Sometimes the most direct way to get the answers you want is through a rejection, and sometimes it’s through another agency entirely. In this week’s FOIA roundup, some great examples of creative and persistent requesting that overcame the odds to expose public scrutiny in hard-to-reach places. Plus, FOIA comedy.

Plenty of criticism has been lobbed at Ira Glass and his radio show “This American Life,” whose storytelling aesthetic has won scorn as well as a dedicated legions of fans. But in the past five years, only one person decided to gripe about it to the Federal Government.