Editor’s Picks: A look at some of our favorite stories from 2025

You can bet on it – and most everything else published Jan. 30, 2025

During the NFL playoffs, our newsroom interviewed local people about their use of sports betting apps such as FanDuel and DraftKings. Locals shared their stories about wins, losses, and how online gambling changed how they watch sports. A local gambling crisis hotline, meanwhile, saw a 277% increase in calls since online betting was legalized.

One local recalled betting more than $1,000 on NFL games and, thanks to live betting, he began “chasing his bets” - continuing to gamble, often with increased wagers, after a sequence of losses.

He ended up losing so much money than he eventually came clean to his parents and girlfriend.

“I still watch sports and will always love sports, but I am not proud of myself,” he said. “I went from being super into my teams to betting on games I had no business even paying attention to.”’

‘They can’t touch your family for a year’ published April 21, 2025

As ICE raids and crackdowns made national news, some local Latinos turned figured out paths to citizenship.

This article shares the story about a local 17-year-old Orange County, N.Y. teenager, Jessica, who enlisted in the National Guard to get her parents access to green cards, despite their initial protests.

“That was just the big first thing I saw,” Jessica said. “I saw an opportunity to get my parents a green card, and I went for it.”

‘That’s not my grandma, that’s my mom’ published May 22, 2025

In skip-generation households, grandparents are quietly stepping up to parent all over again. This article shares the stories of six local grandparents who are raising their grandchildren for a range of reasons: their children were neglectful, addicted to substances, or struggled a mental health challenge.

This piece chronicles the grandparents’ hurdles (caring for traumatized or drug-addicted babies, unexpected financial burdens) while also getting the grandkids’ side of the story.

Summer, now 22, was born addicted to heroin and raised by her grandmother. “My grandma gave me more than anyone ever gave me. She’s my everything,” she said. “When people call her my grandmother I’m like, no, that’s my mom.”

School options ‘born from necessity’ published Sept. 18, 2025

Microschools, private schools and homeschooling are exploding. With fewer school-age children and more choice of where to go to school, what does the future of education look like?

The story explores why public school enrollment is declining, and the education options parents are choosing instead.

Nearly painless, occasionally fatal: What’s it like to get bitten by a rattler? published Oct. 6, 2025

After running into a rattlesnake on her property, reporter Becca Tucker started researching. She interviewed a local snake handlers and a zookeeper who both got bit and lived to tell the tale, along with a toxicologist who specialized in venomous snakes, a rattlesnake expert and more.

“I saw where she bit me there was a clear substance, and the tip of my nose and my lips got numb, and I said ‘Ah, I’ve been envenomated,’” said local snake handler Marty Kupersmith. “I called 9-1-1, they said sit down, don’t keep moving ‘cause it’ll circulate the venom. So I sat down on a rock and I waited and they came.”

In addition to sharing stories about what it’s like to get bitten, the piece also explores the likelihood of running into a venomous snake in the region, which local hospitals carry antivenon, and what to do if bitten.