Editorial Standards
Last updated: August 25, 2026
California News Now publishes two different kinds of thing, and they are held to two different standards. This page says what those standards are, so you can hold us to them.
What we publish
News briefs are dated reports on something that happened — a vote, a filing, a ruling, an agency action, a set of released figures. They carry the date they were reported and the source they came from.
Guides are evergreen explanations of a California rule — what the law requires, who it applies to, and what is different in your county. They carry the date their source was last checked, not the date they were written.
How we source news
Every brief is built from a primary record. A primary record is the document or announcement itself: a court filing or docket entry, an agency notice or dataset, a city council or board agenda, minutes or staff report, a regulatory filing, an official press release, a transcript, or published government figures. Where one exists and is public, we link it.
We do not publish a story whose only source is another outlet’s reporting. If we cannot reach a primary record, we do not rewrite someone else’s article to fill the gap. Where another outlet’s reporting is genuinely the origin of a fact, we say so by name and we do not present it as our own.
Every brief carries a verification status:
- Confirmed — supported by the primary record, or by more than one independent named source.
- Single-source — one source only, named. Treat it accordingly.
- Developing — the facts are still moving and this page will change.
We do not invent quotes, figures, case numbers, dates or sources. Where a fact is unknown, the brief says it is unknown rather than filling the gap. We do not speculate about motives or predict outcomes.
How we source guides
Every guide names the authority that sets the rule — the code section, ordinance, regulation or the administering agency — and links the official source. Where a rule varies, we say which of the 58 counties or which cities it varies in, rather than averaging it into one number that is wrong everywhere. Figures that adjust annually carry the year they apply to.
Guides describe what a published rule says. They are not legal advice, and we are not a law firm. For advice about your own situation, contact a California attorney or the agency involved.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it. Email contact@openclassactions.com with the page and what is incorrect.
When we correct a substantive error — a wrong figure, date, name or outcome — we fix the page and note the correction on it with the date, rather than editing it silently. When a rule itself changes, we update the guide and move its verified date forward. Typographical fixes are made without a note.
How this content is produced
Drafts on this site are AI-assisted. A story or guide is drafted with the help of a language model working from the source material, and it is then reviewed by a person against the cited record before it publishes — the figures, dates, names, code sections and links are checked against the source they claim to come from, not accepted because they look right.
The standards above are what that review enforces. A draft that cannot be tied to a primary record does not get published, and an unverifiable figure is removed rather than softened. Responsibility for anything published here is human and sits with the editor named below, not with the tooling.
Independence
Our editorial decisions are independent of our advertising. Nothing on this site is a paid placement, and no advertiser is given advance notice of, or influence over, what we cover.
How we make money
Display advertising. If that ever changes — affiliate arrangements, sponsorship, anything else — this page will say so before it starts, and any affected page will disclose it.
Who writes this
California News Now is edited and published by Steve Levine. Questions about a story, a source, or these standards go to the same address as corrections.