Stories resonate with us for a variety of reasons — some you may not expect. Here are the ones that stand out for us this year. Read the reasons and send us your thoughts on your top or bottom picks, too.
From Mary Landers, environment reporter
One day in December a source tipped me off about a right whale disentanglement underway off the coast of Cumberland Island. Having reported on these highly endangered, school-bus sized animals for nearly two decades, I knew we had a dramatic story. I called the DNR and they put me in touch with the lead of the disentanglement team, Jessica Thompson. She reached me late that week after she had been on the water for two days straight, and she patiently walked me through the exhausting, exhilarating and sometimes terrifying process of trying to cut hundreds of feet of heavy rope off an uncooperative animal far bigger than their vessel.
The story felt like a culmination of years of local environmental reporting here in Coastal Georgia. I could picture much of what Thompson described because photographer Justin Taylor and I earlier in 2025 had accompanied Thompson and her crew on that same vessel on a daylong mission to collect a tissue sample from a right whale. Before that, I had accompanied a different crew on a disentanglement drill.
I could also relate to the work of the crew circling above and tracking the whale’s movements. Years ago, I accompanied a right whale aerial survey team on a flight that was routine to them but extraordinary for me, as we spotted not only a right whale, but also her newborn calf. All that reporting came back to me as Thompson recounted how her crew fought to free Division, a juvenile male North Atlantic right whale.
From Jabari Gibbs, Glynn County reporter
I was at City Hall, preparing to interview Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson for the mayoral candidate profiles. I ran into an individual at the Sheriff’s office, and I was informed that Sherriff Neal Jump had promoted his son to the undersheriff, so I would have to reach out to the sheriff’s son to set up my long-awaited jail tour. However, due to other commitments, I temporarily shelved this story. As the Thanksgiving break approached, I decided to revisit it.
This story held significance for me because I believe that the public deserves to know how the top law enforcement official in the county was handling personnel matters. Also, I had received several tips about the sheriff’s office’s operations since assuming my position. So it was a good way to tie up loose ends.
I believe this story resonated with readers because it provided a unique perspective on the Sheriff’s office, which is often overlooked. Some community members dismiss the more controversial aspects of the office, while others simply accept the controversies as an unspoken reality. All in all, though, it reinforced my belief that readers crave stories that delve deeper than surface level dailies.
From Maggie Lee, data reporter
In my years at the state Capitol as a legislative reporter, I learned that the Georgia Legislature sets policies and spending that determine who gets help with health care, which industries get tax breaks, and how much the state will pay for private prisons among many other questions.
Despite the weight of those questions, actual activity during every winter’s session has sideshow aspects. In 2025, I tracked and counted Georgia’s official commendation of actual clowns and other honors. I demonstrated that key votes are packed into just a few deadline days. I published an automatically updating list of all bills from their Coastal Georgia lawmakers for our readers to use as reference. The list is still working and will bring readers their legislators’ bills when the Legislature restarts in January.
My Legislature 101 series is my favorite work of my own this year.
But for a mix of story, imagery and impact, I can’t pass up coverage of the lights over a new Bucc-ee’s in Brunswick bright enough to disorient hatchling sea turtles and draw them toward the gas station rather than the sea. Reporter Lily Belle Poling interviewed wildlife experts while Photographer Justin Taylor travelled to Sapelo Island at night with scientists to document the visible lights miles away and a nesting turtle. National media picked up the story, but so did the Georgia Department of Transportation, which requested that Glynn County shut off the lights.
From Robin Kemp, Liberty County reporter
My favorite story of 2025 is the heirs’ property story I worked on for several months. Lloyd Byrd, a retired veteran who grew up in the city, inherited a small overgrown farm in Riceboro. A routine agricultural permit launched Byrd’s quest to delineate the metes and bounds of his family’s legacy.
Research included hours of reading archival copies of The Colored Tribune, the precursor to The Savannah Tribune; searching real estate, probate, and marriage records, both online and in bound books at the Liberty County Superior Clerk of Court’s office; combing through family histories on Ancestry.com for names and supporting documentation like U.S. Census records; driving the dirt roads of Liberty County to scope out geographical landmarks; walking local cemeteries; and studying data from legal advocates and NASA researchers trying to assess the extent of heirs’ property in Coastal Georgia. Most of all, the story involved multiple interviews over lunch with Byrd, who gave of his time, offered insights and clarifications, and shared his own documents, books, and personal history.
