Amalie Nash, @AmalieNash, of the Knight Foundation, laments that so much of FOIA advocacy is playing defense, rarely being on the offense. #SunshineFest2026

Richmond Mayor Danny Avula Helps Bring Home Foilie In First Year of Administration's Contention #RichmondReal #FOIA #Foilies #RVA

The Foilies 2026 Established in 2015, The Foilies are an annual project by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock to recognize the agencies, officials and contractors that thwart the public's right to know.

The Foilies, by the @eff.org and MuckRock, recognizes the agencies, officials and contractors that thwart the public’s right to know. We give out these tongue-in-cheek “awards” during Sunshine Week.

Here are the "winners"

FOIAing with @muckrock.com helped illuminate plans for taking away public land kids play on so rich guys can play tennis. MR also helped show a lack of a plan for an athletic facility that is one of the few tangible pieces of Arthur Ashe’s legacy in Richmond.

It’s Banned Books Week. Want to find out about censorship in your backyard? Join the FOIAs tour Our good friends at 404 Media, the Trans Journalists Association and the Marshall Project have all been filing requests to find out what books are banned and where, so we decided it was time to hit…

There's still time to get ahold of our Banned Books t-shirt in support of in support of our good friends at @404media.co, @transjournalists.org and @themarshallproject.org!

Back to School, Back to Work Richmond officials should ask themselves, who benefits from their work if families end up without a home?

Richmond officials should ask themselves, who benefits from their work if families end up without a home?

Ethical Content Farming Our children are increasingly being auto-enrolled into unpaid labor for billionaires.  

Our children are increasingly being auto-enrolled into unpaid labor for billionaires.  

MuckRock, NFOIC and other leading transparency groups receive $1.25M Press Forward grant to help local journalists obtain government records Journalism relies on public records, but transparency laws are weakening nationwide, with longer response times, high fees and more frequent rejections. Agencies know that few newsrooms can research a...

Getting access to public docs is getting harder, particularly at the local level. I'm excited for @muckrock.com @nfoic.bsky.social @rcfp.org and the @brechnerfoi.bsky.social to work together to to fight for information more effectively all across the country: www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

As Virginia police reforms take hold, decertifications jump After decades when few law enforcement officers in Virginia lost the right to serve in sworn positions, recent reforms have brought dramatic increases in decertifications

Decertifications of Virginia law enforcement officers have jumped fourfold annually since 2020, when lawmakers passed reforms during a push for police accountability. www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

TSA complaint data disappeared. Here's where you can still find it. Public data is disappearing—but anyone can help preserve it. Groups like the Data Rescue Project and the Data Liberation Project are racing to preserve public interest datasets and they need all kinds...

TSA complaint data disappeared. Here’s where you can still find it, thanks to the Data Liberation Project: www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

“It seems it’s not about keeping order, as the students who are being punished for protesting, presumably won’t be on campus next semester, but silencing dissent. That’s a dangerous message for any public university to send.”

After a NICU nurse’s infant died, she decided to keep pumping her breast milk to help other babies - The Boston Globe Inside an invisible village — from caring strangers to bereaved mothers — that nourishes babies when they need it the most.

In my latest for @bostonglobe.com , I report on the invisible village of mothers and caring strangers nourishing babies—and supporting families—at their most vulnerable. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/06/m...

#FOIA ing through @muckrock.com was a great tool for finding out how other parents felt about this

Medicaid is Part Of Your Village – Even If You Don’t Know It Richmonders' health care is at stake when the knives are out for Medicaid. Thousands more will feel the ‘catastrophic’ ripple effects.

Richmonders' health care is at stake when the knives are out for Medicaid. Thousands more will feel the ‘catastrophic’ ripple effects.

a penguin is holding a bag of money with the letter s on it ALT: a penguin is holding a bag of money with the letter s on it

Connecticut: The guidelines also prohibit agencies from charging for the time it takes to search for and retrieve responsive records.

