And finally: A tribute to Sam Broadway and KEPW Newsday

Presenter To wrap up each edition of KEPW Newsday, Sam Broadway adds a final feature story that begins with the words: “And finally.”

Sam Broadway It’s kind of developed as I went along and I decided, you know, the first half hour or so would be for local news, regional news, what was happening around Oregon, Washington, parts of Northern California, if need be. 

But it was mainly local and regional stories, and I just get the feeds from the different news services, and I just pick and choose those out, and it will turn out that I’ll have more than enough news stories. Usually the feel-good story comes along with the rest of the feed. 

And, you know, it just depends. Sometimes it’s just, you know, the bizarre. Sometimes it’s a feel-good story. It just depends. If it can make you astonished or it can make you feel good, that’s something I’ll end with.

Presenter We take a look back at some of the stories featured to close out the program during 2025. Sam Broadway:

Sam Broadway And finally, a city says a man who gives away homemade goods is breaking the law.

And a 40-year-old man is rescued after getting stuck in a Connecticut playground slide 

And Chuck E. Cheese, the mascot, he gets arrested and escorted out of the building in front of the kids.

And Mark Zuckerberg—no, not that one, another Mark Zuckerberg is suing Facebook for account shutdowns.

And New Mexico will offer free universal childcare. 

And a nine-year-old Pennsylvania prodigy student studies neuroscience at college and looks forward to medical school. A nine-year-old! 

And these acts are what make our world great: loving kindness. We’ll explain all that in the broadcast coming up. 

And ‘We Are All Immigrants.’ A high school student aims to unite everyone with a children’s book. 

And we have a first person report from a doctor who says his patient is fighting for his life, and there’s a Border Patrol agent camped outside his hospital room. 

And trash collectors help a Manhattan Beach man find a wedding ring he mistakenly threw out. 

And a man is stunned after a former landlord sends him a check as a share in a profit made from selling his home. 

And no driver, no clue: A Waymo driverless car is stopped by police during a DUI operation. 

And a 12-year-old girl sells lemonade to afford stem cell treatments that could help her walk. 

And a 16-year-old Oregon Westview High School student’s climate change innovations win a national prize. 

And need a laptop? There’s a retiree that refurbishes them and gives them the way to those in need. 

And Charmin announces a new toilet paper roll designed to last up to a month.

And a thirsty kitten floods the cat cafe, forcing a temporary closure. 

We will have all of that, bringing you the news locally and around the globe. KEPW Newsday starts… right now! 

And finally, a food canning hobby has gotten more than one New Hampshire man into a pickle. Daniel Mowery has been giving away his homemade goods for decades, but city officials now say he’s breaking the law. 

Mowery’s goods include jellies, tomatoes and bread and butter pickles. He cans it all and pays for supplies himself. Then he gives it away for free. 

‘We were brought up poor, so our families always canned. Everything came from the garden. That’s the way it was,’ said Mowery. 

The Manchester Health Department sent Mowery a cease-and-desist letter last week. It said he needs a permit to keep canning and distributing food, and then his kitchen needs to be commercially licensed. 

Mowery said for him, canning is a tradition he has no plans to put a lid on. The Manchester mayor’s office declined to comment. 

And all of this from Jon Schoenheider of WMUR there in Manchester, New Hampshire. 

And finally, a Connecticut man is breathing a sigh of relief thanks to a team of firefighters and other emergency personnel who rescued him after he became stuck inside a tube slide at a children’s playground on a hot August day. 

Rescuers found the 41-year-old man stuck in the middle portion at the Northeast Elementary School playground in Vernon, Connecticut. Emergency services personnel created ventilation to help cool the space where the man was stuck while they worked to free him using extrication tools. 

The Vernon Fire Department provided more than a dozen photos from its rescue effort, and one shows firefighters on the ground holding a portion of the tube slide that had been removed. Another rescuer helps the man climb out of the slide to safety. 

And finally, police in Florida have released bodycam video from an arrest in July in which a man in a Chuck E. Cheese mascot uniform was taken into custody.

The incident happened at the Chuck E. Cheese on Sharer Road in Tallahassee, Florida, according to court records, when Jermel Jones, age 41, was arrested on credit card theft and fraud charges. 

Newly-released body cam video shows officers with the Tallahassee police entering the Chuck E. Cheese where Jones worked. 

‘We’re going to detain the mouse dude,’ said one officer as they entered the building. ‘Yes, we are,’ said another. 

They approached the mascot, placed him in handcuffs, and escorted him out of the building in front of families and children. 

And finally, a U.S. lawyer with the same name as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is suing the social media platform, arguing it keeps suspending his account while falsely accusing him of impersonating a celebrity. 

Mark Zuckerberg says his account has been disabled five times over the past eight years, and it’s costing thousands in lost business. The Indiana bankruptcy attorneys lawsuit states he’s been practicing law for 38 years, ever since Mark Zuckerberg, now one of the richest men in the world, was a toddler. 

The account was shut down in May and only restored after his lawsuit was filed. In a statement, the company said we appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s continued patience on the issue and are working to try and prevent this from happening in the future. 

