News
Original reporting, commentary, and analysis of public records by MuckRock’s staff and affiliates, with new articles every weekday.
MuckRock and the Documenting COVID-19 project are releasing new searchable CDC death data at the county level
We signed a data-use agreement with the CDC to gain access to their mortality API portal so we could gather more data, more often and provide it for others to use. To help make sense of it, you’ll find other information in the data repository, including excess mortality numbers modeled by demographers at Boston University, vaccination rates by state and a Department of Justice survey released in December detailing all medical examiner and coroner offices in the U.S.
Collaborations and community: working towards a better transparency ecology
Collaborations editor André Natta provides some background about what led to the development of the Transparency Corps initiative and some insight into a broader vision for approaching collaborative projects moving forward.
18,849 more Chicagoans have died over the past two years than what would be expected. It goes beyond COVID. Here’s what happened, and what the future may look like.
In a normal, pre-pandemic year in Cook County, between 40,000 and 42,000 people die. But in 2020, that figure topped 52,000. In 2021 it remained high, at more than 47,000. It will likely stay unusually high in 2022.
Idaho COVID-19 surge drove patient transfers, strained out-of-state hospitals, new data shows
A new analysis of state data from the Documenting COVID-19 project and the Idaho Capital Sun shows the impact of those crisis standards: As they filled up, Idaho hospitals were forced to transfer patients at least 6,300 times, making unusual moves as they scrambled to find open beds.
MuckRock launches inaugural Transparency Corps cohort
The initial cohort of three journalists will work to build transparency skills while working on a collaborative public records project and help in the development of a broader initiative.
FOIA 101: Tips and Tricks to Make You a Transparency Master
How you can use eviction data and public records to report on housing during the pandemic
Protections have been put in place and rental assistance rolled out. But did landlords in your area use them fairly?
How you can use ‘Uncounted’ CDC data to explore the COVID-19 pandemic’s hidden death toll
The Documenting COVID-19 project and the USA TODAY Network spent months investigating where and why COVID-19 deaths go uncounted.
Researchers say the US is undercounting COVID deaths. Now we have a tool to figure out why.
COVID deaths in the United States have been undercounted, public health experts say. They’re trying to figure out where and why, and a new data set helps.
How you can find more details about COVID-19 breakthrough cases in your hometown
Breakthrough data by occupation was released by the Southern Nevada Health District after an open-records request. Here’s how you can find the same thing in your state.
U.S. Officials Response to COVID-19 in the Navajo Nation
DockIns: Machine Learning on Deadline for Journalists
DockIns: una interfaz para usuarios finales
En los últimos seis meses de nuestra colaboración con LSE, testeamos diferentes herramientas y técnicas para construir una plataforma que ayude a los periodistas de investigación a comprender y procesar documentos poco estructurados y obtener conocimientos útiles.
Cómo correr Sidekick
Alguna vez ¿has tenido una pila de documentos y has querido comenzar a concentrarte rápidamente en una parte determinada de material? ¿Te gustaría contar con ayuda para trabajar solamente en los contratos, o quizás, los informes policiales que detallan un determinado tipo de encuentro, o bien, poder dividir rápidamente las cartas de respaldo de aquellas negativas dirigidas a un político sobre un tema clave?
Dockins: machine learning para periodistas
El acceso a la información pública tiene un rol fundamental en la exigibilidad de otros derechos y es una de las herramientas principales que la sociedad civil requiere para controlar e influir en los gobiernos.
Reconocimiento de Entidades (NER) sobre textos en español
Como periodistas trabajando con documentos y bases de datos, nos encontramos con que la información más interesante se oculta en aquellos documentos que son largos, no estructurados o incompletos.