Pick the Story of the Year on KVAL.com

By Mark Furman KVAL.com Web Producer Published: Dec 30, 2008 at 11:06 AM PDT Last Updated: Dec 30, 2008 at 1:24 PM PDT

EUGENE, Ore. -- Hillary and Barack barnstormed Oregon in May, then the Beaver State helped put the first black man in the White House.

Snow hit late in 2008, snarling traffic and closing schools in Eugene and Springfield -- a minor inconvenience compared to the weeks-long siege the snow made on Portland and Seattle.

The University of Oregon looked ahead to big changes in the post-Frohnmayer years even before a succession plan for the football team and athletic department were unveiled.

And armed robbers joined metal thieves in the headlines as what appears to be a crime wave took hold of a region already facing early releases from jail and a series of justified officer-involved shootings.

That's the year in review on KVAL.com. Which story line tops your list? Vote in our online poll.

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	Primary Election Oregon's May primary counted this year as Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton vied for their party's nomination. Both candidates visited Oregon and Lane County, as did former President Bill Clinton and the Clinton's daughter, Chelsea.
	General Election The election resuls were huge: Sen. Barack Obama became the first black man elected President of the United States; Jeff Merkley unseated Republican Sen. Gordon Smith; Rob Handy unseated incumbent Bobby Green from the Lane County Commission; and Kitty Piercy held on to her post as mayor of Eugene after a long battle with former mayor Jim Torrey.
	Late 08 Snow Students in Eugene and Springfield missed three days of school the week before the holiday break, but the southern Willamette Valley missed the worst of a storm that froze Portland in ice and snow for two weeks.
	UO President Dave Frohnmayer announced he would step down at the end of the 2008-09 school year. In his final year, Frohnmayer helped engineer a succession plan in the athletics department that will see head coach Mike Belloti become the athletic director and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly move to head coach.
	UO Athletics When he gets tired of coaching football, Mike Belloti will be the new athletic director -- and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly will become head coach. The men's cross-country team wins their second straight NCAA national title on the heels of Olympian Galen Rupp's first place. The Ducks debuted a new Lights Out look. And the University worked towards building a new basketball arena, to be named for Phil Knight's son Matthew.
	Eugene 08 Track and Field Trials Track Town USA hosts the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials at Historic Hayward Field -- and cheers as three local runners sweep the men's 800 meters. Next up: Eugene 2012, when the trials return to Hayward and the Emerald City.
	Diane Downs Convicted child killer Diane Downs got her first shot at parole. Downs denied any role in the attack on her children 25 years ago -- and the parole board denied her parole for another two years.
	Eugene and Springfield civic projects The City of Springfield built a new justice center and broke ground on a new jail while the City of Eugene reached new agreements to fill two vacant pits downtown -- one with Portland developers, the other with a Eugene firm.
	Armed robberies Eugene saw a nearly three-fold increase in aggressive robberies of banks and businesses in the last part of 2008 over the same time period in 2007. Armed robberies and bank robberies took on strange twists, like the Bicycle Bandit, charged with 5 robberies over 6 weeks after his capture; repeated armed robberies at a porn store; and robberies at restaurants.
	Metal theft Overhead phone lines. Wiring of machine shop equipment. Underground power to city lights. Power substations. Metal theft reached epidemic proportions in Lane County, confounding victims and police alike.
	Officer-involved shootings Between Sept. 1, when a new law took effect on investigation of use of deadly force by a police officer, and Dec. 8, law enforcement officers in Lane County used deadly force six times. Investigators found officers were justified in each case.
	Unsolved fires A string of fires along 50 miles of Interstate 5 snarled traffic from Eugene to Salem in August. A month later, fires swept through fields in west Eugene, filling the sky with smoke and prompting evacuations. Just two days after that, a fast-moving firestorm bore down on Crescent Lake Junction east of Oakridge. The Kitson Fire exploded to the south of Oakridge. All were human caused. All remain unsolved.
	No room at the jail Budget cuts reduced the number of available beds at the Lane County Jail, forcing deputies to release people who had yet to post bail or face trial. Money in the federal bailout bill may help; Lane County's judges say help can't come soon enough.