And finally, New Mexico has made major investments in early childhood and education programs, and now it’s going to offer free universal child care to all families, regardless of incomes, and they’re the first state to do so. 

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham made the announcement. The state will officially remove income eligibility requirements from its child care assistance program. The announcement is years in the making. Lawmakers established that childhood trust fund in 2020. 

In a 2022 constitutional amendment, voters approved 1.25% of the fund annually to early childhood education. That made New Mexico the first state to guarantee the right to early childhood education.

State Sen. Michael Padilla said these investments will reduce child abuse, domestic violence, and childhood poverty. The program includes incentives for programs to boost pay, and also commits to being open at least ten hours a day. And all of this from Taylor Velazquez, KUNM there in 89.9 FM from the University of New Mexico. 

And finally, at just nine years old, Aiden Wilkins is already a high school sophomore and taking neuroscience classes at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, a step toward his long-term goal of becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon. 

Despite his academic achievements, his mom says he’s very much a typical nine-year-old who enjoys video games and playing soccer. But raising a gifted child, she says, is a unique experience. 

Aiden also has advice for others who may not be considered gifted. You can do anything, you just have to put the work into it. And all of this from Walter Perez of Channel 7 Eyewitness News there in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. 

And finally, we have some information about Paul Newman that many of you may not know. On Christmas Eve in 1983, Newman walked into a Manhattan shelter wearing a plain everyday sweater and carrying two wooden crates.

Outside, there was snow; inside, panic filled the room. Volunteers were running out of food, pots were empty, and a long line at the door made failure feel inevitable. Newman said the crates down without a word. Inside were vegetables, jars, flour from his Connecticut farm. Where’s the kitchen? He said, rolling up his sleeves. 

He headed straight for the stove, lit the burners and began chopping onions like he’d been there all along. 

Within an hour, the shelter was transformed. Garlic and olive oil scented the air. Bread rose in the oven. A pot of tomato soup bubbled steadily. One man, Louis, broke into tears when Newman served him roasted vegetables. I used to have dinners like this with my family, he said.

The shelter grew warm and alive, with the voices and laughter and a world away from the outside. By midnight, more than 200 people had eaten, many of them twice. 

When it was finally over, Newman didn’t leave. He stayed to sweep the floor, stacked chairs and washed dishes. Only when the last chore was done did he pull on his coat before stepping back into the snow. 

He said this: ‘The food matters, but being here with them matters more.’ And all of this from another Facebook post of Curiously Unusual Wonders. 

And finally, last month Scarsdale, New York high school senior Max Reddy Spencer wrote and self-published a children’s book entitled We Are All Immigrants. We’re All Immigrants follows the story of a young boy with very similar background as Spencer’s. 

In the book, he discovers most people in his life who live in the United States are in fact, immigrants, whether it’s his Venezuelan American neighbor, Taiwanese American teacher, or Italian American lunch cook. 

He begins to understand the fabric of his community is woven from different, diverse backgrounds, and it doubles as a coloring book with illustrations generated by artificial intelligence. 

For Spencer, immigration is deeply personal. His maternal grandparents migrated from India. Spencer, the son of an Indian American mother and a white American father, said he was motivated to share the message that we’re more alike than different. And all of this from Caroline Guthrie of ABC News nationally. 

And finally, this is a first person account from a doctor in Buffalo, New York. He says a young man is in my hospital with acute chest syndrome right now. It happens to people with sickle cell anemia. 

For my young patient who is currently in the hospital fighting for his life, there are other trials ahead of him. There is a man in a uniform and big boots seated outside the door. He worked for the Border Patrol. He is waiting to take this kid into custody and have him deported as soon as he’s well enough to stand. 

Many years ago, I promised my neighbor and Holocaust survivor that if the world changed again, if it turned again, I would not be silent and pretend not to see the people against who it had turned. I promised I’d find a bullhorn, a pulpit, a newspaper, a street corner, or a courtroom, and I would fight. I would try, even if that meant I get dragged away too. 

I have not forgotten my promise. What I can do, I do:  ask these questions, and I do tell the stories of real people facing deportation. But that’s not enough to stop the gradual desensitization of our countries to political sadism. And all of this from Elizabeth Harding of the Huffington Post nationally. And I kind of compressed that, article, but there is more to this on their website. 

And and finally, a Manhattan Beach man nearly lost his wedding ring for good after mistakenly throwing it out with an old carry-on bag. 

Paul Bukauskas was readying a to go on a trip when he began loading up an old bag, but he decided at the last minute it was probably time to upgrade to something newer. He emptied the old bag and put it in the trash and went on with his day. 

Hours later, the realization struck. He cleaned out everything from the old bag before taking out the trash. Everything but his wedding ring. 

He raced to the waste management facility in Palmdale, hoping to track down the truck carrying his trash, and communications manager Vanessa Castriota said it was all hands on deck, everybody sounding the alarm, looking for this high value item. 

The truck was eventually tracked down in Carson, where it was headed to the landfill. I saw my bag fall out and it was these guys that rushed to help me. I reached into it, found the ring. There it was. Bukauskas was preparing to celebrate his 10th wedding anniversary this December and called it a miracle. 

