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Lots of picks for top local stories of 2016

Lordy, lordy it’s been an interesting if not downright troubling year. Granted, there have been some moments Minot and North Dakota can be proud of too. In fact, in retrospect, more good than bad happened in Minot and the region in 2016.

Here at the Minot Daily News, we are preparing to identify and update the top stories of the year. It’s an annual internal, highly judgmental ritual engaged in by newspapers around the world. Truthfully, it’s not always a pleasant experience – kind of like looking at yourself in the mirror the day you finally vow to go on a weightloss diet.

We are journalists, however we are people first and thus cheer and groan over the daily news just like our readers do.

One of the picks being tossed around is the Dakota Access pipeline dispute. What a black eye for North Dakota. And this slugfest has no end in sight.

Sadly, the American public has no clue how contentious and dangerous this situation is. Some seem to view it as another Woodstock. Hardly.

Again, sadly, the national media seems a willing buyer for the bunk being sold by the protester thugs.

More locally, there was the change in structure for Minot’s city government. Another black eye? Depends on how you voted. But this tussle, too, is not over. The devil is always in the details and the details are still being thrashed out. It will take time, perhaps years, before this one becomes a shining moment in Minot’s history or a shiner all our own.

Downtown development was also a Pyrrhic victory of sorts. The outcome is looking better and better all of the time, but a toll was taken on both the credibility of city fathers and on merchants’ bottom lines as the parking ramp fiasco and street repairs dragged on. Bring on 2017 already.

Other candidates for top stories of the year honors include permanent flood protection moving forward, sheriffs under scrutiny, the deflated oil bubble and a host of new faces in city government. That is just to name a few.

When it’s all said and done, we don’t expect the public to agree with all of our picks, but we certainly hope readers look forward to looking back as much as we do each year.

The stories we select will be updated with the latest developments and published in the Jan. 1 edition.

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