Luke and Erin did a 2024 Wrapped, running through the interesting (and often depressing) coverage RANGE did in the last year. You can find all of our coverage here!

And, shameless plug, we just launched a merch line, which you should shop! Help us get sustainable, show your commitment to civic engagement, and look hot doing it.

Do you have questions about local government? Wondering who to complain to about an issue in your neighborhood? Wondering which agency governs certain things? Wondering why something is happening or how much it costs? Email us at freerange@kyrs.org with your questions, and we’ll try and answer them next week!

Hey, it's Luke.

2

Welcome to Masterpiece

Sleep Deprivation Theater.

3

this week on Free Range,

4

Aaron Sellers and I have been unexpectedly

5

reporting balls to the wall on a

story we are very excited about.

6

And because this is often the case with

journalism, especially investigative

7

journalism, the more excited you are

about a story, the less you want to

8

talk about it until it's actually

out because it's big enough that

9

other people would want to scoop you.

10

But we were working on this

big story kind of unexpectedly

11

and spent basically every waking

hour from the two days leading

12

up to yesterday's radio show to

30 minutes before it happened.

13

Doing pretty much nothing but that.

14

And then we were like, wait,

we got a radio show to do.

15

What should we do?

16

Luckily it's December.

17

There's only two weeks

left in the year, roughly.

18

So when I do a year in review

show what follows and you'll

19

really hear it in our voices.

20

When you kick over in a second,

what follows are two sleep deprived

21

little bear cubs doing their

absolute best to run through.

22

Hundreds of stories we wrote

over the course of 365 ish

23

days, let's say 350 days,

24

and trying to do that without string

too far and even remembering what

25

we wrote in 55 minutes before.

26

You run away though.

27

before you delete this podcast.

28

It actually, it's pretty fun.

29

It's pretty fun.

30

It's the most off the cuff.

31

We've been on this show and.

32

For those of you who might've

listened to the previous incarnation

33

of this more produced version,

less live version of this podcast.

34

And certainly anybody who's talked to me

about the struggles of producing a non

35

live podcast and my weirdo perfectionism,

this is going to be a big departure from

36

what you've heard out of your boy, Luke

and your friends at range to this point.

37

And you know what, 2025 is going to be the

year of letting go and letting God, And

38

we're just getting started a little early.

39

It's pretty fun.

40

It's brisk.

41

We're going to clock this

bad boy in at 52 minutes.

42

And honestly, to be serious for a moment,

it helped Aaron and I both really reflect

43

on the metric shit ton, the mountain

of work we did this year at range.

44

It left me, I got a decent

night's sleep last night.

45

So this isn't just the emotion

of sleep deprivation talking.

46

I feel really proud of the work we do.

47

Obviously listeners like

you are a huge part of that.

48

Our readers are a huge part of that.

49

The Spokane community and their

supportive range is a huge part of that.

50

Not going to get sappy, but I just

want to say we have always been and

51

continue to be proud and thankful

to be a newsroom headquartered in

52

Spokane, Washington, and that pride

and thankfulness grows every year that

53

we still get to keep doing this work.

54

So thank you for listening.

55

Thank you for reading,

and I hope you enjoy.

56

We spent a lot more time on the beginning

of the year than the end of the year.

57

So, uh, I hope you enjoy

listening to a year in the review

58

that really ends up being the first

two thirds of the year in review

59

with some brief mentions at the end

as we're about to get kicked off

60

the air, quick programming note.

61

We're going to be back with

a normal episode next week.

62

We're going to do something the week

of Christmas, and then we're going to

63

take the next week off range since 2022

has always taken the final week of the

64

year off to rest, recuperate, reload,

65

and get ready for the next year.

66

We're going to do that again.

67

I think this episode is going

to get replayed on the radio.

68

There will not be a podcast

the week after Christmas,

69

but we will be back in the new year.

70

All right, without any further

ado, Range Wrapped, the Range

71

Year in Review, coming up.

72

Got it.

73

Hey, it's Erin.

74

You're listening to KYRS

Medical Lake Spokane.

75

This is Free Range, a co

production of KYRS and Range Media.

76

How you doing, Erin?

77

We just spent literally every waking

second together for the last six hours on

78

a reporting project, so I feel like saying

hi to you feels a little weird right now.

79

I know, I'm not tired of you

yet, which is shocking, maybe.

80

But yeah, I'm actually it's nice

to hear because I wouldn't be

81

offended if you were tired of me.

82

Okay.

83

So this week we are going to, we have

been on a super intense reporting

84

odyssey that we're very excited

about, cannot say anything about yet

85

because it's the sort of thing that

in reporting parlance we could get

86

scooped on and we don't want to do that.

87

Not assuming any of our colleagues are

listening right now, but we're tip other

88

people off that we're coming either way.

89

We want to avoid a big one.

90

It's a big one more on, to come on

that, but we decided to riff this

91

hour on our sort of like favorite

stories of the year, but maybe

92

more like a chronological review.

93

We're a little early for that, but

with the holidays coming up, it

94

seemed like a good time to do it.

95

Yeah.

96

One of the things, broad strokes,

as we were in, the last 30 minutes

97

before we hopped on here talking this

through, one of the things that really

98

struck me is there were, time is a

flat circle, to quote True Detective

99

And our colleague, Valerie Osher, who

thought that she invented that saying.

100

Valerie Osher, who, only watches visual

media in like TikTok length increments.

101

So it's definitely not only

TikTok length increments.

102

It'll be like the side by side

shots of somebody knitting and

103

then like clips from a TV show.

104

Exactly.

105

So the TikTok itself is

a two screen experience.

106

And there's probably a third screen

that you're holding in your head.

107

So all the love in the world,

all the love in the world.

108

So definitely not listening,

not watching a lot of.

109

Long form prestige TV may or may

not even know that true detective

110

existed, but simultaneously invented

both like the true detective concept,

111

which was also a Nietzschean like

existentialist philosophy concept of

112

the eternal recurrence of the same.

113

I think the quote was.

114

Time is a circle, guys.

115

And Luke and I looked at each other

with excitement about Wow, did

116

you finally watch True Detective?

117

Or did you just, or did you just

literally invent existentialism

118

from First Principles

119

That's one of my favorite

memories of the office year in

120

review was Yeah, a lot of joy.

121

A lot of work happens at the Range

office and a surprising amount

122

of joy happens too, I think.