And this all from Travis Schlepp of KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles. 

And finally, when Chris Robarge of Worcester, Massachusetts, recently checked his mail, he was surprised to find the $2,500 check. In the letter, an unnamed landlord said he recently sold his home and decided to share the profits with his former tenants, who helped pay his mortgage. The landlord said he was glad to share his home with Chris. 

Chris said he was caught off guard entirely by the former landlord’s gesture, but nonetheless is grateful he was inspired to pay it forward when he decided to give away $2,000 to people in need, saying he wants this good deed to reach as far as possible. And all of this from Positive Outlooks, a national media publication.

And finally, authorities in Northern California dealt with an unusual situation over the weekend. San Bruno police were conducting a DUI enforcement operation when they spotted a Waymo robotaxi making an illegal U-turn in front of them at a light. 

San Bruno police said a ticket couldn’t be used as their citation books don’t have a box for robot, the department said. This is the first time pulling over a vehicle without a human driver, but there is legislation in the works that will allow officers to issue those notices to robotaxi companies for similar traffic violations in the future. 

And all of this from Jordan Gartner of Gray News nationally.

And finally, a 12-year-old Missouri girl with cerebral palsy hopes stem cell transfusions will help her walk. But the treatment isn’t cheap, so she’s selling lemonade to ease the cost on her family. 

Ella, age 12, has used a wheelchair since kindergarten. Her mother, Ashley, says her daughter has been born extremely early. The stem cell transfusions Ella needs are not cheap. The Barbour House in Wentzville, Missouri, heard about the story and their staff has helped host her lemonade stand. 

A GoFundMe has raised more than $40,000, and Ella will get her first stem cell transfusion next Tuesday at Duke University in North Carolina. And all of this from the folks at KSDK there in Wentzville, Missouri, as well as CNN Newsource nationally. 

And finally, at just 16 years old, Oregon’s Westview High School student Anisha Dhoot is making waves nationally for her innovative work combating climate change, and was chosen as one of just 15 Barron Prize winners from hundreds of nominees for the 2025 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. 

Her project addresses two pressing global issues—soil degradation and climate change. Anisha developed Kelp Nutra Boost, a low-cost fertilizer made from Oregon Coast seaweed. She also built Earth AI, a machine learning tool that predicts the best crops to grow based on local soil and climate conditions. 

Beyond technology, Anisha has dedicated is dedicated to raising climate education in schools and addressing food insecurity. Along with the honor, she received $10,000 to continue her work. And all of this from Anthony Kustura of Channel 6 in Portland. 

And finally, Craig Clark is a good neighbor to have. After he retired from managing a chain of convenience stores, he became a computer technician. That’s when he got the idea to provide laptops for those who couldn’t afford them. 

People would give me their old computers and they bought a new one, and I would fix them up and find someone to give them to. He started this eight years ago and has helped hundreds of people with photos to prove it. The 79-year-old is a one-man operation. 

He changes out parts that don’t work and adds a new hard drive to each computer at no cost to recipients. Clark says while the costs continue to grow, the value to recipients can be life changing. He intends to keep granting wishes one refurbished laptop at a time. And this from Gabriel Sanchez and Jeanette Woods on All Things Considered. 

And finally, Charmin is introducing what it calls the Forever Roll. It’s a 17,000 sheet roll of toilet paper meant to last up to a month, based on a two-person household. The roll is about 32 times larger than a standard one. 

The Forever Roll is available online and in stores like Walmart, Target, and Amazon. The company is even offering a 30-day money back guarantee. Charmin insists it’s still the same soft two ply tissue tissue people love. 

And this all very briefly from the staff of CNN Newsource nationally. 

And finally, a five-month-old feline caused a flood at a cat cafe in Virginia, forcing it to temporarily close. While most cats appear to hate water, Roller is quite the water bug. Since his arrival at the cafe, staff has noticed he has a habit of hanging out in the sink and apparently knows how to turn it on. 

About a week and a half ago, when the cafe was closed overnight, Roller got in the bathroom. The staff thinks he used a towel left in the bathroom to block the drain. While he turned on the faucet, water from the faucet flooded the second level and eventually rained down onto the cafe below. 

Roller was found by a volunteer splashing around in the flood he suspected of causing.

The flooding ruined a portion of Richmond’s only cat cafe, where customers can pay to hang out with their adoptable cats. It’s not only a business, but a home for felines until they’re adopted. The cats stay at the cafe when it’s closed, and that’s how Roller had his watery adventure. 

We definitely will turn the water off and put a valve in so it will be off from now on. And we have video cameras to check in. And all of this from Madison McNamee and Dorothy Sedovic, WWBT. They’re in Richmond, Virginia, as well as Gray News nationally. 

And that’ll wrap it up for this edition of KEPW Newsday. This is Sam Broadway, thanking you for being here once again at this time on this station, as you always do. And we’re very, very grateful that you’re always here. Thank you so much.

Presenter And that’s our tribute to KEPW’s Sam Broadway with a look back at some of the feature stories selected to close each edition of KEPW Newsday in 2025.