Based on reader feedback, web analytics, CN&R’s storytelling history and the broader community conversation, here are the top ten stories for 2025 that we think are worth a second look if you missed them the first time.
10. ‘With sunny memories of Brian Wilson’s Chico performance, locals say goodbye to a genius of California harmony’ by Ken Magri (Arts & Culture)
Part of being a community newspaper is finding those moments that tie a city’s experience to the high-watermarks of American culture: In this piece by Ken Magri, locals recall what the Beach Boys — a band that embodied and even invented the California ethos — meant to diehard music-lovers in a creative hub like Chico. Magri’s piece is a well-written obituary for the late singer-songwriter Brian Wilson, but also a journalistic time capsule of the night that same groundbreaker took the stage at Laxson Auditorium during a comeback tour. It’s a story that fuses Chico memories with the sonic shapes of the California dream.
9. ‘As Shane Grammer’s art reaches new heights, Chico and Paradise are never far from his mind’ by Samin Vafaee (Arts & Culture)
Unflinching coverage of the Camp Fire — the deadliest wildfire in California history — is bound to be one of the enduring legacies of Chico News & Review. Reporters for CN&R were doing in-depth, often heart-rending stories on the disaster from the moment it happened. Now, seven years later, we still found ourselves publishing two different pieces directly related to that moment that forever scarred Butte County. One of those 2025 stories was about The Lost Bus, a film from Apple TV+ that’s based on one harrowing tale within the tragedy. The other story connected to the Camp Fire we published this year was this profile on artist Shane Grammer. He’s a muralist and scenic design fabricator who grew up in Chico, and whose creative touch has been garnering national attention. In this piece by Samin Vafaee, Grammer opens up about why he hasn’t forgotten where he comes from — and how the Camp Fire amounted to an artistic call of duty for him.
8. ‘The horizon for Bidwell Mansion: Park officials say the recovery will take years’ by Ken Magri (News)
Every news agency in the North State reported on the stupefying fire that scorched Bidwell Mansion, as well as the hunt for the skulking arsonist who robbed the community of its standing history. CN&R was no exception, publishing several major pieces about those topics in the immediate aftermath of the fire. But after the statewide media groups got their headlines and went home, it was time for a journalist dedicated to Chico to do some heavy lifting around what the future holds. CN&R’s top writer for government policy and community response, Ken Magri, took on that assignment. As he shows in this piece, the blackened husk and remnants of the city’s pioneering legacy have left state and local officials with tough decisions about where everyone goes from here.
7. ‘Butte County’s Work Training Center is helping members of the community with disabilities live independent lives’ by Helen Harlan (News)
Every person in Butte County deserves to live an independent, purpose-driven life, as well as be an active member in the community. This uplifting story by Helen Harlan introduces readers to locals who are trying to do just that. And they just happen to be some of our friends and neighbors who don’t often get to step into the media spotlight. Harlan’s piece is also an informative report on the local agency that helps these residents become happy, contributing members of the area’s workforce. Community newspapers exist for stories like this.
6. ‘Chico is ordered to continue helping the unhoused’ by Ken Magri (News)
Chico’s sociological and political struggles with homelessness have been an ongoing saga for years. One defining moment in that tale has been the Warren v. Chico lawsuit brought by the Legal Services of Northern California, which alleged that the city was violating the federal and state constitutional rights of the eight homeless individuals via arrests and property seizures. The due process issues raised in this case compelled Chico into a civil settlement, one with major implications for how the city handles its homeless outreach and services. However, newer leadership elements in City Hall have sought to get out of the agreement. At the end of March, CN&R broke the story that a federal judge was promptly slapping down any attempt by the city to escape its binding obligations. Ken Magri’s story also lays out the court’s reasoning.
5. ‘Butte County’s A.I. professors react to alarming safety report on tech and dizzying changes it’s brought to campuses’ by Odin Rasco (News)
In late summer, the A.I. startup company Anthropic released a safety report that sent shockwaves through mainstream media and the business sector. In controlled testing, the company found that some large language models, or LLMs, which leading tech founders have assured the public are bots that can’t think for themselves, were in fact capable of engaging an array of “malicious insider behaviors” designed to prevent themselves from being shut off or re-programmed. Rather than framing that safety report through apocalyptic sci fi references or juiced editorial hyperbole, CN&R had journalist Odin Rasco check in with computer science professors at Chico State University and Butte Community College who work with cutting-edge A.I. every day. Rasco talked to these local experts about Anthropic’s findings in the safety report, as well as about the basic challenges A.I. is raising on local campuses. His resulting story contextualizes an international issue in a way that is relevant to our own backyard.
4. ‘Return to Cohasset: One man’s effort to recover six months after the Park Fire’ by Ken Magri (News)
Reporting on what it takes to escape death in a disaster is one kind of story. Reporting on what it takes to begin a life all over again after going through that is another. This piece by Ken Magri is a vivid rendering of everything the town of Cohasset endured during the Park Fire, as well as one local man’s struggles to decide his post-fire future. The hope in publishing these kinds of stories is that they encapsulate a greater experience felt by people across Butte County who faced the flames. Magri’s piece is written with color, precision and — most importantly — the human touch.
3. ‘Ishi’s story still haunts Butte County and beyond’ by Scott Thomas Anderson (History)
It is surprising how many Californians don’t know that one of the most pivotal if tragic moments in cultural anthropology had its roots in the city of Oroville. Ishi, the last member of Native American Yahi tribe, had spent a lifetime hiding from the world as California’s post-Civil War frontier era slowly moved into a new and modern century. Then, one year before the sinking of the Titanic, starvation and loneliness compelled Ishi to finally come out of hiding. The sudden appearance in 1911 of a West Coast indigenous man who’d spent his entire existence living by the traditional ways caused a scientific and media sensation. But, as CN&R tries to convey in this piece, it also marked an investigation into one Native survivor’s childhood memories — an investigation that revealed one of the most chilling and bloodiest moments in Butte County’s history.
2. What happened to Paulo? Butte County farmworker with deep ties to the community swept off by ICE’ by Ken Magri (News)
Paulo Frutos-Perez, an experienced Chico farmworker with children who served in the U.S. military and family members who work in local government, was supposedly not the kind of person the community had to worry about getting disappeared into a far-off ICE detention center. Or, so the Trump campaign had claimed during the election. But that is exactly what happened to Paulo. And the operation to grab him was done quickly enough and quietly enough that, were it not for the investigative efforts of reporter Ken Magri, few in the region would have ever known it occurred at all. Magri spent weeks looking for answers about Paulo’s situation, as well as reporting on what such ICE tactics currently mean for the North State area.
1.‘Special investigation: Did officials begin to remove an area fire guardian for no reason? And is the Colby Mountain lookout really finished or not?’ by Ken Magri (News)
This is a classic piece of whistleblower reportage. After enduring disasters like the Camp Fire and Park Fire, local concern about wildfire safety could hardly be higher. The stakes around maintaining various smoke-spotting lookouts can literally equal the difference between life and death. So, when the U.S. Forestry Service announced plans to scrap the Colby Mountain Fire Lookout Tower some 35 miles northeast of Chico, people demanded to know why. The official reason given was that the tower was in a state of disrepair. However, working with a local whistleblower, reporter Ken Magri was able to obtain official government documents that completely contradict that narrative. Now, federal officials have some explaining to do …
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