123

So Aaron, did you have any sort of broad

strokes as we were doing our quick review

124

of the year in review before we actually

jump into the physical, the actual

125

stories and while I'm pulling up the

posts The time is a flat circle thing.

126

What does that mean to you?

127

We had a bunch of stuff that we were

talking about at the beginning of the

128

year that we're still talking about

again in different formats, but it

129

all just keeps coming back around.

130

As a city hall reporter, primarily,

there are some stories that are just

131

going to happen every year, no matter

what, every year they have to appoint

132

people to boards and committees.

133

Every year there's elections of some kind.

134

Every year they decide on

the rules that govern them.

135

And every year they talk about a budget.

136

So all of that.

137

stuff is always going to be recurring.

138

But as we were, Luke and I truly have

been holed up for the last 48 hours.

139

I think texting as late as 2 a.

140

m.

141

and then every other text is no, I have

to go to bed so that we can get up.

142

This is the benefit of working in media

that you don't worry about committing

143

some sort of labor violation when

you're, but it was a reciprocal texting.

144

It wasn't like one of us was

keeping the other one up.

145

I don't, I hope not anyways.

146

And this is after I spent 14 hours at sea.

147

It's been a week, but I was

thinking about that and the story.

148

And again, we can't give away

anything about this, but I think

149

that I can say that in generic

terms, it is a labor rights story.

150

And as I was thinking back over, My year

of writing, and I wasn't a journalist

151

before this, I wrote a little bit for

my college paper, but as I was thinking

152

about really my last year as a journalist,

all of my favorite stories that came

153

to mind were labor rights stories.

154

In that way, we're got a little

bit of recurrence there, too.

155

If I'm Exhausted and truly dragging

it out to the end of the year.

156

And also, I am working on another

story that I am incredibly excited

157

about and incredibly devoted to

and will likely rank as one of my

158

favorite stories of 2024, 2025.

159

It could come out either,

next week or the week after.

160

It's got to go through some legal

review, it's important enough that

161

we got to get the lawyers involved.

162

Yeah, I think we are going to be, as

we review the year, we're going to

163

be talking in circles a lot, I think.

164

There's a lot of recurring concepts, like

with our colleague who's in California.

165

Colorado.

166

Sorry, Colorado, Aaron Hedge.

167

Did a lot on PFOS, Forever Chemical

Contamination, that story kept coming up.

168

These are incremental stories, but a lot

of, not a lot of movement, so we're still

169

talking about a lot of the same stuff.

170

And I think it shows dedication.

171

This guy is a part time reporter, and he

has been chasing, Every PFAS story he can

172

find, going through documents, and you can

see as you're scrolling through, the 11

173

pages of stories we published this year,

each little step of oh, he found something

174

new here, he was able to get something

new, and just building this lengthy and

175

complicated story through the last year.

176

That's absolutely right, and I think As

we were about to get into the cyclical

177

nature of the news year, but I think

one thing that from a range perspective

178

does feel like we grew and progressed.

179

One of those pieces for me

specifically is hedge is actually

180

going to be full time next year.

181

So those of you who appreciate his

environment reporting, his reporting

182

on the West Plain specifically, his

reporting on Christian nationalism

183

in the far right in both North Idaho,

Central Washington, and here in Spokane.

184

That's a progression.

185

It's not all cycles.

186

I also think that, to your point about

labor reporting's been near and dear to

187

my heart because I grew up working class.

188

I still think, I'm probably economically

not working class anymore, but my

189

brain is still very much wired to

the struggles of the working class.

190

And I think, whenever I'm thinking

about the way Also, You're working if

191

you're working and you have to work to

survive your working class You might

192

I think you're like upper middle class

probably I don't know and I'm not

193

upper but I think I'm middle class I do

think that Yeah, there is a, if you're

194

working for a salary and you're not,

making passive income, off of whatever

195

that's one definition of working class.

196

The other thing is are you, as you're,

are you a frontline service worker?

197

Are you struggling to pay your rent or,

there's, there are both sort of economic

198

and cultural, ways to be working class.

199

And I personally want the working

class to be as big as possible.

200

So I embrace all definitions.

201

But to that point, I think.

202

It's always been an aspiration that RANGE

would be as much for working people as

203

humanly possible, which, with all due

respect to places I've worked and places,

204

media establishments that I truly love,

working people are not usually centered

205

in stories and Or in pay conversations.

206

Yeah.

207

And That's been our aspiration.

208

And I think, and it's been

a quiet aspiration of ours.

209

And I think the course of this year,

a lot of the work you've done Sellers

210

and then, the outcome of the last few

months, like we were talking about with

211

the rent discussion the other week and

the outcome of the election, there just

212

seems to be some fundamental, and I'm now

I'm speaking about national media where

213

it's just we don't get the working class.

214

There are like some fundamental

misunderstandings in our society about

215

who even qualifies, who's allowed to be

a part of it, and who, in the, when we're

216

talking about working people of color and

working people across difference, like who

217

is even allowed to vote for which party.

218

There's just like this assumption that,

Poor people should be rank and file

219

automatons of certain parties that may

or may not actually represent their

220

interests, and so one of the things I

think we are really passionate about is

221

not In any way being political about that,

but really leaning in, and certainly in

222

2025 and for the foreseeable future, in

my opinion, or my hope, into like really

223

surfacing, really owning a broad sort

of missional thing about we are here for

224

working people, we are here to surface

their stories, we are here to help them.

225

Y'all fight for power and recognition

and for better lives in the small

226

way that we can here in Spokane.

227

And hopefully, hopefully that becomes

like a beacon to other folks who have

228

similar feelings across the country.

229

Yeah.

230

I think as a city hall reporter, I

have been trying to think Covering

231

the sort of horse race of politics

is not something that appeals to me.

232

And it is a hamster wheel that

just keeps going no matter what.

233

And that's what I'm reminded of

when I look at this cyclically.

234

But then I also look at the focus

of these stories and how we've

235

decided what angle to use when it

comes to city government stories.

236

Yep.

237

And making government.

238

Accessible and understandable and

showing people how they can have

239

a voice and an impact in these

systems is, making the government.

240

for working class people,

or trying to help people

241

understand how they can do that.

242

Before we get too far into the stories

that we want to talk about I think you're

243

about to say the thing I was about to say.

244

Go ahead.

245

Which is the, we're gonna try for the

first time, maybe, to take collars.

246

You're not allowed to swear or anything,

so be in your best behavior, because we're

247

going to Please don't get us in trouble.

