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The Peanut Politician is an independent accountability publication covering Rockland County, New York. It publishes original investigative reporting built from primary documents, which are records created by the institutions being reported on rather than accounts of those records written by others. Public meeting minutes, court filings, recorded deeds, agency correspondence obtained under the Freedom of Information Law, and campaign finance disclosures form the evidentiary basis of the work.
The publication does not endorse candidates, does not solicit or accept contributions to political campaigns, and does not maintain a position on ballot questions. Reporting on officials, candidates, and legislation is descriptive of the documentary record.
Every factual claim is sourced. Where a record was sought and does not exist, the publication reports the absence and identifies the search that produced it, because a certified statement that a record cannot be found is itself an institutional fact.
Confirmed findings and unresolved investigative questions are presented in separately labeled sections so that readers can distinguish what has been established from what remains open.
Articles are written to be read without prior familiarity with the individuals or proceedings involved. Terms of art are defined where they first appear. Subscription is currently free.
Correspondence, corrections, and document submissions: peanutpolitician@tutanota.com
contact
General correspondence, press inquiries, and correction requests should be directed to peanutpolitician@tutanota.com.
Subjects of reporting are contacted for comment before publication where the record permits. Officials and entities who believe a published statement is inaccurate may write to the same address. Correction requests should identify the article, the specific sentence at issue, and the record that contradicts it. Documented corrections are made and noted on the article.
Confidential source material may be sent to the same address. Encrypted correspondence is accepted.
Social: x.com/peapolitician
staff
Ben Founder, Editor, and Reporter peanutpolitician@tutanota.com x.com/peapolitician
Ben reports on county and municipal government, land use, judicial conduct, and social services administration in Rockland County, New York, and on federal and state regulatory matters nationally. Reporting relies on primary records obtained through the New York Freedom of Information Law, court filings retrieved through the New York State Courts Electronic Filing system, recorded instruments held by the Rockland County Clerk, and campaign finance disclosures filed with the New York State Board of Elections.
standards
The publication reports from primary sources. A primary source is a record produced by the institution or individual whose conduct is at issue, as distinct from a secondary account describing that record. Where a primary record is unavailable and a near-primary source is used, the article identifies which.
No verifiable fact appears in an article without confirmation against a source that is cited in the endnotes. Endnotes carry live links where the record is published online and a retrieval description where it is not. Numbers and dates appear in the endnotes unless the number or date is the operative fact of the sentence.
Where the publication sought a record and the custodian certified that none exists, the article reports that certification in the custodian’s own terms and identifies the scope of the search that produced it. A certified absence within a defined search window and a determination that an agency does not possess a record are distinct findings and are not presented interchangeably.
Confirmed findings and open investigative questions appear in separately labeled sections. A documented structural relationship is not presented as an established causal one absent evidence going to causation.
Individuals and entities that are the subject of adverse findings are contacted for comment before publication where the record permits, and the article states whether a response was received.
Corrections are made on the record. A corrected article carries a note identifying what was changed and when. Correction requests should be sent to peanutpolitician@tutanota.com and should identify the article, the sentence at issue, and the contradicting record.
Artificial intelligence tools are used for research retrieval and drafting assistance. No claim reaches publication on the basis of a machine-generated source. Every citation is verified against the underlying record before it appears.
