Terracotta

Terracotta separates source observations from derived classifications. A headline, statute, docket entry, contract page, or campaign filing is evidence. Topic, posture, likely effect, confidence, and relevance are structured interpretations.

Publication pipeline

1. Collect a source record through a declared feed or curated research file.
2. Normalize dates, entities, HTML, publisher labels, and URLs.
3. Screen out test rows, product SEO, unrelated court results, unrelated administrative notices, duplicate imports, and unsourced derived events.
4. Attach topic/jurisdiction metadata and, where supported, a short analytical classification.
5. Publish with the source, as-of or event date, verification state, and known gap. Raw imports remain auditable even when withheld.

Dataset rules

• Signals: U.S. reporting and official records visibly connected to policy, enforcement, litigation, public actors, or a documented industry/market change. Foreign-only, unrelated, health/lifestyle, event-promotion, generic buying-guide, token-spam, example, and test rows are withheld.
• Bills: relevance is separate from likely effect. Unrelated imports and records awaiting relevance review are withheld; a relevant record with missing effect analysis is labeled Unscored.
• Enforcement: requires a source and a concrete inspection, warning, suspension, penalty, raid, arrest, recall, forfeiture, or seizure. A law’s effective date or a lawsuit is not counted as enforcement.
• Derived actions: reporting about named actors is grouped by underlying source event. It is an observation aid, not a definitive action ledger or evidence of motive.
• State posture: a dated analyst snapshot with confidence and citations. It is not continuously current merely because the record was processed later.
• Money: flow counts include undisclosed amounts; dollar totals do not. Industry and policy-position fields are analytical classifications.
• Market/contract data: sparse fields stay sparse. Units, unknown verification, and procurement status are explicit rather than inferred in the UI.

Freshness and corrections

Editorial freshness uses source dates, occurred dates, analyst as-of dates, and last-verified dates—not database migration timestamps. The data-status page shows current coverage. Material corrections are logged on the corrections page. Send evidence to desk@terracotta.news.

Legal precision

Terracotta distinguishes a statutory effective date from an enforcement event. Products outside the federal hemp definition may face controlled-substance consequences, but implementation, agency action, litigation, and state law remain distinct questions. “Ban” is used only when a cited rule actually prohibits the described product or conduct.