248

We also have a dump button that

we're supposed to use, that I think

249

we might have to use for the first

time if things get a little spicy,

250

but what's the phone number again?

251

To your right, Luke.

252

To my right.

253

509 747 3333.

254

We're going to be talking about our

favorite story, or we're just going

255

to be doing our year in review.

256

If you had a story that really resonated

with you, you happen to be listening

257

right now, you're listening to this live.

258

Whether it was ours or from another news

outlet, we want to hear what was the news

259

that stuck with you this year and why.

260

Absolutely.

261

So yeah, feel free to call that

262

3807, and I will try to I've worked the

phone once in our very first broadcast.

263

I'll try to figure out how to work it

again, and we can, you can be, you can

264

join the conversation, as they say.

265

And I will try to remember to repeat

that number every 10, 15 minutes or

266

so for folks that might be chiming in.

267

Great.

268

Alright, Jan January 2024.

269

Do we even remember?

270

I turned 24.

271

It's incredible.

272

I'm not gonna say how old I turned.

273

43.

274

First story of the year was actually

This Is Us circling back in the new

275

year, which was a story about the

Liberty Lake What was it again, Erin?

276

The Liberty Lake Library?

277

Is that right?

278

This was a hedge thing, yeah?

279

Oh no, this was just our civics.

280

We weren't going to talk about that one.

281

Okay, the first story that

I have us publishing was on

282

my birthday, January 4th.

283

If you're stealing my identity,

there's a piece of information for you.

284

Oh.

285

And it was called, We're in a

Humanitarian Crisis Right Now,

286

and I Don't Want People to Die.

287

Which was a direct quote from a city

council member at the time, I think,

288

or maybe one of the service providers.

289

And, about the track shelter and 37 people

in the, obviously, it's January 4th, so

290

we're talking about the dead of winter.

291

So cold.

292

Getting for no reason we were able

to discern, just ejected from the

293

shelter in the middle of the night.

294

The winter.

295

One thing that sticks out to

me about that story, that was

296

when we kind of fire drilled.

297

So I got a tip and I was trying to run it

down in like a short amount of time, get

298

something up, because, it's important.

299

You don't want people to die.

300

And so if you can get the news out

quickly, maybe you can pressure people

301

into not making the same decision.

302

And I remember I turned the draft

of my story in, and I had written

303

about how a woman who had been

kicked out of the shelter abruptly

304

didn't know where else to go.

305

So she walked to a Denny's.

306

And I turn my story in, I'm

frantic, I'm tired, and Luke goes.

307

Which Denny's, though?

308

Which Denny's did she go to?

309

How did she get, did she walk?

310

Was it the bus?

311

And tell me which Denny's so I

can track out on a map exactly

312

how far it is from track.

313

And I'm like, I had ten minutes

on the phone with this woman.

314

You think I asked her

which Denny's she went to?

315

But it was such a good question, because

it would have made my lead better.

316

Yeah.

317

I think we assumed it

was the closest Denny's.

318

Even, I don't know that we even

put it in the story, but I think no

319

matter which Denny's she went to,

the closest Denny's was, like, two

320

miles away, or something like that.

321

Yeah.

322

And this is a story that won't beat

time as a flat circle because we won't

323

ever be writing about people from TRAC

getting kicked out in the cold again.

324

Because TRAC is no longer a shelter, yeah.

325

And I think the city

killed its lease with TRAC.

326

I'm pretty sure Hut, Aaron Hut, the

city spokesperson sent out a press

327

release saying that they just bit

the bullet and bought their way out

328

of the lease so that they're not

hemorrhaging money for a giant warehouse

329

out on Trent that they're not using.

330

That is definitely not, habitable

for humans and no longer

331

houses human running water.

332

Yeah.

333

All right, so that was my birthday

No, I do remember Jimmy crying

334

on the phone with you at 8 p.

335

m.

336

I had ordered my cell phone take

out from Wisconsin Burger and

337

then got stuck in a traffic jam.

338

So by the time I got there, my food was

cold and then I got back to my house

339

and I was like settling in to eat my

birthday dinner and you call me and

340

you're like, but which Denny's was she at?

341

And I just burst into tears.

342

Oh man I swear I'm not

intentionally terrorizing my wife.

343

My writers, when I, when, as an

editor, I ask questions like that,

344

but it definitely happens sometimes.

345

Did I even know it was your birthday?

346

That's a great question, and

I think that if the answer is

347

yes, that maybe makes you worse.

348

I think Yeah One day later one day

another story about committee and

349

board assignments on the City Council

Specifically, this is if you to this

350

is a hundred percent of time is a

flat circle Yes, if you heard us do a

351

lengthy discussion last week on board

and committee assignments and whether

352

or not district one was getting left out

of key you board's key representation.

353

Last year, they definitely were, they

were not given a seat on the Spokane

354

Transit Authority board despite

having arguably the largest ridership.

355

There's some questions here about

how exactly the data is collected.

356

District one, which is represented by

the two conservatives on the mostly

357

progressive city council, just brief

review, is also by most metrics and

358

probably by a decent margin the poorest

district in aggregate in Spokane

359

and so the argument was and still is

about When we sideline Conservatives

360

are we also sidelining the poor?

361

Writ large and so yeah, that was a story

It was a story a year ago, and it was

362

still a story a week ago and just brief

update I know we're trying to stay away

363

from city government stuff, but Council

Member Michael Cathcart, a conservative,

364

a representative of District 1, was

seated on the STA board, which is the

365

first time a District 1 representative

366

And Jonathan Bingle was seated on the

Spokane Regional Transportation Council?

367

Commission?

368

SRTC.

369

So they received representation on

both major transportation boards.

370

About a week later in early Jan or

still in the second week of January

371

here, we wrote a story, Surviving

the Snap, about the cold snap.

372

Again, as, as long as track was we should

this is just starting with our colleague

373

Carl, a couple years ago, talking

about the work that he did at Camp Hope

374

around the heat waves that happened.

375

And we've tried to, when there's

extreme weather, or even inclement

376

weather, to focus on our unhoused

neighbors and what they're doing to

377

survive literally in, in the weather.

378

So that's another kind of perpetual

time as a flat circle, as long as

379

we have the crippling housing crisis

and sort of the, what a, what, like

380

a Twitter pilled Person might call

the poly crisis of housing in Spokane

381

where it's a little bit mental illness.

382

It's a little bit drugs.

383

It's a lot, we get, we can debate

about how much of those things

384

directly contribute to homelessness.

