Methodology & corrections

Some of what you read here is drafted with the help of an AI system we call the Civic Desk. This page explains, in plain terms, what the Civic Desk does — and what it does not do.

What the Civic Desk does

Every morning, a program reads the public-meeting agendas posted to a city's official website. It downloads each agenda, extracts its text, and identifies the items most likely to be of public interest. For those items, it drafts a short article summarizing what the agenda says, citing the relevant agenda item by number.

What the Civic Desk does not do

It does not publish anything on its own. A human editor reviews every draft against the source document before publication. The Civic Desk does not interpret motives, predict outcomes, or speculate about what officials might do. When a draft contains language that is not supported by the agenda, the editor removes it.

Labels

Articles drafted by the Civic Desk and reviewed by an editor carry the Civic Desk section label. Articles written entirely by a human carry no such label.

Corrections

If you spot an error, write to corrections@baldwincitizen.com. We publish corrections at the bottom of the affected article and note the change.