“Women Rescue St. Helena Thrift Stores For Good Cause”

Headline as Patch wrote it

https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/27173486/20261001/053454/styles/patch_image/public/labohemewideshot___01173145405.png

What the reporting says

Patch reports: “Two former employees saved the thrift stores, preserving affordable shopping and raising money for Parkinson's causes. NAPA VALLEY, CA — Most businesses put profits into one bank account. But the money spent at two sister thrift stores in St. Helena keeps the doors open for two good causes: charities including Parkinson’s programs and neighbors in need.”

Read it at Patch

The full fact check1 outlet · Grade F

Grade F · score 35/100

The story links no document and names two people or agencies on the record.

Checked Fri Oct 2, 6:51 AM · 1 of 1 page read

Sources checked

No independent confirmation found yet.

The reporting

“Women Rescue St. Helena Thrift Stores For Good Cause”Patch

coverage1 outlet

1 newsroom

Patch

News report · Angela Woodall · Thu Oct 1, 9:06 PM

Source grade F35/100

“Women Rescue St. Helena Thrift Stores For Good Cause”

Two former employees saved the thrift stores, preserving affordable shopping and raising money for Parkinson's causes. NAPA VALLEY, CA — Most businesses put profits into one bank account. But the money spent at two sister thrift stores in St. Helena keeps the doors open for two good causes: charities including Parkinson’s programs and neighbors in need.
The opening, as Patch wrote it

0 documents linked12 quotes3 of 16 paragraphs say where facts came from

Read the full story at Patch

How this was graded10.7 + 0 + 10 + 8 = 28.7 of 80 → 35/100 · Grade F

10.7: Sourcing · of 45
0: Corroboration · of 15
10: Headline · of 10
8: Transparency · of 10

Left out: Record match (nothing of that kind to count).

Comments

Comments go up at once and are checked automatically: no links but public records, no phone numbers, emails or street addresses, nothing hateful or threatening. Three reports from readers take a comment down. Leave the name empty to post as Reader and a short code.

No comments yet.

How the grading works

The short version

The Wire grades each article from what the page itself shows: whether its facts say where they came from, the public documents it links, the other outlets and sources that confirm the same story, whether its facts match the Wire's own public records, a calm headline, and a clear byline and date. The story takes its best-sourced telling's grade. The grade describes the page, never the people in it.

The formulaGrade = 100 × points ÷ possibleA 85 · B 70 · C 55 · D 40

Grade = 100 × points ÷ possibleeach article · 0 to 100

Story = its best tellingA 85 · B 70 · C 55 · D 40 · F below 40

45: Sourcing · 25 for the share of facts that say where they came from, 0, 7 or 12 for none, one or two or more public documents linked, 0 to 8 for the people and agencies named on the record
15: Corroboration · 8 or 12 for one or two or more other outlets or sources confirming it, 3 more when one is official; 8 for a telling alone that links two or more documents
20: Record match · 20 × the key facts confirmed or matching the Wire's records ÷ the facts checked; left out when none could be checked
10: Headline · less for a question, capitals, an exclamation mark, a teaser or heated words
10: Transparency · a byline, a date, an update or correction note, the outlet's identity, the kind labelled

This story's arithmeticone article graded

Outlet	S	C	R	H	T	Score
Patch	10.7	0	–	10	8	35

10.7 + 0 + 10 + 8 = 28.7 of 80 → 35/100 · Grade F

S sourcing · C corroboration · R record match · H headline · T transparency. A dash is a part left out.

How it is checked6 rules

Every input is read by rules from the page itself; the arithmetic is shown for every article.
An article that names no source, links no document and names no one on the record says "No sources cited", and its grade is at most D.
Where the Wire's own records hold the fact (a vote, a meeting, an amount, a call, a listing), the story and the record are set side by side; a vote the record tells differently holds the grade at most at D.
An agency's own release is the record itself and is not graded; an outlet that prints it as its story counts once.
Each story's key facts are checked for independent confirmation: first by rules against the Wire's records and the agencies' own releases, then each morning by research. A confirmation counts only when the Wire read the source's page itself and found the sentence on it; a government page, a public record or another newsroom's own reporting, never a copy of the story or a social post. A source that tells a fact differently is shown beside the story.
A page the Wire cannot read is never guessed at: it shows only its own headline, quoted, and is not graded.

Sources1 records

News reportThu Oct 1PatchRead

“Women Rescue St. Helena Thrift Stores For Good Cause”

>coverage▌1 outlet

coverage1 outlet