Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
Local reporter’s coverage led to Rick Steves’ purchase of hygiene center
Story published 03/31/2026
A national PBS host stepped in to save a center serving unhoused people in Lynnwood after a WSU Murrow News Fellowship reporter covered its potential closure.
MyLynnwoodNews published a series of stories last year about the Lynnwood Hygiene Center’s planned closure when the building it was using was slated to be sold.
PBS Host Rick Steves, who lives in Edmonds, says he didn’t even know the center existed until he read one of those articles.
In December, he spent $2 million to help buy the building so the hygiene center could continue to operate.
“I’m excited that we can give our homeless community - our neighbors who happen to be homeless – dignity. A haircut, a shower, a place to wash their clothes - some clothes - a hot lunch,” Steves told those in attendance at the Lynnwood City Council meeting last month.
MyLynnwoodNews reporter Angelica Relente’s position was created through the state-funded WSU Murrow News Fellowship. She says no other news outlets wrote any stories about the center’s potential closure until after Steves got involved.
Relente says her story that got Steves’ attention was the product of months of relationship-building with people at the Jean Kim Foundation, which runs the center.
“I think the way... I covered, reported on everything, might have been different. Might have been looking at it more with an outsider lens, but with having that connection with... the people there and knowing how the hygiene center worked, gave me a better perspective and more understanding on, you know, what would happen if it was to go away, and what will happen now that it’s here to stay and it will continue to serve people who need it the most,” Relente said.
Relente says Steves called her after the second story she wrote about the pending closure was published, to ask her some questions about the situation. She says shortly after, she learned an “anonymous donor” was pledging $2 million to buy the property (and later confirmed it was Steves – though that is what she suspected at the time).
Relente says someone who used the services at the hygiene center recently told her they weren’t sure if they would have survived without the help in the past.
“How can you not cut someone like that a little slack? And realize this world is a tough place. So, you know, it’s complicated. I’m frustrated by the political and economic environment in our country because we’re the richest society in the world. We should be able to handle this without me having to buy this piece of property. But I’m not going to complain - I’m going to buy the property ,and hope I get the support of the government ,and I can empower the Jean Kim Foundation to do this work for all of us. It’s not a charity - it’s service - these are our neighbors in our community,” Steves said at the Lynnwood City Council meeting.
Steves was at the meeting to also discuss early plans for upgrades to the center, as donations poured in from across the country after the news of his purchase of the center spread.
Fellowship plans expansion to all 39 WA counties
Story Published 03/30/2026
In recent decades, many local newsrooms in Washington state - and nationwide - have shrunk or disappeared. Now, an effort to bring more journalists to Washington state communities has a new goal of placing reporters in all 39 counties over the next 3 years.
In 2023, the Washington Legislature allocated $2.4 million to create full-time journalism positions in newsrooms across the state. The Washington State University Murrow News Fellowship program placed 16 early-career reporters in newsrooms over the last 2 years.
“Local news is really what determines, you know, education for for kids in our community. Tax levies, all sorts of municipal decisions rest on reliable local information,” said Ben Shors, a Washington State University Journalism Professor that serves as the Project Director of the Murrow News Fellowship.
But, in 2025, the state legislature cut the funding in half. To keep the project going, WSU is seeking private funding, and is also planning a new partnership with the nonprofit Report for America.
“When we partner with Report for America, newsrooms get a reporter. But those local newsrooms also get support from RFA's sustainability team, which helps them build fundraising capacity, helps them diversify revenue and develop local donors in a way that smaller media organizations - maybe your weekly newspaper or your digital startup - hasn't had access to or hasn't been able to afford access to,” Shors said.
Cascade PBS is one of the newsrooms that has taken part in the Murrow fellowship program, which brought reporter Nate Sanford to our team. He and the other reporters on the project have published more than 3,000 stories combined so far.
“We're honest that we're not going to solve every challenge facing local journalism. But I think the question is whether communities are going to be better informed, whether local governments are held accountable and whether individuals are engaged in civic life in their communities because of this, and the evidence that we’ve seen so far says yes.” Shors said.
All this week, we’ll be featuring stories from WSU Murrow Fellowship reporters across the state.
