When an agency’s records department sends responses via the postal service (affectionately known as snail mail), those communications, including acknowledgment letters, status updates and responsive documents, come to us for processing. That address is changing for the first since in 8 years, but we’re working to ensure a smooth transition.

We looked at five cities and the steps and policies that are bringing new technology to city hall.

Last month, San Francisco became the first municipality in the country to ban the use of facial recognition by city departments. Later today, Somerville, Massachusetts may join its ranks. Agencies in other cities, however, aren’t waiting for city councils to weigh in, implementing policies that bar the use of facial recognition. Though the agency-level limits are not subject to the public development and enforcement that support city or state-level rules, they can be important measures in an agency’s own relationship with residents.

Massachusetts towns are disclosing their bids for Amazon’s second headquarters, when many places across the country refuse to. Everywhere from Halifax, Canada to Los Angeles is vying for Amazon’s heart (and dollars) in the semi-public bidding war started in September, but many towns across the country won’t disclose what they’re offering Amazon in return for the second headquarters.

So far, 20+ towns and states have released their bids for Amazon’s second headquarters to MuckRock, and we want to know what the bids mean for your place. We’re going to work on compiling a database that aggregates the information from the bids, but there’s a lot of details in the bids that we’d miss because we’re not locals - that’s where you come in.