12/28/09

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ More than 33,000 jobs were lost, millions of
dollars cut from the state budget, and foreclosures peppered
neighborhoods across the state as many Idaho residents spent 2009
hoping and praying for better times ahead.

The economic crisis touched nearly every aspect of life in
Idaho, reaching into public school classrooms, local housing
markets, the halls of the Statehouse and the courts to become the
biggest news story of 2009.

Other top stories of the year chosen by The Associated Press
include an Idaho soldier missing in Afghanistan, the first public
wolf hunt in decades and the acquittal of a Jerome man charged with
involuntary manslaughter after his daughter tried to walk nearly 10
miles in the snow last Christmas Day and died.


(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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