I'm Tracci Dial, and this is NWPBs Weekly News Now.

A special edition, this time: A look back at some of the newsroom's most impactful stories of the year.

First, continuing coverage with Rachel Sun out of the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley.

This was all nearly a year ago that the series started with her visiting a houseless camp in Clarkston, Washington.

A back and forth with city leaders, forcing houseless people to move time and again with few resources in the area to help those people change their circumstances.

Today, in court cases involving the houseless issue, there are still ongoing.

Stand by for updates in the new year.

Another group of people facing housing issues: Mobile home park residents.

Mobile home park rents are rising rapidly.

Susan Shain had this front page story in September.

We heard from folks in Walla Walla, Washington, where the struggle to keep up with the changes is nearly impossible.

Since then, we're told State Representative Mark Klicker has met with the owners of the park.

We'll let you know if any policy changes come about.

Now to the west side of Washington, where a tip to reporter Lauren Gallup turned up years of complaints, health issues and staff and patient impacts at a veterans clinic in Seattle.

Lauren collaborated with Cascade PBS's Liz Giordano this spring in this investigation.

Just weeks after the first article published about the troubles at building 18 on the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System campus, that clinic and the whole building closed.

Read all about it online, plus, reports of retaliation.

And collaborations are a big theme around here.

This one paired Anna King with our Northwest News Network partner, Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The topic?

A week long, hours long special focused on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation site.

The site sits along the Columbia River just outside of Richland, Washington.

The Columbia that separates the states Washington and Oregon.

So we all have a stake in what happens here.

Collaborative, shared reporting on a shared issue in the northwest.

Here's a little reminder of that.

“This is Think Out Loud on OPB.

I'm Dave Miller, coming to you once again from Washington State University Tri-Cities in partnership with Northwest Public Broadcasting.

We've talked a lot this week about life and work at Hanford, but not all of the waste made here stayed here.

In the rush to process plutonium, plant operators ended up expelling radioactive byproducts into the local atmosphere.

Some of that radiation was spread widely by the wind.” Now, those are just a few of NWPBs most impactful stories of 2024.

Look out for many, many more in the New year.

And, as we close out this special edition of Weekly News Now, on behalf of all of us at NWPB, thank you for your support in public media.

We're here for you.

And because of you.

I'm Tracci Dial.

Thank you for joining us.

Always.