Every year it surprises me how much time and effort I put in on researching, choosing and writing about the Top Ten Stories of the Year.

One would think it would be fairly easy. But one would be wrong. First, I have to spend hours going through and listing all the major stories from each week. Next I group the items of the same topic together.

Next, it is choosing which ones make the Top Ten List and then the final part is putting them in some sort of order, No. 1 down to No. 10.

And every year, in this space, I tell all of you that the choice is very arbitrary, and you probably have a whole different order for them to go in.

To be perfectly honest, I switch them around several times before I come to a final decision.

Last year, for some reason or other, I felt we really didn’t have any standout Top Ten stories.

I mean, ‘what to do about chickens and bees in the county’ was our No. 10 pick, for crying out loud.

This year was a totally different story. I felt I had at least a dozen to 15 stories that qualified and maybe deserved to make the list.

I cheated a little and combined two subjects into one, to pare down the list. An example of that is No. 6, about the Fossil Discovery Center leaving the library, and the Senior Citizen Center not moving. They could have been two separate stories, but they work as a combined one. Or so I think.

Same goes for the new Wells city administrator and USC superintendent. An argument could certainly be made to have them as two separate picks, but I think they can work as one.

Then there are the stories that did not make the list this year, and maybe they should have. Again, a very good argument can be made that they should be on the list, and I would not argue against it.

So, here are some of the ‘also rans,’ stories that were maybe big enough, or important enough, to make the list, but didn’t for one reason or another.

The first one is the story about a Blue Earth man being arrested and charged as part of the assault on the Nation’s Capitol Building in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Paul Orta Jr., of Blue Earth, was picked up by local Blue Earth Police in November, but there was a federal warrant for his arrest and he went into federal custody.

To be honest, this story was on the Top Ten List for a while, but other stories were thought to be more important to the local area and county citizens.

The second one that didn’t quite make it is the weather. The weather almost always makes the list, each and every year, except for last year and now this year.

In fact, in 2018, the weather was our No. 1 story of the year.

This year there was extreme cold last winter and lots of snow, and the summer had extreme heat (like during the County Fair) and serious drought conditions.

It certainly could have been on the list, no denying it. But extreme weather conditions are almost becoming the norm.

Disasters of another type also did not make the list. Last year’s 2022 Top Ten List had as No. 5 the fact that Faribault County saw an increase in tragic traffic accidents and house fires.

That remained true for 2023, with the Register reporting on accidents or fires (some even deliberately set) almost every single week.

Last year, our No. 1 story of 2022 had to do with a business boom in the county, with several new businesses opening up in several towns in the county.

While that trend has slowed a bit, it still seems to be going on. The story did not only not get No. 1 status this year, it did not even crack the Top Ten.

Neither did our No. 1 story in 2021 and 2020, and for that we should all be grateful.

Because, if you remember, our top story in both 2020 and 2021 was the same – the COVID-19 Pandemic having a big impact on our county, the state and the nation.

There is another story that has been on the Top Ten List many, many times in the past, including making it up as high as No. 2 in 2018.

But this year it did not even crack the honorable mention list. In fact, it never even was a consideration.

Can you guess what story topic that is? You are correct. The Saga of the Three Sisters buildings in Blue Earth was not even given a thought this year.

However, there is always next year.

We hope everyone has a great year in 2024. Maybe there will be only good news here in Faribault County, and maybe in the state of Minnesota, the whole United States and even around the entire world.

We need a little break from all the bad news, that is for sure.