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KUNR Roundup: Our favorite local stories from 2025

KUNR Public Radio | By KUNR Staff
Published December 31, 2025 at 6:30 PM PST
Four images from select 2025 KUNR stories, including a person on their phone, a person watering plants, a person surrounded by large cut logs, and a person opening a residential home’s front door.
KUNR Public Radio

As 2025 winds down, we’re reflecting on bright spots from the year. Here are the KUNR newsroom’s favorite stories published to KUNR.org over the past year.

Sophmore Alondra Andrade waters her plants for the plant systems class offered at Churchill County High School in Fallon, Nevada, on Feb. 12, 2025.
Lucia Starbuck
/
KUNR Public Radio
Local Stories
Outdoor education blooms due to state funding in Nevada
Lucia Starbuck
Young people around the state are taking their learning outdoors due to grant funding approved by the Nevada legislature two years ago — and it’s been transformative for some high school students.

Continue reading Lucia’s coverage ➡️

A wood crewmember is tilting up his hard hat while standing among logs and thick cuts of timber. A chainsaw is resting on a piece of wood in the right corner of the image. The sky is blue and partly cloudy.
Kaleb Roedel
/
Mountain West News Bureau
Local Stories
How the Washoe Tribe built a business to sustain a firewood bank for their elders
Kaleb Roedel
Nationwide, tens of thousands of Indigenous households use firewood to help heat their homes. That’s why the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California is making sure their elders have the chopped wood they need.

Continue reading Kaleb’s coverage ➡️

The Sun Valley location of Scolari's Food and Drug Company marked its final days in business with deep discounts on August 13, 2025. Once the store closes, residents of this unincorporated community north of Reno will have to travel much further to access fresh, healthy food.
Bert Johnson
/
KUNR News
Nevada State Government
Sun Valley residents lament loss of food access and communal space
Bert Johnson
Local officials say it’s hard to find space to add housing in the Truckee Meadows. Just north of Reno, Sun Valley is one area that still has room for growth. But its residents are losing vital services.

Continue reading Bert’s coverage ➡️

Kai Stevens leaving his parents’ apartment to go to work.
Mariel Day / KUNR Public Radio
Local Stories
Gen Zs can't afford to move out
Mariel Day
Many Gen Zs are either moving back home with their parents or have never moved out because of costly expenses like rent, including right here in Northern Nevada.

Continue reading Mariel’s coverage ➡️

Cameron Cobbin, 20, scrolls through TikTok after a long day of classes.
Mariel Day/KUNR
Local Stories
Gen Z confronts the impact of being ‘chronically online’
James Perez, Mariel Day
The effects of chronic scrolling also impact productivity. Students report feeling fatigued, distracted and disconnected from people around them.

Continue reading James’ coverage ➡️

Hope and Bounce.
Courtesy of Kathi Zollinger.
Local Stories
In Tahoe, a mother bear and her cub test the limits of coexistence
Maria Palma
In South Lake Tahoe’s quiet neighborhoods, the uneasy balance between humans and bears is being tested by one mother bear and her cub, known affectionately as Hope and Bounce.

Continue reading Maria’s coverage ➡️

Three people and in front of two of them is a bike. They are all standing and smiling at the camera.
Kathleen Leslie
/
KUNR
Radical Adventure Riders: Community found through cycling
Kathleen Leslie
Radical Adventure Riders, a national organization founded in 2017, works to get as many people as possible from diverse backgrounds involved in cycling and the outdoors.

Continue reading Kathleen’s coverage ➡️

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