Post EXCERPT publishing while post is in DRAFT state

I enter a post, save it as a draft. at no time do I click publish.
this post excerpt is immediately published on the front page.

troubleshooting:
– changed the theme to verify it was not an error with my custom theme
– deactivated all the plugins
– set up a whole new install with the latest version of wordpress.

none of these things seemed to fix the issue.

has anyone else had this problem?
any other suggestions on how to fix it?

thank you.