It’s the year-end edition of Your Weekend Reader, a traditional time for writers to take stock of their predictions during the year nearly over. So, remember how I predicted that Democrats would fold in the government shutdown? And when I said that the transportation package in the Oregon Legislature was in trouble? And when I predicted that “six-seven” was a sure bet to hang around? Two out of three ain’t bad.

But enough of this silly nostalgia. Here’s what’s happening now:

Maxine Bernstein at The Oregonian/OregonLive reports on a state Department of Corrections foul-up in which it released three prisoners after determining they had served their sentences, then reassessed that decision and had the three rearrested. The state Supreme Court, in an unusual flurry of Christmas Eve motions and orders, ordered the three freed. Bernstein offers all the details of a remarkable story that — how to put this delicately? — doesn’t cast the state Department of Corrections in the most flattering light.

The Corvallis Daytime Drop-In Center was featured this week as part of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s holiday “Season of Sharing” fundraiser for social service nonprofits. Tatum Todd traveled to Corvallis and filed this report on the work of the center. The story offers easy ways to donate to the center — or you can just drop by its location on Fourth Street to write a check — that is, of course, if you still write checks. (I find I write only about two a month these days.)

Speaking of homelessness, I’ve just picked up a copy of a new book, Brian Goldstone’s “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America,” his nonfiction account of five families in Atlanta — all of them with at least one member working a full-time job — who struggle to find a place to live. Here’s one startling fact Goldstone reports: “Today there isn’t a single state, metropolitan area or county in the United States where a full-time worker earning the local minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment.” Later in the introduction, Goldstone points to new research that suggests the actual number of people experiencing homelessness in the United States is at least six times larger than the official point-in-time count. All of this comes in the book’s introduction.

For years, the jazz musician Chuck Redd has organized a Christmas Eve concert at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — whoops, sorry, now The Donald J. Trump and the John Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Earlier this week, Redd decided to cancel the concert in protest of the decision to add Trump’s name to the center. Now, Redd faces the prospect of a $1 million lawsuit from the Trump crony who now runs the center.

There’s an Oregon angle to this story, as my colleague Annie Aguiar reported for Lookout Eugene-Springfield: Redd is the musical director of the Oregon Festival of American Music at the John G. Shedd Institute in Eugene, where he’ll host a series of winter concerts next month. (As always, full disclosure: I work as a contributing editor at Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

Traditionally at this time of year, New York Times columnist and occasional Oregon resident Nicholas Kristof writes a column in which he argues that the year ending was the best year ever for humanity. But as he confesses in this new column, he cannot make that case for 2025. He does, however, make a valiant effort to find uplifting nuggets in the sludge that was 2025.

And speaking of difficult years, here’s a New York Times piece taking a look at the first year of the second Trump administration. Don’t want to read it? Let me summarize it for you: You know all those crazy things he was talking about on the campaign trail? He went ahead and did a lot of them. Too bad about the economy, though.

The Weekend Reader has spent lots of time lamenting the decline of the community newspaper. Now, The Associated Press checks in on all the stuff you’re going to miss about the printed product that doesn’t necessarily include, you know, news — like using the newsprint to clean windows or as kindling for the fireplace or to wrap presents. (I’ve done that, but just with the comics pages.) And while I’m thinking about this, I also lament how the decline of the printed product has made it more difficult to access comic strips like “Pearls Before Swine.” Here’s a link to today’s “Pearls.” You’re welcome.

Are you worried about the amount of screen time your children are logging? It’s a legitimate worry, but that’s just the starting point: As Charlie Warzel argues in this Atlantic podcast, your parents or older friends may very well have a screen time problem as well. And maybe … I don’t know … you too?

The Atlantic’s ace science desk has prepared a list of 55 mind-blowing facts from 2025’s science news. Memorize just five of these and you’ll be the best conversationalist at your New Year’s Eve party. (For God’s sake, don’t write them down on index cards and pull them out at the party — oh, never mind; I’ll try some of these facts out tonight at the dinner table and if they flop, I’ll let you know.)

What I’m reading: In addition to the Goldstone book, I’m reading “The Director,” Daniel Kehlmann’s novel about Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst, who was trapped in Europe during Nazi rule. I just finished Louis Erdrich’s 2008 novel “The Plague of Doves,” part of my effort to read all of her fiction. As it turns out, “The Plague of Doves” — which is excellent — is the first book in her “Justice” trilogy, and I previously had read the other two books, “The Round House” and the wondrous “LaRose.” If you’re just starting to read Erdrich, though, I’d start with either her first novel, “Love Medicine,” or her 2020 stand-alone Pulitzer Prize-winner “The Night Watchman.” And am I alone in thinking that, despite her successes, Erdrich remains underrated?

What I will watch this weekend, I promise: “One Battle After Another” — apparently, the lead-pipe lock to win big at the Oscars — now that’s it streaming. And yes, I know — I should have seen it in the theater. One of my resolutions is to get out into theaters more often and watch movies with actual crowds.

Finally this week: To those Weekend Reader readers who requested a Christmas card: Your cards are right here on my desk and will be in the mail this weekend. To the rest of you: My Christmas card offer still stands. And Happy New Year! We’ll start tracking 2026 next weekend.

Oh … and the new additions to the Holiday Music Hall of Fame have been announced. Click here for the details.