MuckRock emails (Department of Energy)
| Tracking # |
HQ-2018-01148-F |
| Multi Request | MuckRock emails |
| Submitted | May 23, 2018 |
| Due | Feb. 7, 2019 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Emma North-Best
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
Copies of all emails containing the terms "MuckRock", "Muck Rock" or "MuckRock.com", excluding emails sent to or from a MuckRock.com email address. Please include the complete email exchange for each email, including any emails that are being replied to as well as any subsequent replies.
I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities. I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. I discuss and comment on the files online and make them available through non-profits such as the Internet Archive and MuckRock, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself. As such, it is not necessary for me to demonstrate the relevance of this particular subject in advance.
Additionally, case law states that “proof of the ability to disseminate the released information to a broad cross- section of the public is not required.” Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dep’t of Justice, 365 F.3d 1108, 1126 (D.C. Cir. 2004); see Carney v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 19 F.3d 807, 814-15 (2d Cir. 1994). Further, courts have held that "qualified because it also had “firm” plans to “publish a number of . . . ‘document sets’” concerning United States foreign and national security policy." Under this criteria, as well, I qualify as a member of the news media.
Additionally, courts have held that the news media status "focuses on the nature of the requester, not its request. The provision requires that the request be “made by” a representative of the news media. Id. § 552(a)(4)(A)(ii)(II). A newspaper reporter, for example, is a representative of the news media regardless of how much interest there is in the story for which he or she is requesting information." As such, the details of the request itself are moot for the purposes of determining the appropriate fee category. As my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available, I request that fees be waived.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Emma Best
From:
Good Afternoon Ms. Best,
Please find attached the acknowledgement letter for the above referenced FOIA request. In order to move forward with your request, I need some additional information about your request. Please give me a call at 202-287-6745 to discuss.
Best Wishes,
Melissa Darr, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc. Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202)287-6745
From: Emma North-Best
Apologies, I only communicate about FOIA requests in writing.
Emma
From:
Good Morning Emma,
In order to move forward with your request I need a date range and what custodians or program offices you would like us to search. Additionally, your request does not include an agreement to pay fees. DOE requires either an agreement to pay fees or a valid request for a fee waiver in order to process a FOIA request. DOE begins assessing fees at $15.00. If you approve fees up to $15.00, I can notify you if fees are expected to exceed $15.00.
Once I have the above information, I should be able to move forward with your request.
Also, I wanted to see if you would be willing to waive subscription news emails and publicly available information that happens to contain the search terms? This may help speed up the processing of your request. Please let me know if you have any questions or how you would like to proceed with this request.
Best Wishes,
Melissa
-
~WRD000
From: Emma North-Best
"In order to move forward with your request I need a date range and what custodians or program offices you would like us to search."
All dates, all custodians, all offices. Courts have found this to be a reasonable request in the past.
"Additionally, your request does not include an agreement to pay fees. DOE requires either an agreement to pay fees or a valid request for a fee waiver in order to process a FOIA request. "
1. This demand is inconsistent with FOIA, especially as you are not entitled to charge search fees, only duplication fees. Once a page count is provided, I will commit to duplication costs. However, as you will almost certainly not be completing this within the statutory time limit and I am news media, you will not be permitted to charge me duplication fees if the request is less than 5,000 pages of responsive documents. The full page count will almost certainly not exceed 5,000 pages.
2. If you had read my request more carefully, you would see that it does include a request for a fee waiver.
Please proceed with the request ASAP.
Thanks!!
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 23, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #HQ-2018-01148-F.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 23, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #HQ-2018-01148-F.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 23, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #HQ-2018-01148-F.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From:
Good Morning Ms. Best,
I wanted to follow up with you now that I have more information from our IT POC. In order to search all DOE staff, we will need to search several servers and the field offices and they have requested a date range to search. After doing a little bit of research, It looks like MuckRock came into existence in May of 2010. Would that work for you as a start of the timeframe to search?
Additionally, I am suggesting that we start our search with the specific program offices most likely to have any records related to or mentioning MuckRock. For HQ, that would be the FOIA office and our Office of General Counsel.
