What's the top story of 2008?

Posted Tuesday, December 30, 2008, at 12:15 PM

As our countdown continues, we'll be debuting the top two stories of the year in Wednesday and Friday's editions of the paper. (Hint: One was a major national story, the other was a major story in the state and both had a significant impact locally.)

Here's a partial list of our top five. How are we doing so far?

No. 5 -- Spencer is named an "Iowa Great Place" by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. The state designation lays the groundwork for a series of major infrastructure projects in the city.

No. 4 -- Barack Obama gets an Iowa Caucus win, a congressman's comments draw national headlines and local boards see new faces as part of an epic year in politics.

No. 3 - Local author and longtime librarian Vicki Myron's memoir "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat who Touched the World," debuts and reaches No. 1 on the New York Times Bestsellers list. A movie based on the book, starring Meryl Streep, is in the works.

Let me know what you think, readers!

To all the people I've had a chance to talk with in 2008, thank you for a terrific year.

Comments
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Locally, the top story was definitely being designated an "Iowa Great Place". Hands down it is not even in the running with a cat. (I think it is time we put that cat to rest....enough about the cat already.) On a National level it is without a doubt....WITHOUT A DOUBT....the election of Barack Obama. It is historic --not the caucus or changes of local boards or even bigoted remarks made by our congressman. THE ELECTION is number 1. Even a Republican paper has to recognize its significance...doesn't have to like it, but should recognize it.

-- Posted by neetneet on Thu, Jan 8, 2009, at 10:50 AM

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Russ Mitchell

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I'm a general assignment reporter and online contributor for The Daily Reporter in Spencer. I grew up, went to school and entered the work force right here in Spencer. And no matter where I was in life, I liked to read my local newspaper. My break in journalism came in the fall of 1997. The Daily Reporter's Sports Editor Steve Clark left early on in the football season for another opportunity. General assignment reporters tried to corral the sports results while they searched for Mr. Clark's replacement. In the meantime, I saw an ad for a "sports stringer" without fully knowing what a "stringer" was. I put together a "Pigskin Preview" (the Friday morning high school football preview column) for a writing sample. They let me pick up some of the slack part-time with cross country stories and football coverage for the smaller schools. I began helping more and more. Long story short, they found Mr. Clark's successor, but that guy didn't make it past Thanksgiving. By then, I had enough practice and demonstrated enough ability to become the sports editor. I then slipped into a general assignment position when it opened up in 1998. I've been on the news side, covering six counties for three different publications, for more than 10 years now. It all came from an interest in writing, some good timing and, hopefully, a bit of ability. I'll let you be the judge of that. The Mitchell Report will include views on current events, sports and pop culture.

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