News
Original reporting, commentary, and analysis of public records by MuckRock’s staff and affiliates, with new articles every weekday.

The Foilies 2023: Recognizing the worst in government transparency
It seems like these days, everyone is finding classified documents in places they shouldn’t be: their homes, their offices, their storage lockers, their garages, their guitar cases, between the cracks of their couches, under some withered celery in the vegetable drawer … OK, we’re exaggerating—but it is getting ridiculous. Read on for some of the worst of the worst in 2022 transparency stories.

New CDC and state data shows how the COVID-19 pandemic led to a startling rise in maternal deaths
With the help of maternal mortality experts, MuckRock is releasing a first-of-its-kind dataset that includes nationwide and a selection of statewide data on maternal deaths during the pandemic. We’re also asking for people who have experienced the death of a family member or friend from pregnancy-related complications to tell us their stories.

Queremos escuchar a los residentes de Cicero sobre sus experiencias con la contaminación del aire.
MuckRock y Cicero Independiente también están buscando voluntarios que estén interesados en tener un sensor de calidad del aire instalado fuera de su hogar o negocio. Complete el siguiente formulario para obtener más información.

We want to hear from residents of Cicero about their experiences with air pollution
MuckRock and the Cicero Independiente are also looking for volunteers who are interested in having a free air quality sensor installed outside their home or business. Fill out the form in the article for more information.

Pitch your public records and data stories to MuckRock
Have a great story idea that needs some outside help? Pitch your story to MuckRock.
FOIA 101: Tips and Tricks to Make You a Transparency Master

How data can power public health investigations — through collaboration
In a new story with DataJournalism.com, reporters Dillon Bergin and Betsy Ladyzhets shared how MuckRock collaborates with both experts and other reporters to pursue major data journalism projects.

Air Quality Access: How local government is planning (or not) to protect your air
In the late 1980s, an area of the Jurupa Valley in Riverside, California began a transformation that would turn it from a community of sprawling dairy farms to hub for enormous warehouses. David Danelski, then an investigative reporter for the Riverside-Press Enterprise, unraveled the details through public records on town planning and found one important document missing from projects approved by county officials for more than a decade: the environmental impact statement. Here are his tips on this and other key records requests you can file.

Air quality access: Using complaints, violations and fines to pinpoint local polluters
Freelance journalist Monica Vaughan was reporting on air pollution in California’s San Joaquin Valley when the words of one mother changed her perspective. “I just scan the stories looking for the sentence about whether or not it’s safe to live here. And I can never find that,” Vaughan remembered the woman saying.
In a second guide on air pollution, we bring together advice from reporters like Vaughan and examples that might help you uncover unsafe air in your community. From intial complaints to sustained violations, we give you the tools to ask your local government how it regulates polluters in your area

Air Quality Access: Three requests to help you scrutinize local environmental standards
In 2004, Dina Cappiello discovered some Houston residents were exposed to cancer-causing toxins at a level 20 times higher than federal guidelines — for toxic waste dumps. “Everybody was like ‘nothing to see here,’ but I was like something doesn’t add up,” Cappiello said. In this guide, we share tips and examples from Cappiello and other reporters of what you can request in your community to understand how dangerous the air is and even pinpoint potential polluters.
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.

DockIns: Machine Learning on Deadline for Journalists
La Nacion, CLIP, Ojo Público, and MuckRock collaborated together to explore how machine learning could help fuel more effective ways for journalists, researchers, and the public to keep an eye on large government document sets. Here’s what we learned and how you can build on that work.