Learn the secrets of the government’s psychic spies
An eight page document unearthed in the Central Intelligence Agency’s declassified archives offers a standardized procedure for remote viewing, the psychic espionage technique utilized by various agencies during the government’s decades-long researcher into the militarization of ESP.
What you missed from our FOIA Slack Chat with Troy Thibodeaux
Troy Thibodeaux, the Associated Press’ data desk editor, joined us on MuckRock’s Slack channel to talk about how to get and use data.
Puerto Rico looks to privatize its prison system
As part of efforts to rebuild and restructure Puerto Rico after last fall’s destructive hurricane season, the island territory is actively planning to use private prisons on the mainland to house a third of its current inmate population.
The wit, wisdom, and “whistling shrimp” of Nikita Khrushchev
Unsurprisingly, the Central Intelligence Agency’s declassified archives show the Agency closely monitored the public statements of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, grouping them into categories from general “destruction of capitalism” lines to “atypically harsh statements.” Somewhat more surprisingly, one of those categories was “colorful statements,” which covered all the times no one was quite sure what Khrushchev was talking about - including his infamous “whistling shrimp” metaphor.
Police in Newnan, Georgia had received close to a million dollars in military equipment from the Pentagon
This weekend, images of a heavily-armed law enforcement presence at a white supremacist rally and counter-protest in Newnan, Georgia again brought the issue of growing police militarization to the forefront. A review of records originally released as part of Shawn Musgrave’s project to track the Pentagon’s transfers of military equipment to local police departments through the infamous 1033 program show that not only did the NPD receive close to a million dollars in gear from the program but also non-lethal ordinance specifically intended for use as crowd control.
Projects See all
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The Private Prison Project
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- 44% funded
- $4430.00 raised
- 108 backers
For-profit detention continues to reap the rewards of an incarceration system filled to the brim and facing an uncertain future. Our FOIA requests have released thousands of documents that show how for-profit prisons have leveraged the legal system to their advantage, letting companies pick-and-choose inmates to off-load costs, ignore complaints and concerns, and create dangerous conditions for prisoners and staff alike. This is all done while billions of taxpayer dollars are funneled into these private companies, which then pour millions into politicians' campaigns to keep their growth going. With your help, we can provide needed scrutiny of an industry few are even aware exists. -
Subjects Matter: FBI Files
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- 43% funded
- $2150.00 raised
- 19 backers
This project aims to sift through the hundreds of thousands of pages of FBI archival material we've released, so we can better understand why the Bureau had an eye on these people - and through that, better understand who they're keeping tabs on today. -
Counting the Uncounted: The Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Project
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- 126% funded
- $1455.00 raised
- 21 backers
Despite an estimated 175,000 sexual assault evidence collection kits that sit untested in evidence rooms and crime labs across the country, there is no federal law in place mandating policies or testing of kits, and we don't know how many more go uncounted. This project aims to end that, one city and one kit at a time. -
FOIA 101: Tips and Tricks to Make You a Transparency Master
★ FeaturedWhether it's your first request or your first request *today,* it never hurts to go over the basics. MuckRock's compiled a lot of FOIA advice over the years, and with this project, it's all in one place.