385

There's certainly a symptom of it, but

the symptom of all of the increasing

386

on unaffordability of life in

America and specifically in Spokane.

387

This is not going to be, this is not

going to be a super light hearted year

388

in review, I know, I keep scrolling

up and peeking and I'm like, wow.

389

It's not getting much better.

390

We really write a lot of bad news,

which is feedback we've gotten.

391

And every so often we try to do

something less depressing, but, we've

392

got some stuff coming in the new year

that's going to be less depressing.

393

We might be able to Pull off some

games potentially and stuff like that.

394

We're talking, we're not going to,

we're not going to scoop ourselves.

395

And we also can't over promise,

but we're taking some steps to try

396

to have some happier news in 2025.

397

We also, I think we also made

398

That might've been our

new year's resolution.

399

And you know what, here we are with

lawmakers should wait and see before

400

banning toxic PFAS on January 17th.

401

Yeah, that was, we Yeah, that was an

Aaron Hedge article about the airport

402

CEO saying, yeah, let's just wait and see

if the poison, we should ban the poison

403

that we all know exists in our water.

404

Let's just wait.

405

Let's just sit on it.

406

And I don't remember exactly.

407

I'm sure we'll get to it in the timeline,

but this was pretty soon before.

408

The federal EPA, the Environmental

Projection Agency, said, You

409

know how much PFAS is safe?

410

Zero.

411

Zero detectable.

412

There was a trace amount of PFAS that

was, the science is still emerging on

413

just how and in what ways PFAS is toxic.

414

And those are like, Forever chemicals

that sort of stay in the groundwater,

415

which are, in a million different

things, including like the Teflon in your

416

nonstick pans, but in the case of Spokane

and on the West Plains of our county

417

firefighting chemicals, the retardant

that you use specifically for airplanes.

418

So there's, there have been there's a

contamination basically north of both

419

of our airports, Fairchild Air Force

Base, and the one we all go to fly places

420

because of the drills that when you.

421

Basically, trained to spray these

in the case of a plane fire.

422

All right, we gotta move faster.

423

We're still in january.

424

You are right and we are

what do you want to do next?

425

Yeah, the near the end of january

I wrote a brief story on just like

426

political battle lines on the spokane

transit authority I was really

427

in my Wow, all government is just

theater kids being dramatic era.

428

It's all a power struggle.

429

Everybody's playing chess.

430

And a couple, a little bit after that,

right at the end of January Hedge had a

431

story about Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley

nominating three people to the planning

432

commission for that city, not for the

county or our place, but for the Spokane

433

Valley's planning commission without

interviewing any of the candidates.

434

Yes.

435

And then this was the beginning, I think,

of our coverage of a man named Al Merkel,

436

who for our Valley residents listening

out there is already a legend, I think,

437

in his short time on the counter where

every month there, I think city manager

438

presents a financial tally of just how

much money Merkel has cost the city.

439

Because of the various inqu like,

ethical inquiries and stuff?

440

Ethical inquiries page

freezers, social media stuff.

441

They had to change the layout of

their work area because they said

442

he was harassing staff, allegedly.

443

So all of these measures, and then I

think they were trying to Tally and this

444

gets a little complicated right because

they say he's asking for things that are

445

pointless like he's asking questions that

are pointless, so I think there's a tally

446

in there of staff time of Merkle sending

staff off on what they call rabbit holes

447

I think there's something pretty valuable

about somebody asking Questions even

448

if we might or you might think that are

stupid the fact that it's not inherently

449

easily Understandable means that there's

some transparency issues And I think he

450

has, you can, we can we can debate the

legitimacy of some of these requests, but

451

some of these things are about government

efficiency and just are we actually

452

doing what we say we do as a government?

453

And we're not officially taking a

position on Al Markel on the show.

454

No, because this is the man that

just sent out a press release asking.

455

But we're not explicitly not taking

a position on that in general, just

456

merely noting that he is one of the.

457

Intentional or unintentional

funniest characters in a black way?

458

He drove around in the Merc mobile.

459

Which was just like side by side.

460

That was like painted orange.

461

Like a side, like a motorcycle?

462

No, like a side, not a four wheeler, but

oh yeah, like the sort of off roading.

463

Yeah, like a buggy.

464

Like a buggy with signs that

said vote for Al Merkle.

465

And he had a Oh, a megaphone, and

it was just like blasting vote

466

for Al Merkel as he drove around.

467

Not even in his district,

not even in the area.

468

He was over by the Inlander taking an

interview with our friend Nate Sanford,

469

and he arrived in the Merc mobile.

470

One day later, February 2nd April Fool's

Day, is that, or is that Groundhog Day?

471

It's Groundhog Day.

472

It's Groundhog Day.

473

Because April Fool's Day

actually happens in April.

474

In April, yeah.

475

Quick fact check there of myself.

476

Disruption, decorum, defiance.

477

Erin, this was the first piece we

wrote about, not about the Israel

478

Palestine conflict explicitly, but

the intense, months long disruption

479

that happened at Spokane City Council

around what to do about Spokane's

480

how Spokane as a city responded

or didn't respond to that crisis.

481

Yeah, I remember doing math for

that story, which Anytime I do math.

482

it in the, yeah.

483

I don't know.

484

I can't, for some reason that's not

coming up on my page, but I, yeah, I

485

went through all of the meetings in

the year and marked just like every

486

time people use their testimony time

to talk about Israel or Palestine or

487

how what the impacts were in Spokane.

488

And it was a pretty

significant portion of time.

489

Yeah, I'm scanning the story real quickly

to see if we, because we counted them

490

all up and I can't remember if we put it

in the story or not, but it was hours.

491

Hours.

492

Yeah, this is true.

493

Yeah.

494

All right, and then in the next couple

weeks of February, we spent a bunch of

495

time covering the legislative session.

496

So the state legislative session, writing

about big bills and tracking them through

497

like how a bill becomes a law, how

you can contact your state legislator.

498

So just giving people the tools

to know what was going on.

499

That was Valerie Osher and Aaron

Hedge were writing that sort of nuts

500

and bolts stuff while I was tackling

a big story on a bill being debated

501

in the legislature that would have

paused hospital system consolidation,

502

which is a fancy way to say mergers.

503

And what the impacts of that were

largely, it has a big impact on access

504

to reproductive health care and gender

affirming health care because a kid that

505

went to lobby, I think they were like

five 15, 16, they use this metaphor of all

506

the big hospitals are gobbling up all the

little hospitals And then they all have

507

the same policy around reproductive care.