Byrd’s story was part of a solutions journalism project that took several months to put together. Other heirs’ property stories have used a policy lens to examine the stories of those affected by a Jim Crow legacy of racially-motivated swindles or redlining. What makes this story different is that it foregrounds the people who owned the land along the way, preserving important local history, offering insights into how Liberty County’s Black community developed after slavery, and sharing with today’s heirs resources for protecting what’s rightfully theirs.
From Jasmine Wright, fall reporting fellow
My first investigative story I wrote for The Current was about the Hyundai ICE raid that left ripple effects across Ellabell and Pooler. When I received the assignment, I was overwhelmed and thought it was an impossible feat, since I had just moved to Georgia and knew other news organizations had better sourcing than I did. I spent hours and countless miles driving around Chatham and Bryan counties, walking into Korean businesses to ask for interviews and recounts of how the raid affected them. A dozen businesses eventually spoke with me about their hardships after the raid. I ended up with an angle no one else had reported on yet and a story that I’m proud of.
From Craig Nelson, politics reporter
Looking back on 2025, individual stories by The Current’s reporters stand out.
Text and photos came together beautifully in a story by Lily Belle Poling and photographer Justin Taylor about turtle-confusing lights at Buc-ees near Brunswick. The same was true in a story by environment reporter Mary Landers and Justin about a student outing to an oyster farm near Wilmington Island.
There was nothing edifying in Tyler Davis’ story about the struggle of Tyberius Eaddy’s family in Blackshear to get him some semblance of due process. But the story is no less moving for being so horrifying and infuriating.
Equally deserving of recognition are bodies of work, which are the product of weeks and months — even years — of effort.
Margaret Coker’s work on “Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage,” published jointly with ProPublica, changed the national conversation about the federal government’s push to attach work requirements to Medicaid. Lily’s in-depth look at the largely backroom efforts to build an airport in Bryan County changed the conversation in that community, leading to a suspension of those efforts.
Glynn County reporter, Jabari Gibbs, showed remarkable stamina in regularly ferreting out information about mismanagement and poor governance that officials in that county preferred to hide, especially in the district attorney’s office. So did data reporter Maggie Lee. Week after week, Maggie pried loose documents that shed light on the often opaque activities of the state government in Atlanta and in counties in Coastal Georgia.
From Chris Sweat, marketing manager
One piece of reporting that really stayed with me this year was Justin Taylor’s photo essay on oyster farming off Tybee. The images do what great visual journalism is meant to do. They stop you, slow you down, and make the story come to life.
One piece of reporting that really stayed with me this year was Justin Taylor’s photo-essay on oyster farming off Tybee. The images do what great visual journalism is meant to do. They stop you, slow you down, and make the story come to life.
This story matters because it shows how Georgia’s coast is changing in real time, and how local people are working to rebuild something that once defined our waters.
The piece shows why oyster farming is not just about food. It touches environmental restoration, economic opportunity, and — for those of us who grew up here — cultural memory. By making this work visible, the story helps readers understand why these efforts matter.
That kind of thoughtful, visual, place-based reporting is what sets The Current GA apart and why our journalism is working to create real impact in the communities we serve.
From Susan Catron, managing editor
This request is like choosing your favorite child or the cutest puppy. However, there was one story that stays with me for various reasons. As Craig mentioned, Tyler Davis’ story about the family seeking to get a fair hearing is maddening on so many levels with what seems to be no recourse for Tyberius Eaddy or his family members who see him locked up in a mental ward with little chance of due process to stand trial – not because he’s had some challenges but because the system allows officials who can sort things out to come and go without accountability.
It’s that type of story without a smooth ending that frustrates and pushes me — much like others we’ve reported on fires without water, debilitating title loans and unequal access to health care with no foreseeable governmental guard rail — to keep working hard at bringing these stories to light so citizens will know and be armed with facts as they make choices on who will lead them.
What did you tell us?
Based on our data, The Current‘s top stories for readership this year are:
- Cumberland Inlet site in St. Marys to be sold at courthouse as Jacoby’s plan falters
- ICE raid leaves ripple effects across Coastal Georgia communities
- Brunswick human exposure study leaves more questions than answers for participants
- In two-day effort at sea, team partially frees whale of fishing gear off Georgia coast
- International Paper ignored local incentives to stay in Georgia
- Glynn County pays $5 million for marina repairs amid criticism it operates as a ‘good ole boys’ club
Tell us your favorite
Send it to staff@thecurrentga.org and let us know what you liked best, or what you didn’t. We’re always listening. Thank you!