About Caldwell Docs

Caldwell Docs publishes independent explainers of civic decisions in Caldwell, Idaho. Local government stories often hinge on math — levy rates, budget caps, compounding growth — that's hard to follow in prose. We turn that math into interactive visualizations so anyone can see what's actually going on.

How figures are verified

Every number lives in a database where each datapoint carries a link to its source, the date we retrieved it, and a verification status. Verified figures were found in the linked public record or news report. Unverified figures circulate in coverage or summaries but couldn't be located in a published source — we show them anyway, labeled, because transparency about uncertainty beats silent omission. Corrected figures are commonly repeated numbers that public records contradict.

Machine-readable data

The same database that draws the charts is published as JSON per article (for example, /api/topics/fire-district), so researchers, journalists, and AI assistants can verify claims against primary sources. Datapoints are versioned — when a figure is updated, the history is preserved.

Corrections

Spot an error or have a primary source for an unverified figure? Corrections are welcome and will be noted with the datapoint's version history.