How we gather this

Brookings View doesn't have a newsroom. It has a set of public data sources, checked every hour, and a language model that turns raw agendas and calendars into short, readable summaries. Here's exactly how that works.

The sources

City council & city meetings

City of Brookings, via Legistar

Agendas and the items on them — permits, ordinances, appointments — pulled directly from the city's own meeting management system.

County meetings

Brookings County, via its Agenda Center

County commission, planning & zoning, and committee agendas, including the text of posted PDF documents where available.

Weather & alerts

National Weather Service / NOAA

Forecasts and active advisories for Brookings County, straight from the federal weather API.

Road & emergency alerts

Brookings County Alert Center

Closures, hazards, and public notices, shown only while they're still in effect.

Library events

Brookings Public Library

Classes, programs, and events from the library's own public calendar.

Jackrabbits schedules & results

SDSU Athletics

Game times, opponents, and final scores for SDSU football, basketball, and volleyball.

Farm report

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service

Corn, soybean, and cattle prices, published monthly by USDA.

How the summaries are written

Each item is summarized by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, working only from the source text — the actual agenda, the actual calendar listing. It's instructed to use only facts present in that source and never to add names, numbers, or details that aren't there. Every summary is checked against its source before publishing; if a check fails, the item is either rewritten or held back rather than published incomplete.

Every story links back to its original source, so you can always read the full agenda or listing yourself.

What we choose not to name

Meeting agendas sometimes include the names of private individuals — someone applying for a variance, say, or a permit. We refer to people by role instead ("an applicant in Preston Township") rather than by name. Organizations, businesses, and public officials acting in their official capacity are named normally.

Corrections

If a summary gets something wrong, tell us and we'll fix it — usually within the hour, since the site rebuilds automatically.