Claims extracted
19
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
11%
2 of 19 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
A retired Southern California nurse and her Vietnam War veteran husband are being forced to pay nearly $10,000 for their water bill over a meter that had been broken for years.
asserted
that → force → years
Joyce Howell, 82, said she and her husband have lived in their Los Angeles home since the 1960s, where they raised 10 children, but only recently were they hit with the staggering bill, NBC Los Angeles reported.
asserted
NBC → say → bill
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) billed the couple more than $9,200 for water used between February 2023 and March 2026.
asserted
Department → bill → February
Howell — initially suspected a leak somewhere in the house was behind the hefty bill — so she asked her daughter, Stephanie, to contact LADWP for answers.
asserted
she → suspect → answers
An LADWP representative eventually told the family that the meter had been broken for those three years and they had not been charged for their water, but that the couple still had to pay for what they had used.
“You’re going to have to pay the bill,” the representative said, according to Howell’s daughter.
uncertain
representative → tell → daughter
Howell’s daughter said she was stunned that LADWP expected her elderly parents, who are both retired and living on a fixed income, to pay the massive bill.
asserted
who → say → bill
“You are coming at my parents that have dedicated their lives as family, people, decent community, good parents, and give them back to community, and then you come with them with this bill at the end of their lives,” Stephanie told the outlet.
asserted
Stephanie → come → outlet
“Elderly people don’t get additional income.
asserted
people → get → income
They can’t go back to work.
asserted
They → go → work
The couple’s daughter also blasted LADWP for not catching the issue sooner.
asserted
daughter → blast → issue
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asserted
Report → start → news
“They should have read the meter, and they should have had whoever the technician to come out on a monthly basis or whatever to see if the meter is being read or if it was broken or not,” she said.
asserted
she → read → basis
LADWP official Joseph Ramallo told NBC Los Angeles that stuck meters are rare but not unheard of for a utility that operates around 700,000 water meters and 1.7 million electric meters.
asserted
that → tell → meters
Ramallo said the meter at the Howells’ 3,100-square-foot home had been broken for more than three years, but the utility can only bill customers for up to three years of past usage.
asserted
utility → say → usage
The home typically racks up a monthly water bill of just over $300, he said.
asserted
he → rack → 300
He explained that LADWP has a “responsibility” to charge customers “if water is used,” and that the utility will “work with them under terms they can afford.”
asserted
they → explain → terms
LADWP said it offered the couple a long-term payment plan to cover the bill.
asserted
it → say → bill
Howell said she has “no problem paying the bill” — but insisted that “if it was not working, somebody should have done something” long before things got so out of hand.
asserted
things → say → hand
After news of the couple’s massive water bill spread, LADWP cut their bimonthly payments from $360 to $100, according to NBC Los Angeles.
uncertain
LADWP → spread → Angeles
The Aporia
