Dillon Bergin’s Projects

2024 Presidential Transition

Federal agencies have been busy at work preparing for the transition of the next president of the United States. And in the process, they’re creating a lot of documents that you can request.

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A community podcast about all things FOIA and public records

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We gather once a month to share updates on public records laws and rulings, techniques, tricks and insider tips from fellow requesters.

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Atomic Fallout: Records reveal the federal government downplayed, ignored health risks

"Atomic Fallout" is an ongoing collaboration between The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press involving thousands of pages of previously-unreleased government records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. They show radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project was known to pose a threat to people living in North St. Louis County as early as 1949. But federal officials repeatedly wrote off potential health risks off as "slight," "minimal" or "low-level."

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Behind the Badge: New York’s hidden police misconduct files

Department by department, we’re making New York’s hidden law enforcement disciplinary histories public.

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Brady lists and police disciplinary files

We want to free up police disciplinary files in more places across the country, make them open for all and highlight the work of others doing the same.

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Dangers in Our Air: Mapping Chicago’s Air Pollution Hotspots

Chicago’s air quality is among the worst in the U.S., and the city has several local hotspots for particulate matter 2.5 — the tiny particles that come from diesel trucks and industry and enter people’s lungs and blood, causing significant health problems. Between April 2021 and March 2023, the tech company Microsoft installed and monitored 115 air quality sensors across Chicago. We worked with Chicago newsrooms, including the Cicero Independiente, WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, ​​to analyze this data for a series of stories on the city’s comparatively poor air quality. We then installed our own air quality sensors in Chicago neighborhoods that lacked coverage in the Microsoft network — and looked for trends and spikes in pollution.

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Disappearing Day Care: Child Care Crisis in the U.S.

"Disappearing Day Care" is our ongoing series on the U.S. child care industry. We published our first part of this series in Michigan in 2022, with the Detroit Free-Press and Chalkbeat Detroit. In 2023, we are focusing on Missouri, with The Missouri Independent.

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Documenting COVID-19 project

The Documenting COVID-19 project is a repository of searchable documents related to the COVID-19 pandemic obtained through state open-records laws and the Freedom of Information Act. It has produced hundreds of stories with local, regional and national newsroom partners throughout the United States.

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Elections 2024

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As newsrooms worked to cover local and national issues and candidates in the 2024 elections, MuckRock was actively supporting them. We provided extensive training and support for journalists and the public to help cover federal, state and local races across the country. MuckRock worked on public records requests, along with Sunlight Research Center, to better understand political candidates.

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How AI is being used in the FOIA process

We want to know more about how federal agencies are using AI initiatives in the FOIA process, described in their yearly Chief FOIA Officer Reports. We’re asking them for the docs.

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Liberating public data for the public good

The Data Liberation Project is an initiative to identify, obtain, reformat, clean, document, publish, and disseminate government datasets of public interest.

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Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret

“Smoke, Screened” is an investigative series by The California Newsroom, MuckRock and the Guardian on the large environmental impact of a little-noticed deregulatory tool found in the Clean Air Act. The provision in the Clean Air Act has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to strike pollution from clean air tallies in more than 70 counties, enabling local regulators to claim the air was cleaner than it really was for more than 21 million Americans. The loophole allows regulators to forgive pollution, and avoid costly cleanup work, caused by “natural” or “uncontrollable” events, including wildfires.

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‘The Air We Breathe:’ How industry is polluting Cicero’s air

"The Air We Breathe" is a yearlong investigative project by two nonprofit newsrooms, the Cicero Independiente and MuckRock, who have been monitoring air pollution in Cicero. What we found: Cicero’s air quality is much worse than surrounding Cook County neighborhoods, and it’s worse than what the Environmental Protection Agency and pilot programs run by the city and Microsoft have routinely reported.

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