In this week’s FOIA round-up, Alaska natives sued the Trump Administration for concealing information regarding oil drilling, an environmental advocacy group shows that the bulk of U.S. farm aid goes to wealthy farmers, and members of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement draw public scrutiny after going on pricey international vacations.

Annita Lucchesi, a doctoral student and freelance cartographer, has filed extensive FOIA requests to create the first centralized database on missing and murdered indigenous women. Lucchesi shared her experiences navigating a system that refuses to keep track of this data.

Recently released documents show that the backlog of untested rape kits in Alaska’s capitol city, Juneau, is staggering. Out of the 283 sexual assault evidence kits collected since 2000, 206 still remain untested, while the status of three remains “unknown” - disturbing news for a state with a rate of sexual violence nearly three times the national average.

In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, MuckRock will be continuing our coverage of the American Indian Movement and other Native American activist groups. In typical MuckRock fashion, this involves mainly FBI files.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Curtis Waltman was able to return to the Dakotas as part of his ongoing project on the impact of police militarization. Here’s a short travelogue of what he heard, saw, and did.