Our Top 10 Local News Stories for 2008

The issue: Rating the top news stories of 2008.
Our view: Here’s our list, please give us yours.

Ratings have the tendency to be subjective.
It’s never easy to pinpoint something as being better, stronger, more popular or more deserving.
And when it comes to deciding the Top 10 Local News Events for 2008, there are many stories that must be left off the list.
We’ve asked readers to give us their suggestions. To vote, log on to www.hannibal.net and look for the section labeled “poll.”
There. you’ll find all of the suggestions. Choose up to 10 items and e-mail us your choices in order from 1 to 10 using the letter codes at the beginning of each item.
For example, if you believe area flooding is the top story, you’d select “A” as your first choice.
E-mail your choices to poll@courierpost.com. We’ll publish the results soon.
Meanwhile, we offer the following as our choices for the Top 10:
1. Sluggish economy: Nothing else had, or continues to have, a greater impact on the Tri-State area. We can only hope conditions improve in 2009.
2. Flooding: After the record 500-year flood of 1993, we didn’t think another deluge would happen this soon. Once again, the people of the area stepped up and fought back nature’s wrath.
3. Fuel prices: Though gasoline and heating fuel costs finally started coming down late in the year, the damage had already been done.
4. Transportation: From the Avenue of the Saints and U.S. 36 to airport upgrades and river development plans, the area’s potential for development grew.
5. Huffing, or the use of inhalants to get high, was brought into the limelight. Tragically, it took the death of 12-year-old Sierrah Yarbrough of Hannibal to do so.
6. The August visit to Hannibal by the World War II ship LST-325 provided a shot in the arm for tourism and brought thousands of people to town who wouldn’t have made the journey otherwise.
7. New London community betterment: Who says small towns are dead? Not Darlene Lieurance and Mary Jo Leonard, who rallied New London residents to improve their town.
8. Highway 79: More than 900 motorists were forced to detour when part of the road collapsed near Ashburn. Expedited repairs got it re-opened in just two months, but flooding later kept parts of it closed.
9. Hannibal-LaGrange College: The four-year school affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention celebrated its 150th anniversary.
10. Hannibal Regional Hospital: The facility continues to prove it is on the cutting edge of medical advancement, with a state-of-the-art emergency room that opened in 2008 and a cardiovascular institute set to open in February.