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April 3, 2025 | Will Evans, The Examination, and Caroline Ghisolfi, Houston Chronicle
Sam Birdwell said there was something that still kept him up at night: the elderly residents and young children who were exposed to the gas — not enough to kill, but enough to make them sick. He’d seen too many oil facilities leaking H2S in residential neighborhoods, near schools and families. And he didn’t have the tools to make it stop.
April 2, 2025 | Lauren Caruba, The Dallas Morning News
In the back of an ambulance in San Antonio, I watched as paramedics worked on a man they had pulled from a house with bullet-riddled windows and blood-smeared tiles. He had been shot twice, in the arm and chest. When I looked down at my shoes, I saw the man’s blood spattered across my sneaker.
March 27, 2025 | April Simpson, Pratheek Rebala and Alexia Fernández Campbell, Center for Public Integrity
Using AI and historical records, investigative journalists at partnering newsrooms uncovered names of formerly enslaved people who received – and then lost – land promised under Reconstruction.
In December 2023, with the migrant surge at the US-Mexico border dominating the national conversation, Bloomberg data investigations reporter Eric Fan was crafting a series of Freedom of Information Act requests that would crack open another problematic part of America’s immigration system — the skilled-worker visa program known as H-1B.
Across the nation, local governments sometimes disseminate false narratives in cases of officer-involved shootings. Local officials can craft messages that favor police because the community rarely has access to the information that would contradict that message.
March 19, 2025 | Megan Rhyne, Virginia Coalition for Open Government
As the director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government – a 29-year-old nonpartisan, nonprofit devoted to helping the public navigate the ins and outs of access to state and local government records and meetings – I’m often asked which state has the best open records or open meetings law.
March 19, 2025 | Lauren Harper, Freedom of the Press Foundation
Excessive government secrecy takes many forms, including denying or ignoring FOIA requests and deleting data from websites.
These tactics prevent the public from meaningfully participating in self-government in every area secrecy touches.
March 19, 2025 | Amy Kristin Sanders, The Pennsylvania State University
Open records laws have helped journalists and watchdog groups uncover wrongdoing at universities around the country — but those very laws are under threat.
March 19, 2025 | David Cuillier, Brechner Freedom of Information Project
Florida, the “Sunshine State,” once known as a beacon of government transparency, is growing ever darker, and the clouds are spreading throughout the United States.
February 27, 2025 | David Cuillier, Brechner Freedom of Information Project
Here we go again. And then some.
The new presidential administration appears determined to conduct its work in secrecy, requiring even more diligence from investigative reporters. Eight years ago, I wrote an FOI Files column about the beginning of Donald J. Trump’s first term, noting agency clampdowns on records, attacks on leakers, political oversight of press releases, and vitriolic attacks demonizing the media. So far this term looks like it will be much, much worse. Let’s take a look at what has so far transpired since Jan. 20, and what journalists can do to inform the public.
