A tiny Ohio town just found a way to make data centers pay

What was read

1647 words in the outlet's own voice, plus 13 in the headline. 18% of the text is in quotes, with 4 listed words inside quotes. 14 attribution markers (such as "said" or "according to") found.

Listed words inside quotes (not scored; quoting is reporting, but which quotes to use is an editorial choice): absolutely, actually, truly, totally.

Scare quotes (a phrase of one to three words in quotation marks with no speaker in the same sentence): no thanks,, Data Center Alley, Or go away.. Since method 3.1.0 their words count as the outlet's own.

Insults found but not counted: 1 (losers). Insult words are experimental until the reader panel rates them, so they are shown and not scored.

Words found

Word choice: of course attributed to a speaker, not counted Editorializing
filed inside, They were joking, of course , the way kids sometimes do with
losers experimental, shown but not counted Insult or name-calling
kicked butt. Of all the losers in the midterm elections perhaps none
actually 1 point Editorializing
to guarantee that local benefits actually materialize for developments that receive a
arguably 1 point Editorializing
— which are, after all, arguably proxies for other fears about the
Raises the temperature: backlash 1 point Raises the temperature
has incited a rage-fueled bipartisan backlash across the country. More than 40
dramatic 1 point Raises the temperature
of them , often by dramatic margins. It is by far the
very 1 point Raises the temperature
no thanks, or at the very least, a Even against the dramatic
dramatic 1 point Raises the temperature
least, a Even against the dramatic background of that national movement, Perry
enormous attributed to a speaker, not counted Raises the temperature
fight over plans for an enormous 230-acre data center — the equivalent
stunning attributed to a speaker, not counted Raises the temperature
16 , which received a stunning 87 percent of Perry’s support. he
ripped 1 point Raises the temperature
they were about to get ripped off, partly because it had happened
outrage 2 points Raises the temperature
ballot on Election Day. Amid outrage from residents, the village council in

Layer scores

Rates are counted points per 1,000 words of the story's own text. For a story longer than 200 words, the rate used is the average of the whole-story rate and the rate in its densest 200-word stretch, so neutral filler cannot dilute a loaded passage away. Score = 100 × (loaded end − rate used) ÷ loaded end, kept between 0 and 100. Headline words count only in the headline layer.

Layer	Points	Words	Whole-story rate	Densest 200 words	Rate used	Scale	Score
Word choice	2	1647	1.2	10.0 (words 1351 to 1550)	5.6	0 to 40	86
Temperature	7	1647	4.3	20.0 (words 51 to 250)	12.1	0 to 40	70
Flagged attribution phrases	0	1647	0.0	0.0 (words 1 to 200)	0.0	0 to 20	100
Headline wording	0	25	0.0	headline only	0.0	0 to 240	100

Densest stretch: Word choice, words 1351 to 1550 of 1647, with actually, arguably; Temperature, words 51 to 250 of 1647, with backlash, dramatic, very, dramatic.

Shown, not scored: the headline's rate minus the rate of the story's first 80 words is 0.0 points per 1,000 words.

Overall

Weighted geometric mean of the layers that are established, with 10 added to each layer first and taken away at the end: (Word choice 86 + 10)^0.4 × (Temperature 70 + 10)^0.3 × (Flagged attribution phrases 100 + 10)^0.2 × (Headline wording 100 + 10)^0.1 − 10 = 85. Adding 10 means one layer at 0 lowers the total steeply without collapsing it. A weak layer pulls the total down.

Lowered the score most: Temperature.

Name-swap test: with party, politician and institution names swapped, this report's score moves by 0.0 points.

What a reader could check

People named as sources	2 (Nick Owens, Kasia Tarczynska)
Unnamed sources	0 (0% of all sources found)
Links to primary records (government, court, filings, PDFs)	2 dor.georgia.gov, sao.texas.gov
Documents cited in the text (a report, bill, ruling, filing)	0
Checkable specifics (numbers and dates)	19
Data shown (a table or chart)	no
Correction or clarification noted	no

What a reader could check, counted by published patterns. Shown beside the score, never part of it. How each count works

Checked against the official record

No vote count or bill number found in the text read.

Record of this measurement

Method 3.1.0, word-list fingerprint 807a17189402a416, read Thu, Nov 5, 6:05 AM ET by text extractor version 4. Fingerprint of the text read: 9fda8241b26b0bbf. Internet Archive copy nearest the time it was read. The text read was not kept (read before method 3.1.0, or from the feed only), so a later rule change can be applied only while the report is still in the outlet's feed.

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The arithmetic for one report