In this last “Beyond the Headlines” episode for 2025, each member of Spotlight Delaware’s nine-person reporting team reflects on the stories that meant the most to them in the year. From government accountability to long-term investigations, community profiles to breaking news, learn what stuck out to our reporters in 2025. Moms, farmers, politicians, abuse victims and more are all featured in these reflections. 

What Spotlight stories meant the most to you in 2025? Let us know at podcast@spotlightdelaware.org.

The podcast is hosted by Director of Community Engagement David Stradley.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

José Ignacio Castañeda Perez, Reporter

A story I was really proud of this year was Isabela’s story. I think it was one of those stories that really shows what kind of publication Spotlight is and the fact that we could take so much time and effort and care with our sources and with our stories to get it right and to really be able to honor the people who we interview and who we talk to, and who trust us as journalists to take care of their stories and to present them in the most accurate way possible.

It just came about from hearing the first report about the attorney general helping this woman return back to Delaware after she was on the verge of being deported to her domestic abuser in Central America.

It took some months of trust-building to be able to connect with Isabela and have her tell us her story, have the attorney general tell us their side of it, and have all this stuff come together into a story that really shows you multiple different perspectives on what happened and why it happened.

To me, this was a Spotlight Delaware story because I think it really showed the amount of work that we could put into stories and the amount of care that we put in with our sources. I think it’s something that can really only be done with months of time to be able to do this, to dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to meeting people where they’re at, anywhere in the state, getting every single perspective that we can into the story and getting the truth down to the bottom of it about what happened and why that happened.

So I think that was really great. And otherwise, I don’t know if this story would’ve been shared or it would’ve been out there.

Maggie Reynolds, Rural Communities Reporter 

A story that meant a lot to me this year was about Delaware soybean farmers and their experience with the changing market for soybeans in the wake of the Trump administration’s tariffs on China and the loss of the soybean market in China.

The experience of a lot of Delaware soybean farmers was different than a lot of what the national coverage has been about – farmers in the Midwest entirely losing their market for soybeans, whereas Delaware has a unique ecosystem in that the soybeans and corn are pretty much exclusively sold to the poultry industry in Delaware. 

So in some ways the farmers were insulated from that national impact. and that wasn’t really a story that was told as much because it was different. And so I think it just showed some of the unique and varying experiences that farmers in more rural parts of Delaware can have, or just people in more rural parts of Delaware compared to some of the statewide and national conversation.

To me this was a Spotlight Delaware story because it dug deeper into the experience of these farmers with the soybean industry and compiled the perspectives of soybean farmers from different parts of Western Kent County and then different areas in Sussex County, farmers with different sized farms and different methods of harvesting their soybeans, as well as some experts. So, it brought together a lot of different perspectives.

I tried really hard to accurately tell the experiences of these farmers. I think a lot of them expressed concern that they don’t like talking to the media because they feel like it misrepresents their experiences. So [I worked to] accurately paint a wide picture of farmers’ experiences.

Nick Stonesifer, Health Reporter 

One story that stood out to me this year was a story we did on MeadowWood Behavioral Health, looking into years worth of violations tallied against them from state and federal authorities. It stood out because I hadn’t seen anything on this, but we had been seeing nationally that Acadia-owned facilities, which owns MeadowWood, were being investigated by federal authorities.

It felt very important to highlight these issues, seeing as options are kind of scarce here in Delaware for inpatient psychiatric treatment. You can go to the state facility, but that has its own long history that has not been great. There’s only a handful of options in each county, so it’s important to hold those that exist accountable because for many they’re the only option. 

To me this was a Spotlight Delaware story because it holds people accountable. I think that’s what we are charged to do. It’s what we’re good at and it’s why people tune in. It is something that people are hungry for.

After our reporting, months later after I FOIA’d another set of inspection reports, MeadowWood was fined for the first time since its founding. They didn’t directly attribute that to our reporting, but our initial set of FOIAs went back for five plus years worth of violations and the first inspection after our investigation, they were fined. It made me feel like people were taking note and paying attention.

Julia Merola, Education Reporter

A story I was really proud of this year was my profile on the Neyers’ family, which was about a 9-year-old boy living in Delaware who has autism. He and his mother were trying to find different therapies that could be covered by Medicaid. And unfortunately they weren’t able to do that because he didn’t meet the necessary qualifications. This story follows their journey trying to find those resources and being rejected from the program.