Please let me know if you are amenable to this plan to proceed with your request or if you have any questions.
Best Wishes,
Melissa
-
~WRD000
From:
Good Afternoon Ms. Best,
I am following up on my email below. Until I hear from you, I cannot move forward with your request. If I do not hear from you by September 24, 2018, I will assume you are no longer interested in your request and close it.
Best Wishes,
Melissa
-
image001
From:
Good Morning Ms. Best,
Melissa Darr is no longer with the Department and I am taking over your request on her behalf. In the attached email, Melissa asked you for more information on a date range to search and suggested searching specific program offices.
Please let me know if you have a specific date range and are amenable to searching the FOIA office and Office of General Counsel.
Best,
Kyle Kemper, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc. Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202) 586-2708
From: Emma North-Best
I apologize for the delayed response - yes, your suggested date range beginning in 2010 is fine.
Thanks!
From:
Good Morning Ms. Best,
Thank you for the date range amendment. To discuss your request and how we will proceed, can I ask you to please call me? I’d like to talk about targeting the search with more clarity. I can be reached at (202) 586-5955.
Thanks,
Kyle Kemper, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc. Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202) 586-2708
-
~WRD000
From: Emma North-Best
I'm afraid we'll have to communicate in writing.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 23, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #HQ-2018-01148-F.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From:
Good afternoon Ms. Best,
My name is Christine Grauer, and I have been assigned to take over the above-captioned FOIA request. I am following up regarding Melissa Darr's inquiry about whether you would be willing to waive subscription news emails and publicly available information that happens to contain the search terms you identified in your initial request. This may help to speed up the processing of your request. Please let me know if you have any questions or how you would like to proceed. Thank you in advance for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
Christine
Christine L. Grauer, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc.
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585
From:
Good morning Ms. Best,
I am following up on the email below and the attached email regarding waiving subscription news emails and publicly available information that happens to contain the search terms you identified in your initial request.
Additionally, your request does not include an agreement to pay fees. DOE requires either an agreement to pay fees or a valid request for a fee waiver in order to process a FOIA request. DOE begins assessing fees at $15.00. If you approve fees up to $15.00, I can notify you if fees are expected to exceed $15.00.
Thank you in advance for your assistance with this matter, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
Christine
Christine L. Grauer, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc.
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585
From:
Response Required by: Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Dear Ms. Best,
This email is in regards to FOIA Request HQ-2018-01148-F, which you submitted to the DOE in May 2018. This request was for "Copies of all emails containing the terms 'Muck.Rock', 'Muck Rock' or 'MuckRock.com', excluding emails sent to or from a MuckRock.com email address."
We have been working to process your request, and we were hoping to further discuss a few issues with you. Our office has attempted to contact you on several occasions, but we have not received a response for some time now.
If you are no longer interested in pursuing this request, please feel free to let me know so that I can have it closed out for you.
If we do not hear from you in two (2) weeks, by Wednesday, December 12, 2018, we will assume that you are no longer interested in pursuing this request and automatically close it.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Rachel
Rachel Dillon Fellows, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc., Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202) 287-6831
From:
Good morning, Ms. Best:
I just wanted to send a final reminder regarding the above-captioned FOIA request that you submitted to the DOE. If we do not receive a response from you by Wednesday, December 12, 2018, we will proceed with closing this request. If you are no longer interested in pursuing this request, please feel free to let me know.
This will be our last attempt to contact you regarding this matter. Thank you.
Best,
Rachel
Rachel Dillon Fellows, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc., Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202) 287-6831
From:
Dear Ms. Best:
Per my emails last week, if we do not hear anything further from you today, December 12, 2018, regarding the above-captioned FOIA request, we will proceed with closing it.
Regards,
Rachel
Rachel Dillon Fellows, Esq.
(202) 287-6831
From: Emma North-Best
Please reopen and process the request, clarify what additional information you seek, and note that a fee waiver was requested in the original request (contrary to what some of your correspondence appears to imply). Thank you so much!
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