This morning, a judge in the US Southern District dismissed Trump’s indictment. The AP has the story and you can read the order on DocumentCloud.

DocumentCloud is one of the vital tools that MuckRock maintains as part of our mission to support and facilitate transparency in both journalism and government.

In August 1982, Admiral Grace Hopper gave a lecture on “Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People” at the NSA’s Fort Meade headquarters. This spring, after initially saying they could not find their recording of this landmark lecture, the NSA clarified: they no longer have the ability to view the recording.

MuckRock has a great story up now about the lecture and efforts to get the intelligence agency to make the recording public.

The Freedom of Information Act, a landmark piece of legislation for transparency, was signed into law on July 4, 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. 

Since its passage, journalists, researchers, activists and regular citizens have come together to request government documents, making politics more transparent and democracies more informed.

Get in the spirit of the holidays by making your own public records request from your fellow MuckRockers. 

🎇 Shoes off, laptops out of bags and no fireworks

While many of us are concerned with keeping our liquids  under 3 ounces, some travelers have brought fireworks and other banned items through airport checkpoints. A decade ago, MuckRock requester Donald Triplett III wanted to know how many fireworks were seized by the Transportation Security Administration during the Fourth of July holiday. 

The TSA responded to the request showing a total of 125 fireworks seized from between June 29th, 2014 and July 7th, 2014. 

🎆 The cost of firework displays in your town

While you enjoy your city’s fireworks display, take the time to ask yourself: How much did that cost? 

MuckRock’s own Michael Morisy asked that same question of the city of Bartlett in Tennessee. In response to Morisy’s public records request, the city revealed in 2013, their budget for that year’s firework extravaganza was $18,000. 

🎂 Celebrate FOIA with some cake

In honor of FOIA’s 50th anniversary in 2016, former MuckRock employee JPat Brown requested photos of U.S. presidents and cakes, from former President Calvin Coolidge to President Barack Obama.

We’re continuing Brown’s tradition by requesting photos of the former President Donald J. Trump with cake. We’re hoping to avoid Brown’s hurdles obtaining photos of former President George W. Bush with a cake that resulted in an “estimated completion date of 15 years.” 

FOIA Finds and Updates (July 8, 2024)

Updates

• The legacy of the National Security Archive: The National Security Archive is a nonprofit founded by “journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy.” Nancy Schola at the Washingtonian highlights the work of Tom Blanton and the National Security Archive in uncovering documents from the federal government which in turn led to“unredacted truth about our history.” 
• Expanding FOIA in Michigan: Michigan’s state Senate has passed a bill that would expand the state’s Freedom of Information Act and open up the governor’s office and Legislature to public records requests, reports Jordyn Hermani in Bridge Michigan. The bill will now pass to the House for consideration this fall. 
• Alabama’s must disclose voter records: A new ruling by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals says that Alabama must disclose certain voter records upon request. While a step towards transparency, the ruling also says the state is “not required to provide them in electronic format,” reports Alander Rocha in the News from the States. 

FOIA Finds

• Pulling one over on Jerome Powell and the Fed: Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Leopold obtained documents from the Federal Reserve that revealed how Russian pranksters tricked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell “into a virtual meeting during which they discussed inflation and rate hikes.” Leopold obtained email communications and the Federal Reserve’s investigative report about the incident. 
• NYPD Commissioner burying police misconduct: A new investigation by ProPublica and the New York Times reveals how New York City’s Police Commissioner Edward Caban used a little-known authority called “retention” to prevent officers accused of misconduct from facing public disciplinary trials. ProPublica obtained internal records and learned about Caban’s conduct through public records and other sources, reports ProPublica’s editor-at-large Eric Umansky. 
• How Kentucky supports homeless students: Over 1,000 children are homeless in Kentucky’s Fayette County Public Schools system. Lexington Herald-Leader reporters, Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt Spears, uncovered how the school district is supporting these students through federal grants after obtaining the information through a public records request.

Last year, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell joined a video chat with a pair of Russian pranksters posing as Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy. In the June 28 issue of FOIA Files Jason Leopold shares the internal Federal Reserve report on the incident, as well as a collection of emails that tell the story of how Powell was duped into joining the call. It’s worth a read, and he shares some insights into his process — like if your request is rejected the first time, on the grounds that the records are part of an open investigation, stay on top of the agency to find out when the investigation has been closed, and file again.