Jennifer LeFleur of ProPublica has put together a great piece on the dark spots in federal “Sunshine Laws” as part Sunshine Week.

Some of those statutes allow exemptions that seem quite reasonable, for example to protect medical or financial information. Many others are more puzzling.

Citing the Watermelon Research and Promotion Act, for example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has withheld lists of watermelon growers.

Under another law, information about the location of “significant” caves has been withheld by USDA and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

How buried statutes are keeping information secret