Your Right to Know: A guide to accessing government secrets hiding in plain sight

March 12, 2026
by Nicole WK, Managing Editor

This article is offered without a paywall as a part of our commitment to civic responsibility.

Every year in mid-March, journalists and open-government advocates across the country observe Sunshine Week — a national initiative that highlights the public’s right to access government records and the importance of transparency in a democratic society.

The timing is intentional. Sunshine Week is observed each year around March 16, the birthday of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States and the father of the Constitution — a man who believed, deeply, that an informed public was the foundation of a free government.

"A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both,"
— Pres. James Madison, 1822

More than 200 years later, that idea is more relevant than ever.
In an era of information overload — and growing public distrust of institutions — knowing where to find verified, original-source information matters. Not just for journalists, but for every citizen trying to understand who represents them, how their tax dollars are being spent, what is in their drinking water, or whether the doctor treating their family is in good standing.
The good news: most of that information is already public and always has been. The challenge is knowing where to look, and that’s why The Press is sharing this guide.
The databases and tools featured in this week’s infographic are free to use and require no special credentials. Some are maintained by state and federal government agencies. Others were built by investigative journalists and nonprofit organizations who believed the public deserved easier access to information that was technically available—but practically buried in difficult-to-navigate databases.

Minnesotans value transparency
In Minnesota, residents benefit from some of the strongest public-records protections in the country. The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act gives citizens the right to request and receive government records — from city council minutes to law enforcement data — with few exceptions. Unlike the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Minnesota’s law presumes that government data is public unless a specific law says otherwise.
That is a powerful right, but rights only matter when people know they have them.
Whether you are researching a health care provider, tracking a local election, wondering about your water quality, or simply curious about how a nonprofit spends its donations, these tools exist to help you find answers from primary sources — not rumors or gossip.
Sunshine Week is a reminder that open government is the baseline expectation of a democracy. The more residents know how to access public information, the stronger and more accountable our communities become.
Start exploring. The information is yours!

And if you find anything juicy, don’t forget to share with your favorite community newspaper at news@pelicanrapidspress.com.

— Nicole WK, Managing Editor

Your Friendly Guide to Free Public Records:

  • CHECK UP ON YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER: Use the MN Board of Medical Practice “Find a Doctor” at MN.GOV or the Dept. of Health Directory at HEALTH.STATE.MN.US to check licenses, disciplinary records, and credentials for doctors and facilities.

  • FOLLOW THE MONEY IN MINNESOTA ELECTIONS: The MN Campaign Finance Board at CFB.MN.GOV tracks donations and expenditures for candidates and Political Action Committees (PACs) with records dating back to 2010.

  • COURT RECORDS & STATE SPENDING: Access state court case's via MCRO at MNCOURTS.GOV or track how tax dollars are spent on contracts and grants via the Transparency Portal at MN.GOV/MMB

  • PEEK INTO NON-PROFIT FINANCES: ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer projects.propublica.org/ nonprofits lets you view executive salaries and financial health for any tax-exempt organization.

  • WHAT'S IN YOUR TAP WATER?: Enter your Zip Code at EWG’s Tap Water Database at EWG.ORG/TAPWATER to see contaminant levels compared to health guidelines for 50,000 public water utilities across the USA.

  • TRACK FEDERAL POLITICAL INFLUENCE: OPENSECRETS.ORG is the gold standard for seeing who funds federal candidates and which industries are spending the most on lobbying.

  • ACCESS FEDERAL COURT DOCS FOR FREE: Use COURTLISTENER.COM and the RECAP browser extension to bypass paywalls and search a massive archive of federal court filings and judge disclosures.

  • FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Search the National Institutes of Health at REPORTER.NIH.GOV to see which local universities or clinics receive federal grants, exactly what they are studying, and what they learned.

  • FILE A RECORD REQUEST: MuckRock.com helps citizens file official record requests and hosts a public archive of documents already released by the government.







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