Virginia:

insideinvestigator.org/whistleblowe...

Six years ago via @muckrock.com I was told meeting schedules were not public information. 24 hours notice is not much of an improvement. Especially given that the sweeping nature of these changes.

www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

The number of student visas revoked has breached the 1,000 mark, and doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.
commonwealthtimes.org

Media Orgs and Press Freedom Advocates Amicus Brief and Appendix as Filed

MuckRock has signed a coalition amicus letter urging the Supreme Court to strike down the executive orders punishing law firms for perceived transgressions against the current administration. Read the letter on DocumentCloud. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

RRHA BOARD TO VOTE ON THE TRANSFER OF GILPIN COURT | Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority WHO: The nine appointed Board of Commissioners of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA), the largest housing authority in the Commonwealth of Virginia; RRHA’s...

the short and clearly slapdash notice offered here tells us how desperately RRHA doesn't want attention on this.

www.rrha.com/news/rrha-bo...

The FOIA author’s club Phil Eil shares a collection of FOIA-fueled nonfiction books.

For Sunshine Week, journalist Philip Eli walks us through a collection of FOIA-fueled nonfiction books, including on topics like organized crime in New York, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and FBI crackdowns on college-campus radicalism.

The Foilies 2025 Here are this year's "winners." While they may not all pay up, at least we can make sure they get the negative publicity they're owed.

Every year during Sunshine Week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, MuckRock and AAN Publishers team up to publish The Foilies.

Here are this year’s “winners.”

Requester’s Voice: The Invisible Institute’s Jamie Kalven In this conversation, we discuss Kalven’s landmark public records win in Kalven v. City of Chicago (2014), how AI can be used to analyze data received through FOIA and hopes for the future of the…

MuckRock sits down with The Invisible Institute’s Jamie Kalven to discuss the landmark public records win in Kalven v. City of Chicago (2014). www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

'Secret police' case tossed by Virginia Court of Appeals A three-judge panel said that public records law has clear instructions maintaining public access to personnel records, including the names of law enforcement officers.

The Virginia Court of Appeals found that “the names of law enforcement personnel are not exempted” from public records requests made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, reports Luca Powell for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

VCOG All Access News, 2/26/25: #FOIA win at the Court of Appeals; 2x2 meetings; transparent appointment process
opengovva.org/transparency...

'Secret police' case tossed by Virginia Court of Appeals A three-judge panel said that public records law has clear instructions maintaining public access to personnel records, including the names of law enforcement officers.

“Under these provisions we find that the County may not refuse to produce the names of law enforcement officials,” the judges wrote. “We reject the trial court’s broad interpretation of this VFOIA exemption and reverse its decision.”

City Hall agreed to give former DPU director severance pay, but won’t release details The city is refusing to release the document that might contain a dollar amount and other details.

“If you’re talking about an expenditure of funds, there’s no privacy interest in getting government money,” Rhyne said.

With govt data disappearing, critical information is at risk.

Reporters: learn how to file strong #FOIA requests from @muckrock.com & Sunlight's expert strategies & access the records you need www.sunlightresearch.net/toolkit/tip-...

☀️ For more investigative tools & tips, follow us! #journalism

1) I sent FOIA requests to VCU and UVA.
2) This denies medically-necessary transition-related care (for kids *and* young adults) as defined by § 38.2-3449.1 of the Code of Virginia.
3) The self-described party of freedom, liberty, small government and parental rights disregarded their own identity.

#RVA folks, please also reach out to your representatives to see if they can also get eyes and pressure on this.

I spoke with @mcclellan.house.gov's office who said they were aware and are tracking this among other issues from last night. Her office # is (202) 225–6365 if she's also your rep

Public surveillance devices in Richmond "Mapping the surveillance state we all live in. Cameras, ALPRs, & gunshot detectors"
maprva.org/maps/surveil...