We're hosting a virtual meeting later today, at 1 p.m. ET to explore how DocumentCloud can make it easier to parse large document collections:

• Regex Extractor: allows you to define a pattern of text from a large collection of documents and pull text matching the pattern into a .csv file for easier analysis.
• Import Documents: allows you to submit a public Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer or MediaFire link and upload any files contained within to DocumentCloud.
• Tabula Spreadsheet Extraction: allows you to run the open source Tabula library against a selected PDF and try to identify and extract any tables in the PDF.

The new tools are helping make DocumentCloud a more useful and collaborative tool. Join us to learn more about leveraging them in your projects!

If you can't make the webinar, you can check out this new video we posted on YouTube, exploring how to use DocumentCloud Add-Ons and going over several popular options, including tools for redactions, scraping and audio transcription.

▶ Apply for grants to investigate election integrity: Flashlight, an organization that pools money and provides grants to investigative journalists, is seeking applications from freelance journalists working on projects about election integrity. The grants range from $500 to $1,000, and grantees "retain complete editorial control" of their projects. The deadline is this Sunday, November 20; learn more and apply here.

▶ DOJ is developing a new FOIA search tool: The Department of Justice is working on a tool that will help potential records requesters find documents that are already public, thus avoiding duplicate requests, reports Natalie Alms at FCW. While DOJ is developing this search feature, it will be available to other federal agencies, ideally helping requesters search for documents across multiple jurisdictions.

• Illuminating police misconduct: Police in Columbia County, Florida recently arrested a blind man, claiming his cane looked like a gun. The arrest report, obtained through FOIA, reveals how the official police narrative diverges from body camera footage.
• Requesting the requests: MuckRock user M. Arasoi requested that several public school districts share copies of all the public records requests they received in 2019.
• CIA recipes: Back in 2018, MuckRock user Emma Best requested recipes, cookbooks and other food preparation materials used in the CIA cafeteria. The CIA completed Best's request this fall, more than four years later.

For The Record was written by Betsy Ladyzhets and edited by Michael Morisy.