508

So you can't go anywhere else to

seek right additional care and this

509

is not exclusively the case, but

the a lot of the debate was around

510

ostensibly faith based, even non

profit hospital systems sometimes.

511

I think Providence is an example of this.

512

Yeah, and they had some pretty restrictive

rules around how you could whether or

513

not you could terminate pregnancies

and under which circumstances.

514

One of the sources I talked to was a

woman who was told that her Pregnancy

515

was extremely high risk and was

going to kill her, likely, but she

516

was not at the point where if you

don't do this now, she will die And

517

so her options were really limited.

518

She either had to wait until she hit that

point or go to Planned Parenthood or go

519

to a private hospital where she would

have had to pay like 9, 000 out of pocket.

520

And I had a personal friend who chose

not to go on the record for this story.

521

And so I don't want to give

too many details, but was

522

literally a doctor at a hospital.

523

who lost a child, but, was still inside

of her, needed to have the fetus removed,

524

and her employer made it impossible.

525

Just about as hard as you could physically

do, even though the fetus was beyond

526

non viable, it was already, dead.

527

So that was a really stunning

example of we've spent so much of

528

the last year focused on the Dobbs

decision and the Supreme Court.

529

Explicitly taking away

reproductive health rights.

530

But this is an example of where just

like bureaucracy and not necessarily

531

capitalism, cause we're talking

about nonprofits here, but just like

532

the market, nonprofit industrial.

533

All right.

534

This is your reminder that if

you have a favorite news story

535

from 2024, you can call us at.

536

Luke, your beanie's in

the way of the sign.

537

509 747 3807.

538

We're gonna have to speedrun

through this and I'm as much

539

of a culprit as anyone here.

540

We've done a lot of stories in the last

couple years about the politicization

541

of various boards, especially school

boards, around what in a quaint past was

542

like critical race theory, and is now

largely, mostly about queer and trans

543

issues, curriculum and library issues.

544

Aaron Hedge in the mid February wrote

about Central Valley School District Board

545

opposing queer curriculum legislation

that the state had passed to basically be

546

more inclusive for queer and trans kids.

547

We started our overly ambitious people's

priorities project that really taught us

548

not to over promise and under deliver.

549

That was supposed to be like seven

stories in two weeks and it ended up

550

being like seven stories in seven months.

551

Yeah.

552

Yeah.

553

The whole idea there was, and I, and

honestly to, back to the whole working

554

class angle we were talking about

earlier, it was not, it was in, Attempt,

555

overly ambitious attempt, but a valiant

attempt, an honorable attempt to talk

556

with normal folks who aren't in positions

of power necessarily or who are very

557

close to community about what they

wanted out of the Spokane City Council.

558

And I think we learned

some interesting things.

559

We don't really have time to dig into it.

560

We could spend probably two shows on

everything that came out of that series.

561

But yeah.

562

It was a really, it was one of, as I

think about how we grew as an organization

563

over the year, that was, I think, one

of our early attempts to try to center

564

normal folks and not people with, that

try to lift voices of people who don't

565

have power, as opposed to, always talking

to people who already do have power.

566

Then I think one of the biggest stories

of the year, one of my favorite stories

567

of the year, and one of, I think, one of

the most important stories of the year in

568

February 23rd, was your story, Sellers,

about, it was called, anecdotally, we're

569

seeing more dead people, which was a weird

sixth sense reference, but it was about

570

Everybody seemed to agree that there was

a fentanyl crisis, an overdose crisis, a

571

fatality, people were dying at increasing

levels, but nobody had actual data.

572

So we had this entire community of service

providers and government officials who

573

were saying, So many more people are

dying than usual and I took them at their

574

word because everybody was saying it

but nobody knew exactly how much so you

575

want to talk about what steps you had

to take to just run down and honestly,

576

I don't want to toot our own horn and I

don't want you to get too big of an ego

577

because I don't think either of us have

a problem with ego, but it really did it.

578

force or shame the city and

some of our other leaders to

579

actually start tracking things.

580

I, in my opinion, they should

have been tracking all along.

581

Yeah, I think there's one sentence from

this story that sums the whole thing up

582

between February 13th to February 21st.

583

And incidentally, more than two months

after we had reported Spokane County

584

was canceling its opioid task force,

Range contacted 14 people across

585

eight agencies and organizations to

try to understand if comprehensive

586

data exists, and if so, how one could

get up to date accurate data on the

587

actual number of overdoses, fatal 2024.

588

I literally was just calling everybody

I can think of getting bounced around.

589

I called the Spokane regional

emergency communications.

590

I called the police.

591

I called the fire department.

592

I called the Spokane

regional health district.

593

I called, I think the coroner's office.

594

Yeah.

595

And then I was just, it was frustrating.

596

Every time I thought I'd get

something, it would be different

597

numbers than somebody else had.

598

And at the same time, the Spokane City

Council was trying to decide how to

599

allocate funding and what to do about

this thing that they were, like, hearing

600

was deadly and bad and dangerous.

601

But again, they had no data about

What was happening, where it was

602

happening, who it was impacting, so

it was nearly impossible for them to

603

make educated decisions about that.

604

Right.

605

Right after that we wrote, I think,

one of, one of our first labor

606

stories of the year, but also.

607

This is one of my favorites.

608

Yeah.

609

It was called Dancer Revolution, and it

was about a bill working its way through

610

the legislature that would have, that

gave rights to dancers dancers Yeah,

611

you want to talk about that briefly?

612

Yeah There's a group called strippers

or workers that are making the case

613

that dancers in clubs are workers

just like everybody else and deserve

614

the same kinds of worker protections.

615

There was a lot of practices, and

specifically in Washington, which

616

you think of as like ostensibly a

progressive state that is good for

617

workers, it was not and like still

isn't a great state for dancers.

618

People will travel dance or go to Oregon

because some of the regulations around

619

Like alcohol and policies and stage

fees, all these terms that if you're not

620

familiar with this world, so you might

know nothing about make it not very

621

financially profitable to dance here and

zoning restrictions across the state make

622

it really hard to operate a club here.

623

And in fact, there is not a single

strip club in Eastern Washington now you

624

have to go across the state to Idaho.

625

So I talked to, dancers about their

experience and there were some

626

incredibly sensitive stories because

some of these policies led to sexual

627

assault or harassment and people

not getting paid for their labor.

