UASI program guidance and funding requirements

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

Copies of guidance documents sent to UASI grantees for FY2013 award announcements

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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,

Shawn Musgrave

Hello,

Thank you for your response and conditional grant of fee waiver. I must admit confusion that you would review my FOIA and provisionally determine that it is not in my commercial interest and thus qualify for a fee waiver, then concurrently indicate that, should my fee waiver end up being denied, I will be placed in the commercial fee category.

I am a journalist, and have written extensively on national security and the Urban Area Security Initiative. Your fee waiver review was correct to determine that this request is not in my commercial interest: I hereby certify that this request is submitted for journalistic purposes only, and that I have no commercial interest in submitting it or in obtaining responsive documents.

Please be consistent and classify me as a media requester without regard to the fee waiver.

Thank you,
Shawn

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 8, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2014-FEFO-00324.

Thank you for your help.

I previously sent you an email on (date) objecting to being considered a commercial requester. In order to avoid any confusion, I want to make sure that you processed that email as a formal appeal of the commercial fee determination.

Please supplement your record with the following information about my media credentials:

I am the editor of the MuckRock (MuckRock.com) website, which publishes original news content on a daily basis. All of MuckRock's content focuses either on FOIA itself or reports off of documents received via public records requests. Below are a number of the dozens of articles I have written for MuckRock:

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2013/nov/06/mr-de-blasio-open-nypd/

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2013/oct/25/librarian-rebukes-nun-over-comic-books/

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2013/oct/03/foia-shutdown-which-agencies-have-put-their-public/

In addition to my capacity as editor of MuckRock, I am also a freelance journalist whose work has been published in such online and print outlets as the Boston Globe, VICE/Motherboard, The Phoenix, The Progressive and Dig Boston. Here are clips of previous articles that I have written for some of these publications:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/08/big-brother-better-police-work-new-technology-automatically-runs-license-plates-everyone/1qoAoFfgp31UnXZT2CsFSK/story.html

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/10/25/mass-libraries-strikingly-free-censorship/GV3LPCJO4kdzCb3a9HE6HJ/story.html

https://www.motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-nypd-is-foia-proof

http://www.thephoenix.com/boston/news/153301-fung-wahtf/

http://www.digboston.com/boston-news-opinions/2013/10/news-to-us-cambridge-blocks-big-brother/

My coverage of topics from national security and drones to bike politics and bus inspections has been cited by a host of other news outlets at the international, national and local levels. I have received two grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalists, both for projects that revolve around public records investigations.

In short, it could not be clearer that I am, in fact, a journalist.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 8, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2014-FEFO-00324.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 8, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2014-FEFO-00324.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 8, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2014-FEFO-00324.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

I have gone to the indicated URL, but do not find documents posted there that satisfy this request. Specifically, this request is for the documents sent to UASI grant recipients in FY2013 that reflect the reporting requirements and other procedural matters such recipients must follow as they spend down their grants.

Given the considerable amount of time that has passed since my submission of this request, I respectfully request that you either direct me to the specific URL where responsive documents are posted, or process this request as submitted.

Respectfully,
Shawn Musgrave
Investigative reporter, MuckRock

Hello -

I have attached a screenshot of the "Additional Information" page at the indicated URL. There are more than 20 documents posted, but none that I see that pertains to the UASI program. Please elaborate as to which of these documents is responsive to my request for documents provided to UASI grant recipients.

Thank you,
Shawn Musgrave
Investigative reporter, MuckRock