Tennessee’s state law enforcement agency has decided that it will automatically deny all records requests from out-of-state requestors because it can.

At a time where information is supposed to be easier than ever to access, public records success still requires a lot of patience and a bit of luck.

In the wake of Sanjay Gupta’s marijuana mea culpa, older emails outline the National Cancer Institute’s tussle with the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2011 over the dangers — and benefits — of medicinal pot. While the final version carried only limited revisions, its authors pushed back against allowing “politics to trump science.”

In the wake of the fatal accident at Six Flags Over Texas mid-July, media have reported an incomplete snapshot of “megacoaster” Texas Giant’s safety history. Data released to MuckRock show a fraught record since the ride’s 1990 grand opening, as well as a $10 million overhaul that changed the coaster from wood to steel in 2011.

The State Department guesses it will complete our request for files on the late Margaret Thatcher in a year and a half. Just don’t hold them to their timeline.

Kevin Poulsen, the news editor at WIRED.com, is currently front and center in one of the higher profile Freedom of Information Act lawsuits currently under way: The fight to have transparency activist Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service files released. In this week’s Requester’s Voice, Poulsen explains how WIRED uses public records to get the “big ones,” why leakers are the new FOIA and what’s next in the fight for Swartz’s files.

For the past few months, we’ve taken a small team at MuckRock aside to work on a special project unlike anything we’ve ever done. Today, I’m excited to share the results: The MuckRock podcast, season 1, episode 1.