they perform in the line of duty, Tom Schuba and Dan Mihalopoulos at WBEZ filed more than 200 Freedom of Information Act requests, seeking personnel records for nearly 30 current and former Chicago cops with extremist ties, plus another dozen officers from other Illinois police departments who also had signed up for the Oath Keepers.

• Complaints against Idaho’s troubled teen facilities are now public: InvestigateWest is making complaint investigations into Idaho’s troubled teen facilities available to the public, which they obtained through public records requests. Some of these investigations have resulted in the state finding evidence of potential child abuse, neglect and sexual assault.