The story resonated with me because it tells a story that I think some of us have suspected could be there, meaning not every family is going to be accepted into every program even though they might truly need help with that program. I think that it highlighted the gaps that we might see in programs that are meant to help people.

This is a good example of a Spotlight Delaware story because we are an organization that prides ourselves on telling the stories of community members. And this is a story about a mom and her son and their journey to trying to access therapy for her son. It’s a story that should be told that wasn’t really being told. And I am proud to say that we were the ones to put it out there. 

After the story was published, I had a few people reach out to me telling me that they had seen this type of story in their own conversations. I had a father reach out to me, telling me that his son also has special needs and told me a bit about his journey as well.

I just think that this story resonated with a lot of people

Jacob Owens, Editor in Chief 

I think the story that stands out to me from this past year is clearly the one I spent the most time reporting on, and that is a profile of some victims of Earl Bradley, particularly Bailey Tenerovich, her sister Aja Tenerovich, and their mother Margo Murphy, and really their challenges and conundrums trying to navigate a very confusing system that is meant to help victims in the wake of this now decade-old, really heinous sexual abuse case of children by a pediatrician in the Lewes-area.

It took a long time. We were talking and interviewing and researching for the better part of 18 months. So to finally be able to present the family and victims and advocates with coverage of what they’ve been going through in what I hope was a beautiful and moving way felt really rewarding to me.

That story was a Spotlight Delaware story because it really dug in deep in ways that many newspapers just aren’t able to. It allowed me the time and space to spend months on end talking with the family and identifying more sources and going through court records and FOIA-ing more information.The more time that we have to dig in deep into stories, the more nuance and the more context we can provide readers as to why something matters. 

At the same time, we were able to really give voice to a population that has largely been pushed aside or forgotten in the last decade. These are many wounded people that are still trying to recover and find a path to wellness that was stolen from them by a monster a long time ago. 

I know the prompt was to give you my story of the year, but it’s been a busy year.

I also did some reporting I really found valuable around the Appo School District finance scandal. 

With the reassessment debate this year, I got a chance to really dig in deep on some data research around how much our elected leaders were paying in their tax bills and how much their tax bills changed and dig into what is happening with commercial property.

I’m really excited that in the next few weeks, readers will see additional coverage of the reassessment saga from Spotlight Delaware. So I hope you keep reading.

Brianna Hill, Reporter

A story that meant a lot to me this year that I wrote is the story I did on Nemours no longer accepting new patients into their gender-affirming care clinic. 

This is one of my favorite stories because it was a topic that was affecting a lot of families in Delaware. It was something that had come from the federal level and was directly impacting Delaware families, and it was one of the few stories that we had done on the LGBTQ community. 

Nemours no longer accepting new patients was something that hadn’t hit Delaware newsrooms yet, so it was a solid breaking news story. We were the first newsroom in Delaware to cover the issue. It got a good amount of feedback from Delaware families and people who were experiencing the matter themselves. 

This is a Spotlight Delaware story to me because it covers an underserved community. It’s not often that you see a lot of coverage on trans youth. 

And also in a sense it covers government accountability because it was a political matter that both the federal government and state government were getting involved in. Not too long after we put the story out, the attorney general sent a letter to Nemours, urging them to open back up. 

It hit a good amount of the categories that Spotlight Delaware coverage is supposed to.

Karl Baker, Deputy Editor and Reporter 

I was thinking about the story I wrote in the early morning hours on July 1st, right after the legislative session ended a couple hours earlier.

That story told what happened during the final hours, how they reached this compromise to pass their budget. But also it recapped the debates that were ongoing throughout that legislative session, debates that I think, elements of them, will continue into this next year.

The debates indicate who really has power, who is fighting for power, and what, laws ultimately get passed. 

The Port of Wilmington was less a fight over tangible policy and more a fight over who should be leading the expansion of the port at this new facility in Edgemoor – and these questions, these suspicions, that organized labor and some members of the Senate had over whether the governor was truly committed to that expansion. 

The other big theme of the session was the fights over changing the rules to Delaware’s General Corporation law, which because Delaware is the legal domicile for all these big companies and small companies, it kind of sets the rules for corporate governance around the world. 

