News that over a million people are planning on breaking into the infamous government facility known as Area 51 would doubtlessly come as a surprise to those who were actually stationed there, many of whom were all too eager to leave.

Five years ago, MuckRock teamed up with Motherboard to conduct a massive survey of drone use by local police departments. We want to update that effort, and we need your help to do it.

In this week’s FOIA roundup, a records request reveals what then-President-elect Donald Trump was briefed on by military officials in 2016, a South Dakota newspaper battles supermarket industry lobbyists at the Supreme Court over federal food stamps data, and new documents expose Baltimore County Police Department underreported the number of rape kits they destroyed by hundreds.

Practically synonymous with high-altitude espionage, the Lockheed U-2 spy plane played an almost legendary role in the Central Intelligence Agency’s activities during the Cold War. Notoriously difficult to pilot and physically demanding (flights of over ten hours at over 70,000 feet were not uncommon), and a formerly TOP SECRET manual uncovered in the Agency archives outlines a strict regimen to keep pilots fit and healthy. Unsurprisingly, the manual touches upon the necessity of maintaining a proper diet, but somewhat surprisingly, the purpose of this proper diet is focused on “obviating the need for frequent defecation.”

In other words, keeping pilots from soiling their flightsuit.

A 1951 letter to the Central Intelligence Agency from a former spymaster warned of Russian infiltration in North America’s northern territories. Despite being described by the CIA’s cover letter as discussing the Soviet threat to Alaska and Canada “in very general terms,” its information and warning were considered important enough to send to J. Edgar Hoover in a package marked SECRET, and it remained classified until late 2018 - 67 years after it was written.