How We Source

Editorial standards · A standing commitment

The Assay is a daily, finite briefing. It is built on one rule: every story links prominently to its primary source, and the link is the point. We summarize so you can decide whether to read; we never substitute for the reading.

What we publish

Each item carries a short summary — one paragraph, two when it genuinely needs two — and a clearly labeled Why it matters. The summary is reportage: what happened, per the source. The Why it matters is judgment: the editor's analytical read on what it means for the decisions our readers actually make. The two are kept visibly separate so you always know which voice is speaking.

What we don't do

We don't rank stories by engagement, virality, or clicks — ever. The lead story is chosen by a published rubric: consequence first, weighted for decision-relevance, lifted by urgency and genuine development. On days when nothing clears the bar, the page says so by being quieter. We don't reproduce articles in reworded form, we don't editorialize inside news items, and the editor's own voice appears only in the clearly marked editor's letter.

Sources we favor

Agencies, dockets, filings, court records, operator disclosures, and peer-reviewed or official statistical releases. Secondary reporting appears only when it is itself the news or when no primary document exists yet — and is labeled as such.

Review

Every edition is drafted by an automated research pipeline and then reviewed, edited, and approved by a human editor before publication. Nothing reaches this page unseen. Corrections are made in place and noted in the archive copy.

It ends

Each edition is finite by design. When you reach the bottom, you are current. There is no feed.