MuckRock is filing requests with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, as well as sheriffs’ offices in each of the state’s counties to learn more about the commissions these agencies are receiving for communication services and their policies around them.

The state of state public records laws continues to evolve as lawmakers discuss new legislation, court rulings clarify ambiguities in records law, and advocates press for better access. To get a sense of what’s happening, we’ve compiled a list of recent changes to access all across the country. If we missed news in your state, let us know by filling out the form below!

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released more than 3,000 pages of its files on the activist and Earth First! organizer Judi Bari, with more on the way. We need your help going through it.

Last week, we quashed a bug that was overly aggressively logging users out, so you should now be able to use the site with fewer interruptions.

In this week’s FOIA roundup, the Navy Times investigates the jet that drew a giant penis over Washington state, text messages indicate that Michigan Representative Larry Inman sought campaign contributions in exchange for his vote, and records reveal that West Virginia Governor Jim Justice has been largely absent from his legislative responsibilities.

Today, Food & Water Watch and MuckRock are announcing a joint project to identify and shed a light on efforts to privatize the country’s public water systems. The organizations will be submitting public records requests to the largest water systems in the United States - from Puerto Rico to California and in between - looking for the latest corporate attempts to absorb community water supplies into their revenue streams.

Three years ago, Massachusetts legislators revised the state’s public records law with the ostensible goal of increasing access. And yet, the law is still considered one of the most restrictive in the country - in no small part owing to the fact that the Bay State remains the only state in which all three branches of its state government are exempt from disclosure.

The Virginia-based advocacy group Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project talks to Tom Nash about how they use public records to push for police oversight.

More than 4,500 individuals at federal and local law enforcement agencies currently have access to a facial recognition database hosted by the Ohio Attorney General’s office, including at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

How did the National Aeronautics and Space Administration handle one of the first major hacktivist incidents? Newly released records sheds light on what happened during NASA’s investigation of the 1989 WANK worm infection.