Here's my choice for the Top Hoosier stories of 2005.
1. Hoosiers Being Hoosiers -- Helping, Donating, Defending. As they always do, the common, ordinary Hoosier stepped up when it counted. More National Guardsmen from Indiana served in Iraq than from any other state. As the year ended, some of those troops were making their way home from a year away from friends and family in the service of our nation. No matter what you think of the wisdom of the war in Iraq, our Hoosier military men and women deserve our deep appreciation and respect. When Katrina and Rita hit, Hoosiers were among the most general of all people around the country in coming to the aid of victims. In addition to donations, Hoosier National Guard, firemen, rescue teams, and just ordinary citizens, pitched in to help in unprecedented numbers.
2. Time Passages -- Gov. Mitch and much of the business community got their way, as the Legislature adopted Daylight Savings Time for Indiana. But the new time became a mess when federal regulators recommended that Elkhart County go on Eastern Daylight Savings Time and Neighboring St. Joseph County (South Bend) go on Central Daylight Savings Time. -- For arguing about the most efficient time zone, the Legislature and the Governor sure wasted a lot of time.
3. Colts New Stadium and Convention Center Expansion -- Jim Irsay, the Colts and the City got a fancy new retractable roof stadium which will cost upwards of $750 million. They (read that "we") are paying for it by raising taxes in Indianapolis and the surrounding 7 "doughnut" counties. Meanwhile, the City started cutting police, park and other services because of a budget crunch. What's that old saying about "the rich get richer . . ."
4. Grand Prix "Tires" of Indianapolis Speedway -- The most unbelievable sports story of the year was the United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Speedway. To the shock of Speedway officials and the total outrage of the fans, all F-1 cars using Michelin tires took the warmup lap, then pulled into the pits and refused to race. What was left was a parade of 2 Ferraris leading 4 cars that simply are not competitive in Grand Prix racing. The Speedway handled the matter as well as possible, but Michelin may have placed the final nail in the coffin of Grand Prix racing in the world's largest market. The Speedway's contract with the Grand Prix runs out in 2006. The final race is likely to be run before hundreds of thousands of spectators camaflouged as empty seats.
5. BIG Night at City-County Council -- In probably the most eventful and controversial night in the history of the Indianapolis/Marion County City-County Council, the City legislative body in one December night, passed two of the most controversial measures to ever come before them. By razor-thin margins, the City-County Council approved merger of the Indianapolis Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff's Department, then followed up by passing an ordinance forbidding discrimination in housing or employment based on sexual preference or sexual identity. Both had previously been defeated, but were brought back when a couple of key votes changed.
6. Tornadoes Cut Deadly Swath Across Southern Indiana -- An unusual outbreak of November tornados in the Evansville and Booneville areas was the deadliest in many years for Hoosiers. The rare late-fall twisters cut a half-mile wide path of death and destruction. Nothing funny about this one.
7. Danica Mania -- The Indianapolis 500 and the Indianapolis Racing League (IRL) received a BIG shot in the arm from a diminutive young lady from Illinois who set the racing world on its ear. Danica Patrick brought back some of the excitement which many felt had been missing from the 500 since the split with CART. Danica showed she was more than just a novelty, qualifying on the outside of the first row, leading the race, and bringing her Rahal-Letterman car home fourth. The roar of the crowd when Danica took the lead was the loudest I've ever heard in over 35 years of going to the track.
8. Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign -- Speaking of Indianapolis native David Letterman, the Hoosier talk show star was involved in the most bizaar legal proceeding of the year -- even more bizaar than former Hoosier Michael Jackson's pajama-trapsing, car-top dancing trial . Letterman was accused by a New Mexico woman of stalking her by using sign language and "code words" during his show's monologue. Among the "code words" was saying "Oprah" during Oprah Winfrey's appearance on Letterman's show. According to the New Mexico woman (who had previously unsuccessfully sued several other celebreties for stalking here), "Oprah" was a code word for "marry me." This would hardly have deserved any attention -- EXCEPT A LAME-BRAINED NEW MEXICO JUDGE GRANTED AN INJUNCTION AGAINST LETTERMAN. Seems that the nuts in New Mexico are not confined to standing in front of the judge's bench. Some sanity was restored a week later when the injunction was rescinded.
9. I-69, Do You? -- The much debated highway project to link Indianapolis to Evansville by an interstate highway took major steps forward this year. Governor Daniels wants to build it as a toll road, with a private company running it. Hey Guv, take a drive around Chicago's toll roads on a Friday afternoon, then come back and tell us what a good idea toll roads are!
10. Indiana University Returns to Basketball Glory -- I.U. fired Mike Davis and signed Thad Motta as coach. I.U. then recruited four Hoosier high school players rated among the 10 best players in the entire nation, and restored Indiana as one of the nation's top college basketball programs. Uh . . . ooops. Wait a minute. Guess that didn't happen. I.U. kept Davis for one more year. Thad Motta was hired as coach at Ohio State, where he promptly recruited Lawrence North High School All-Americans Greg Oden (2 time nationally player of the year) and Mike Conley. Josh McRoberts, from Carmel, went to Duke where he is starting as a freshman, and next year's top recruit, North Central's Eric Gordon, has already committed to Illinois.
Wonder what 2006 will bring?