628

I think this was in a previous story you

wrote about this or maybe a subsequent

629

story, but this is about more than

just strip clubs and whether they're

630

morally or ethically cool or not.

631

And there are fine, conversations to be

had about this, but the reason this is

632

a really a worker's rights story, and

this is one of the things that one of

633

the more powerful things that came out

of your reporting around this, Aaron

634

is like, a lot of these folks are moms.

635

Some of them are single moms.

636

And you can say that stripping is good or

bad from a moral or ethical standpoint,

637

but a lot of times it's this is what

allows them to make enough money in a

638

relatively short amount of time to like

actually spend time with their kids.

639

It's what allows them to then not have

to spend as much money on childcare.

640

In addition to the, it's good to have your

parents around when you're developing.

641

I'm not trying to shame anybody who has

to work or whatever, and that's not what

642

we're trying to do, but there's real, like

parents want to spend time with their kids

643

and this is a choice folks are making.

644

In a lot of cases to just be

like I'm a stripper so that

645

I can, For my family, yeah.

646

Soon after that this is a kind of a nerdy

one that I just want to pause on briefly,

647

but from caucus to convention, Aaron

Hedge wrote a story about the kind of

648

labyrinthine nominating process that the

Spokane County GOP takes to eventually.

649

Basically how the Republican Party in

our state nominates its at the statewide

650

level and it how it goes from like

county level all the way up to other

651

things and seemed like a small story.

652

It didn't seem super important or it

just seemed like a run of the mill story.

653

But One of the things that I've always

appreciated so much about how closely

654

Aaron keeps his head to the ground of his,

his ear to the ground of what's happening

655

on the far right in, in Washington and

Idaho and in our area in general is

656

that this ended up becoming part of what

allowed This weird coup that, nothing much

657

came of it, but SemiBird was this fringe

govern gubernatorial candidate who ran in

658

the governor gubernatorial primary, who

was very kind of Trumpy, but he was also

659

a person of color, he was from the Tri

Cities, nobody put much stock in him, and

660

ultimately he didn't make it through the

primary, but he was also, his followers,

661

through this weird labyrinthine process,

and partially the fact that the GOP

662

convention was in Spokane this year, was

able to get the Republican nomination for

663

governor, even though he had basically

no chance of even making it out of the

664

primary, because of how, right wing forces

in the state Republican party were able

665

to game the system and eventually, Get

him through as their nominee After that I

666

had a run of seven stories right in a row,

which this is really making me realize

667

how much I work I wrote a story about the

state mandated indigenous community seat

668

on the spoken regional health This is a

big one That's still unfilled and comes

669

up frequently in conversation in these

spoken regional health district meetings

670

and in other issues They're making

these important decisions and they're

671

It's still not an indigenous person

sitting in that state mandated seat.

672

There are arguments about why that

is, which we covered in this story

673

that I do not have time to explain

the nuances of, but it's definitely

674

a big issue that we had heard from

community members was frustrating.

675

I wrote another story.

676

about not having enough shelter

beds in the cold for people.

677

You wrote us, I'm going to speed

this along here a little bit.

678

Sorry.

679

We're like 20 minutes left.

680

You wrote a guide of how to

Narcan, which actually we got

681

some blowback for this story.

682

We were just trying to be like,

Hey, if you are a person who feels

683

comfortable and, you, maybe you're not.

684

Because there was this opioid, or there

is this opioid crisis, we thought it would

685

be useful to help people understand how to

use Narcan if you see somebody overdosing

686

or God forbid you have a loved one who

overdoses and we got some weird blowback,

687

almost like we were enabling drug use.

688

It's really like we're just trying

to save lives, harm reduction it

689

wasn't a time but it was surprising

to me that there was a more negative

690

response to that than I expected.

691

Billing process for nonprofits where

they have to front their own money and

692

then reimburse the city, which can be

really hard when you're asking small

693

nonprofits to take on risky labor.

694

Specifically.

695

Yeah.

696

Small nonprofits, um, policy plagiarism,

which comes up multiple times this year.

697

There's a kind of Washington trend

of right wing, More right wing school

698

boards just plagiarizing each other's

policy decisions on issues like queer

699

and trans kids and then just copy

pasting and running that through.

700

It happens a lot at CVSD and Mead.

701

Yeah, and this is something I started

writing about in Mead almost three

702

years ago, so it's still happening.

703

Arpa funds and what we plan to do with it.

704

Aaron Hedge found a pile of the gray

fire that happened the previous year.

705

The devastating fire out in Medical

Lake that burned down so many homes.

706

He found a pile of rubble

that was still smoldering.

707

It hadn't been put out yet,

which is pretty, months later,

708

pretty crazy to think about.

709

Yeah.

710

My love letter to Val Ogier, who

moved up here from California and

711

was blown away by the fact that we

had bikini barista coffee stands.

712

So I wrote a story looking at the ledgers,

the lingerie, the labor structures.

713

It's like people have written about

the kind of controversies around

714

them constantly, but nobody's

actually asked the questions of

715

What are the economics of this?

716

How much do people make?

717

Is this a good decision

financially for people?

718

Is it safe?

719

And so I just went and talked to

baristas about what it was like to work

720

there and did it make financial sense?

721

And a lot of them were students who

were like paying their way through

722

college via lingerie coffee shop.

723

And I think that's rad.

724

Yeah.

725

I had a lot of friends in college who

just worked, mostly female friends or

726

female identifying friends who worked

in bars, because it's you can make good

727

tips, you don't have to work that much.

728

It's, it rhymed and echoed with the

stripper story, and actually there was,

729

part of that story was about how there is

a bias, as weird as it sounds, in bikini

730

baristas against hiring former strippers.

731

Yep, which is a story I wrote later.

732

Yep.

733

We got better data on the opioid crisis,

which I think is why you said that story

734

is pretty impactful, is that like a month

after I wrote my data story we got better

735

data, and organizations started publishing

and communicating and presenting data on

736

deaths to the City Council every month.

737

I think it's fair to say that as

a direct result of some of our

738

reporting, some of our friends

reporting, and other people reporting.

739

We ended up making things more transparent

and informed for people in power.

740

On May Day, or after May Day, but in

honor of May Day, we, our, our beloved

741

intern Pascal Bostic and you, Aaron,

did a little photo essay about the

742

Workers Rights March that Latinos

in Spokane organized for May Day.

743

That was fun.

