Methodology

Where stories come from

The Load Report continuously monitors roughly forty sources: local newsrooms across the six states, regional and national trade press, and targeted news searches for data center activity — sitings, moratoriums, zoning fights, utility filings, incentives, and litigation. The site refreshes several times a day.

Headlines belong to the outlets

Every headline on this site is the original outlet’s headline, verbatim, linked to the original story. We do not rewrite headlines, we do not republish article text, and we do not claim anyone else’s reporting as our own. When the same story runs at multiple outlets, we point to the originating newsroom and note where else it appeared.

Summaries are grounded — or absent

Story summaries are drafted with automated tools under a strict rule: a summary may contain only facts stated in the article’s own retrieved text. No outside knowledge, no inference, no embellishment. When we cannot retrieve an article’s text — paywalls, technical blocks, video pages — we do not guess. The story appears as a headline and link, marked Headline only. A missing summary is the system working as designed, not an error.

Region and topic tagging

Stories are tagged to states, counties, and named projects using a curated place index and two-sided rules: a story must show a concrete connection to the region, and out-of-region look-alikes (there is more than one Montgomery, more than one Jacksonville) are filtered out. Tagging is automated and occasionally wrong; corrections are welcome.

“Confirmed” vs. “unconfirmed” dates

Upcoming events on the docket are extracted from news reporting, and an extracted date starts life unconfirmed: it reflects what a reporter wrote, not the government body’s own notice. An event is marked confirmed only after a human has verified the date against a second independent source or the official notice — and the calendar feed carries the same markers, so an unconfirmed date never masquerades as a verified one on your calendar.

Press releases

Wire-service and press-release items may appear in story lists, but they never lead the front page. The lead story is always from a newsroom.

National Signals

The front page carries a short list of national data center policy and politics stories — statehouse fights, moratoriums, tax-incentive debates, and federal action elsewhere in the country. These are early warnings: what happens in other states has a way of arriving in the Southeast next.

Corrections

We fix errors promptly. If a story is mis-tagged, a summary misstates its source, or a docket date is wrong, use the Corrections link in the footer and we will review it against the original reporting.