A rally held in Portland, Oregon last August by the far-right group Patriot Prayer turned violent after Portland Police Bureau began cracking down on counter-protesters with flash grenades and pepper spray. Newly released communication logs from that day show that while the PPB were aware of a much greater threat posed by “patriot” camp - which included many armed demonstrators, some with criminal charges and violent histories - they still chose to target the counter-protesters, leaving many injured.

As e-scooter companies chose to ask for forgiveness, not permission while setting up shop across the country, cities worked quickly to pass regulations. MuckRock surveyed the different approaches they took.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation explored hundreds of leads over the course of its 45-year investigation into the infamous D.B. Cooper skyjacking case. Even after the Bureau closed the Cooper case in 2016, devoted independent sleuths to the case have pursued and released new theories.

On February 9th 2017, officers from the Portland Police Bureau in Oregon shot and killed 17 year old Quanice Hayes. Hayes was unarmed, and had told officers as much. Want to get records involving this shooting, or any of the six officer-involved shootings the PPB had during the years 2014 and 2015? Be ready to cough up some cash just to get your request processing.

In this week’s news, an increase in FOIA lawsuits last year, some cases to watch, the public records process in the Middle East, another award to nominate someone (or yourself) for, and proposals to improve FOIA administration.