744

We're, now, I think that was our,

one of those examples of a, sort

745

of an uplifting, heartwarming story

of community community solidarity.

746

Later on in the month, we got another

Trent Shelter contract extension.

747

I don't even want to talk about that one.

748

The beginning of what became a

series and a long running issue of

749

vandalism of the Pride crosswalks

across Spokane, that, again, we don't

750

really have time to get into this, but

that was a continuing saga, basically

751

from this The article was in May.

752

It lasted through the entire

summer and into the fall.

753

Hedge's great story about Jacob

Knight at Mead School District.

754

Yeah, that's a really great one.

755

About a beloved teacher who within

months, who grew up going to Mead

756

and became a teacher in the Mead

system, who was also a, we spent

757

a lot of time editing this one.

758

It's a really brutal story.

759

Who became the teacher

in a particular grade.

760

I can't remember what grade

that a lot of parents with.

761

Kids who were struggling asked to put

in, this is a teacher, they asked their

762

kid to be in his class because of how

compassionate what he was and how he

763

had this uncanny knack for bringing

kids out of their shell and helping

764

kids who were struggling in school find

their place, culturally and turns out.

765

One of the reasons Jacob was able to

do that so is that Jacob was a closeted

766

gay man, and when he came out, he was

in a straight relationship when he was

767

beloved, and when, within a year of

him coming out as gay and beginning

768

to The district paid him half a year's

salary to resign and not sue them.

769

Yeah.

770

After some things.

771

It was, yeah, it's a really brutal story.

772

And so careful in the words we

use about it, because every word

773

we use in the story went through

legal review like three times.

774

Yeah, it sure did.

775

It was also the beginning

on a weirder note.

776

Soon after, three days later,

we wrote about EWU potentially

777

becoming a polytechnic university.

778

We still don't know what that

means and how it's different from

779

a normal university, but that's

something we're dealing with.

780

Basically, eight months later as well

and then back to strippers a few days

781

after that when that was when you did

your story about the closure of Deja Vu.

782

And where people actually go if

the only strip club in eastern

783

Washington is closed, what economic

options are left for dancers?

784

That's one of my favorite labor stories.

785

Yeah.

786

More vandalism of the crosswalks.

787

As was in end of May, Sean Foyt, the

eternal recurrence of the, everybody's

788

favorite Christian nationalist praise

pastor who probably Did as much as anyone

789

else to losing torpedo to Torpedoing,

former Mayor Woodward's reelection chances

790

was back in Spokane, as he often is.

791

Shortly after he announced that he

would be suing the city for their

792

2023 Denouncement of then Mayor

Woodward, which hedge also covered.

793

And I had forgotten how much of

a lag there was in this, but.

794

But we were talking about the opioid

crisis, the overdose crisis in January.

795

It was not until June that Mayor Brown

actually declared the overdose emergency.

796

This is true.

797

We did another attempt at levity.

798

We shared some queer love letters

for, Pride Month, I believe.

799

Yeah, and our interns Holly Van

Voorhees and Pascal Bostic wrote

800

an accompanying piece showcasing

2SLGBTQ plus history in Spokane.

801

There was like a history exhibit

down in the pavilion that they

802

wrote a beautiful story on.

803

So this is another really wholesome one.

804

We partnered with the community school,

which is a project based high school.

805

I think when I was in school,

this would have been called an

806

alternative school, which would have

had parentheses derogatory in it.

807

And one of the things that's been

so beautiful about our partnership

808

with the community school is really

I, as a kid who, 20 years later was

809

diagnosed with ADHD, I really could have

benefited from a project based school.

810

I would have really thrived

in that environment.

811

I think it wasn't really an option for

cultural reasons where I went to school

812

and watching these kids basically spend

an entire semester or an entire unit,

813

I don't know if it's a full semester,

they call them, they break things down

814

into units, they're studying journalism

And critiquing journalism, we started

815

doing this a couple years ago where

they just came, we came in to talk

816

about our work and the spokesman's come

and the inlanders come over the years.

817

It's been a really cool community

thing, but these kids are more

818

engaged than some of the college kids.

819

I, we come in and talk to just hitting

Us hard on bias and why are you covering

820

this and not covering this and this

year we ended up Publishing a bunch

821

of the stories they wrote at the end

of that section Not only we worked

822

with them to craft these stories.

823

We came in multiple times to do Idea

generation and how do you see So,

824

like source things and how do you

decide who's quotes to prioritize?

825

I sat at one of those desks with the

little spot for your binder for the first

826

time in 25 years probably and you did a

ton of work on this project as well, Erin.

827

Yeah, we picked like the top 7 or

8 stories that were the closest and

828

we gave them a professional edit

and worked with students in art

829

and published them on our website.

830

We created a PDF and eventually it's going

to get printed into a little newspaper.

831

I think it is printed

at the community school.

832

Ok, we just haven't

picked up our copy yet.

833

Yeah.

834

Yeah.

835

It's very, it was a very fun thing.

836

It's a project I hope we continue

doing in the future because,

837

the children are the future.

838

I got really invested in urbanism

and traffic safety for a while there.

839

I wrote about adaptive design

strategies, which are cheap ways to

840

calm traffic and protect bike lanes.

841

I wrote about traffic fatalities

and Mayor Brown committing

842

to traffic safety measures.

843

July, we, yeah, some safe streets.

844

Oh, is that what you were

just talking about there?

845

Yeah.

846

Yeah.

847

We did those Query Love Letters

throughout the month of June.

848

We covered the heat wave, how to help what

it's really like out there on the streets.

849

So Hedge and I wrote a couple

stories in conjunction.

850

He went out and interviewed

frontline providers.

851

during the heat wave, and I

collated resources on where to help.

852

Just before the 4th of July, Aaron Hedge

wrote a story called Operation City

853

Bleeders about a man named Louis Arthur,

who's, I don't even know, we don't have

854

time to adequately describe Louis Arthur.

855

To even open that can of worms.

856

Except that he is wanted by law

enforcement across several states

857

for just really petty and, disturbing

reasons, like he recently popped up

858

doing weirdness after a hurricane.

859

He's probably most famous for destroying

migrant watering stations across Arizona.

860

He came to Spokane briefly and docks

the city council, docks the city council

861

and which some people who are I would

assume because he's on the far right,

862

people on the far right were camped

outside of city council members houses.

863

And then yeah, when.

864

Months later, when the really

awful hurricane happened in

865

North Carolina, he popped up

there again in the national news.

