Terms of Use

The writing

Articles on the Outpost and elsewhere on the Site are personal opinion and commentary. They are not professional, financial, investment, legal, tax or medical advice, and they are not an offer to provide any such advice. Facts and figures are given in good faith as of the date of publication and may be out of date or wrong. Check anything you intend to rely on.

Ask the Economist and other AI features

Ask the Economist generates answers and charts with an AI model from public economic data (the Federal Reserve’s FRED database and the City of Chicago Data Portal). Answers can be incomplete, outdated or simply wrong, and a chart can mislead. Nothing it produces is financial or investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold anything. Use it to explore, then verify against the primary source before you act.

Questions you submit may be reviewed and published on the Site’s public analyses feed, without your name or email. Do not submit anything confidential or personal about yourself or anyone else. Usage is capped per visitor and per day; the caps may change without notice.

The Chicago tools

The ward map, council scorecard, election calendar and My Chicago Ballot are built from public records (the City of Chicago Data Portal and the City Clerk) and hand-curated, cited notes. They are informational. My Chicago Ballot compares your stated priorities with candidates’ documented positions; it is not a recommendation, an endorsement or an official ballot. The official ballot is set by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

The newsletter

Signing up adds your email address to a list for occasional mail from Larry Gordon. There is no charge. You can leave at any time by replying to any message or emailing me@larryfgordon.com, and your address will be removed.

Your conduct

Do not use the Site to send spam, scrape it at a rate that burdens it, probe or attack it, or submit content that is unlawful, abusive or infringes someone else’s rights. Access to any part of the Site may be limited or withdrawn at any time.

Intellectual property

Unless stated otherwise, the writing, photographs, code samples and design of the Site are © Larry Gordon. You may quote short excerpts with attribution and a link. Republishing a whole article needs written permission. Third-party content (embedded videos, data from public portals, quoted material) belongs to its owners and is used under their terms.

Third-party links and embeds

The Site links to and embeds content from other services (YouTube, Medium, Cal.com, social networks). Those services have their own terms and privacy practices, which apply when you use them. Larry Gordon is not responsible for their content or conduct.

No warranty, limited liability

The Site is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, availability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Larry Gordon is not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the Site or reliance on anything in it, and in any case total liability is limited to the amount you paid to use the Site, which is nothing.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois.

Changes

These terms may change from time to time. Material changes will appear on this page with a new “Last updated” date. Continued use of the Site after a change means you accept it.

Contact

Questions about these terms: me@larryfgordon.com.