More than a month after the Massachusetts supervisor of public records upheld Somerville’s decision to deny access to a firearms inventory, responses from the 68 other police departments to the same request are yielding disparate results.

Over the past several months, I’ve filed for contracts between Booz Allen Hamilton and almost a hundred federal agencies and departments. Eleven have completed those requests, releasing thousands of pages detailing how an increasing amount of America’s governmental operations are being outsourced to private contractors.

Typically the Federal Bureau of Investigation will only release the files of deceased individuals. The exception to that rule is when an individual is requesting information about themselves.

In a Senate hearing yesterday, the FBI Director acknowledged its use of drones for domestic surveillance. Which makes their non-response to our Drone Census FOIA request so puzzling…

The FBI kept track on Michael Hastings’ “controversial reporting,” even investigating his Rolling Stone piece on Bowe Bergdahl for veracity.

In the wake of recent fertilizer plant explosions in Texas and Louisiana, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has released its database of chemical incidents, which goes back as far as 2001. The data highlight which states have had the most accidents, as well as which companies have the most injuries and fatalities on their safety record.

While Jay-Z and Beyoncé were accused of - and admired for - appearing above the law by spending their wedding anniversary in Cuba in April, it turns out they file the same paperwork as the rest of us.

As Wisconsin legislators finalized a state budget bill in the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 5, a provision suddenly appeared that would evict an investigative journalism non-profit from the University of Wisconsin campus and prohibit university faculty from collaborating with the organization.

Unsurprisingly, the National Security Agency is one of the more difficult federal agencies to get information out of. Want to know if they have files on you? You’re out of luck. Looking for even mundane information, like parking lot complaints? Better lawyer up.

Like previous storms, Hurricane Sandy revealed a lack of coordination by responders and inadequate response infrastructure for effective disaster relief, all exacerbated by deviations from the federal response framework.

With the hurricane season officially begun as of June 1, MuckRock reviews the lessons gleaned from major storms past. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, military analysts focused on a critical “response gap” and uncoordinated, overwhelmed local first responders.

With the hurricane season officially begun as of June 1, MuckRock reviews the lessons gleaned from major storms past. Following Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Defense Department analysts critiqued the coordination and preparation of first responders, and emphasized the importance of maintaining public confidence in the government.