866

We saw this on CNN or something, that he

is over there causing trouble as well.

867

So he's just a person who moves around

the country leaving chaos in his wake.

868

Okay, my favorite story of the year

was Don't Leave Me Here, I Need

869

Help which we published in July.

870

I took a ride along with the fire

department's behavioral response unit,

871

which is this sort of alternative

response unit that gets tagged on to

872

go to mental health calls and overdose

calls, and they have the ability to

873

administer a drug called suboxone in

the field, which helps put off overdose,

874

or what's the word I'm looking for?

875

The effects of withdrawal.

876

Withdrawals.

877

They can put off withdrawal symptoms,

and then they can use that window of time

878

where somebody is not having withdrawal

symptoms to try to help direct them

879

into services, whether that's mental

health services or addiction services.

880

And it was a really eye opening day.

881

I worked really closely with the two

members of that unit, and I followed

882

one patient over the course of the day

who we went out on multiple calls to,

883

and a few weeks after I went on my ride

along, I found out that this patient was

884

still seeking care for their addiction

and was still in the program, and

885

was, by and large, one of the biggest

success stories of this program, and I

886

And not long after that we

began what is a hybrid thing.

887

And again, back to the conversation we

had a couple weeks ago about our rent tool

888

that we were trying to work on developing.

889

We wrote about the, as the Spokane

Regional Health District's consideration

890

of privatizing its treatment services.

891

There's only, there's 39

counties in Washington State.

892

Only two of them have

publicly funded services.

893

opioid treatment services, us in

Pierce County where Tacoma is.

894

There was discussion starting in late

July, or mid July, through it goes

895

almost to this day around whether

Spokane should privatize that work.

896

And one of the, fascinating things

about that is that in this upcoming

897

legislative session, the state is

going to consider actually rather than

898

private, like privatizing like Spokane's

considering, it's considering requiring

899

all of the regional health districts

across the counties to actually make

900

their make public opioid services.

901

So part of the rationale to at

least explore privatizing was that

902

Spokane was this weird outlier that

was one of the few publicly funded

903

treatment programs in the state.

904

Now the state is maybe that's

actually the way we should go.

905

So they've held off on any further

deliberation about whether to privatize

906

because the state might actually mandate

public services that they've already

907

built that almost nobody else has.

908

And with our last five minutes,

we're, we've really got to go fast.

909

I want to highlight.

910

Okay.

911

Thank you.

912

Our edition of Lauren Pangborn, who is

our new urbanism columnist and Lauren

913

has written a couple of great stories

for us in the last couple of months

914

about density, urbanism, development,

bike paths, transit, and just does

915

it in this really lovely way that

makes things so accessible and easy.

916

We partnered on a story.

917

About the top 10 dangerous

intersections in Spokane.

918

We were able to use like embeds to

give you a tour of what the most

919

dangerous intersections look like.

920

And a hobby horse of mine point access

block architecture that allows for

921

better, cooler, more interesting,

and more livable apartments.

922

So making not just dense housing,

but dense housing that's more

923

livable, even for families, if

you're into that sort of thing.

924

And it's.

925

Another range contributor,

Daisy Zavala Mongagna.

926

Yep.

927

Wrote about the path to workplace

justice for an injured undocumented

928

laborer here in Spokane.

929

And this was another one of

those stories that took a ton

930

of work, a ton of legal review.

931

Six months of reporting and editing.

932

And Daisy's a former student at the

Murrow School who's written a couple

933

Stories for us over the years, but she's

actually a full time reporter on the

934

southern border bilingual, and we really

needed whenever we have a story about

935

a farm worker or another laborer from

a Spanish speaking country, we whenever

936

possible, really use her to Because often

when folks speak primarily Spanish, it's

937

hard to even, go to the press with a

story like this if you're, you're going

938

to be talking to somebody who speaks

a language you don't speak very well.

939

So this is part of our effort to

connect with folks at the ground

940

level when, by coming, by showing

up and, reporting in their language.

941

And then, And honestly, that

kind of brings us to our in depth

942

election coverage that we spent

two and a half months in together.

943

We had some really big projects.

944

We did four or five

big projects this year.

945

That's And then, Maybe there's

a reason we're tired, Erin.

946

Maybe there is city government coverage.

947

That's closing out the year.

948

Aaron Hedge did a really deep dive,

more of an informational think piece

949

on shades of Christian nationalism.

950

And this is the thing that's, I feel

really strongly about this stuff.

951

But there are shades of this thing

that is, basically leading leads to

952

Trump's re election in no small part.

953

And also potentially to this growing

movement of anti democratic movements and

954

movements toward, faith based government

where maybe our democracy is eroded

955

if folks who believe in this ideology

get their way and not just treating it

956

like a monolithic thing but taking the

time to really understand the shades of

957

this so we can all educate ourselves.

958

That was in September.

959

Man, I'm tired just looking at this list.

960

So briefly we got one minute left What

was your favorite story of the year?

961

I don't even know if I can say.

962

I'll tell you what I'm looking forward

to, and I already said it, I'm just

963

really looking forward to resetting

in the new year and leaning into this,

964

solidarity reporting and reporting across

difference and writing about, and I'm

965

also we've been restructuring ourselves.

966

I'm going to spend.

967

I created, it was the dude who started

range with the mind toward seeing if

968

I could even be a journalist again

after about a decade of leaving.

969

And I'm going to recommit to

doing more journalism and not

970

just building a business in 2025.

971

And I'm really excited about that.

972

Yeah.

973

My goal is to just not burn out, keep

doing the city government stuff, balance

974

that with labor reporting and with the,

we were talking a lot about community

975

reporting and how our advantage is though.

976

We are allowed to be

community members Yeah.

977

Who report on our communities.

978

And that brings us stories.

979

Think you're pretty passionate

about that that people don't

980

trust other news outlets with.

981

And I'm excited to lean into that

and to really tell these stories that

982

are very delicate and require that

level of trust and communication.

983

Absolutely.

984

And we are way out of time

we're like exactly out of time.

985

Are we?

986

Maybe the thought 65.

987

All right.

988

So with that, we will be back next week,

but this has been a heck of a year.

989

Thanks for listening.

990

And thanks for reading.

991

If you read, if you're into that sort of

thing this is KYRS Medical Expo can 88.

992

free range is a weekly news and

public affairs program presented by

993

range media and produced by range

media and KYRS community radio.

994

Have a good week guys.

995

Bye bye

996

I'm Erin, that's Luke, see you later.