A year of impact: Our investigations made a difference in 2025

Hi, there! Jamie Self, managing editor, here. 

Before we get going on 2026, I want to say thank you for the impact you’ve had on our community through our investigative reporting. You believe that fiercely independent, rigorous reporting can help inform and empower communities, and you’re willing to support it. So thank you!

Here’s just a slice of what we accomplished together in 2025:

We wrote exclusively about how the city of San Diego had spent $1.4 million paying a staffer who was never officially in the city’s budget. We explained why so many sexually violent predators have landed here in San Diego County. We took you inside the region’s power dynamics, showing how a low-income apartment complex fuels the political agenda of a prominent coalition of labor unions. We revealed how the city for years hasn’t enforced its own rules banning some new housing from being used as vacation rentals. 

Immigration is a priority coverage area for us as we document the federal government’s massive expansion of enforcement and funding. Through data deep-dives, we showed how ICE is arresting mostly people without criminal backgrounds. We also were first to report nationally, through an exclusive data investigation, how Border Patrol is ramping up ticketing to bring “maximum consequences” to immigrants. 

As we planned our approach to covering the Tijuana River sewage crisis, we wanted to center the voices of residents living in the South Bay, enduring the pollution. We wanted to spend time with them, to get to know about their lives and how the issue has impacted their health and day-to-day lives.

So we talked to more than 100 people living and working near the pollution. We captured their stories in audio and text and took their portraits. Stay tuned for that project, which we will publish soon. 

In 2025, we also celebrated some big honors. We were named Pulitzer finalists for our illustrated reporting on fentanyl, won a national First Amendment Coalition award for reporting that led to increased protections for low-income tenants, and our immigration reporter, Sofía Mejías-Pascoe, was named the journalist of the year for the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

We did all these things because we invested in the work – together. Let’s keep it up.

– Jamie