The Year in Review

This was a presidential election year, which means that politics dominated the news for much of 2012. There were tight, often contentious contests beginning with the primaries in June and concluding with the general election in November.

Rep. Wally Herger’s decision to retire after 13 terms sparked a crazy brawl among Republicans eager to replace him—remember Doug LaMalfa’s weird phony website, or how Dan Logue ended up running for two offices at the same time? Chico, however, remained an oasis of liberalism, maintaining its progressive majority on the City Council.

Some of the stories that were big in 2011—medical marijuana, the city’s budgetary high-wire act, violent crime and the effort to preserve Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park—continued into 2012, though with distinct permutations. And there were some new stories, including how a statewide ballot measure—Proposition 37—that attracted national and even international attention got its start right here in Chico.

As we did last year, we didn’t put the recession on this list, but only because it figured as the backdrop to so many of the stories. The good news is that it seems to be lifting, which gives us hope that next year at this time we will be able to include “Economy gets back on its feet” on our top-10 list.

Now on to that list…