It was an interesting fight. I expect another fight next year because these corporation law changes kind of have become an annual debate.

Lastly there was this debate over whether or not the state can say to local municipalities, “These are the rules you must make for land use. This is what you must allow on this property or not allow on this property.”

That historically had been and still is a local government decision, but because at the time there were debates over marijuana shops, debates over an electrical substation for an offshore wind plant and others, the state came in and told local leaders, “Look, we are the higher power. You do what we say.”

Again, looking forward, I suspect that may reemerge this next year possibly with modular nuclear reactors, if there’s rules around that emerging industry or what a lot of people expect to be an emerging industry here in Delaware. That was another fight over power. 

Those were the three: Port of Wilmington, local control and the corporation law change. 

I think the way that policy is made and the way that power is exerted, I think every member of a society needs to understand that so that they can make decisions about not just about voting, but about their civic engagement generally.

Olivia Marble, Land Use Reporter 

My favorite story that I’ve written this year was called DelDOT investigating land deal struck with a chief planner’s business partner. A bit of a convoluted headline, but essentially what happened was that there was a businessman who bought a property for about $200,000 and then sold it to DelDOT eight years later for $1.6 million. It turns out that businessman is also business partners with a chief DelDOT planner. 

This was my favorite story because it took a lot of work, a lot of investigating, a lot of digging through documents, following one trail, that being a dead end, following another. I was just very glad that that is something that I have the time and resources to do as part of Spotlight Delaware.

There are other newsrooms out there where your editors might say, “Hey, don’t follow up with that story because that might not turn into anything, and we just don’t have the time and resources to dig into something that might turn into nothing.” 

But no, my editor said, “Great, you got this tip. Look into it. We’ll help you. And if it turns out to be nothing, we won’t publish.” 

I think that is a really essential part of local journalism that’s been lost in a lot of other places. It’s just following up on those tips that you get anonymously, and just seeing if anything’s there. And in this case, something was there and it turned into an internal investigation in DelDOT. While there hasn’t been any results from that, as of now, DelDOT is now paying attention and making sure that there weren’t any shady dealings in the background there. 

Just seeing that there was an internal investigation prompted by my question made me feel like I was doing something important and that I was right to be a little taken aback by seeing the terms of this deal, that maybe there was something there. Maybe there’s not. Maybe it’s all okay, but it made me feel better knowing that the government agencies that also govern my life are being held accountable, are asked to double check their decisions, asked to look more into the actions of their employees.

I don’t want my tax dollars to go towards a land deal that was maybe influenced by internal connections and it feels really good to know that I potentially contributed to preventing that from happening further.

Tim Carlin, Deputy Editor for Southern Delaware 

A story that meant a lot to me this year was my coverage of the controversy surrounding the chair of the Sussex County Democratic Party and his past sex crimes against children. Ultimately our reporting kind of resulted in the chair, Jeff Balk, stepping down from his position.

The story meant a lot to me because it was one of the first times that I’ve seen such a tangible impact from my reporting in quite close succession to the story coming out. It was a matter of days before Balk ultimately stepped down from the position.

But also I think that it was an exercise in handling a very difficult topic with grace, while also holding someone in power essentially to account. 

It’s never easy reporting on sex abuse, let alone sex abuse against young teenagers. It is difficult to call someone up and say, “Hey, talk to me about the worst thing that you’ve ever done in your life.” 

I think we gave Jeff Balk the opportunity to defend himself, if you will, to speak his truth at length. And I stand by that decision to do that. 

But I also think that we didn’t pull any punches. We told the story. We detailed what happened, the crimes that he was convicted of, and the aftermath with his current situation kind of having that come to light in this moment where he had, I guess, long tried to maybe move on from it.

I think to me this story kind of had all of the makings of a classic Spotlight story. It was a bit investigative. We were holding someone in power to account.

Also on a more maybe political junkie level, it was interesting to me. Sussex County is probably one of the more Republican strongholds in Delaware. I’ve seen that Spotlight can maybe have a bit of a reputation of leaning a little to the left. I think that we were able to show that we are going to play fair in our stories as we move into Sussex County and we’re going to hold everyone accountable, equally. And I’m just proud that we were able to do that.