See the winners for the top 10 stories contest.
For longtime Deseret Morning News reader Ritva Goodloe of Murray, there was no question that the top story of 2003 should be that Elizabeth Smart had been found.
"Not at all," Goodloe said Saturday, after learning she'd won the newspaper's top 10 news stories contest for 2003 by coming closest to the choices of the editors of the Deseret Morning News.
Goodloe, who works for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a clerk in the Family History Department, was one of 338 readers who entered the contest. More than two-thirds of them put the return of the kidnapped teenager at the top of their list. Almost all of the 180 students at South Davis Junior High who submitted bids picked that as their top story as well.
So did the editors of the Deseret Morning News. Goodloe matched eight of their Top Ten picks, leaving out only the flu outbreak and the kidnapping and presumed drowning of toddler Acacia Bishop.
Goodloe edged out the more than a dozen other readers who also had eight of the editors' Top 10 stories on their lists by matching the editors' choices exactly on three of the top four stories.
"We all have our opinions," she said when told her No. 3, Olene Walker's becoming the state's first female governor, only ranked No. 5 with the editors. She was also surprised they didn't rank the loss by the Utah Jazz of John Stockton and Karl Malone.
"I'm a Utah Jazz fan. Maybe that's why I made a mistake there," the native of Finland said. She attributed her success to a lifelong habit of reading newspapers. "Even as a little girl, I read the newspaper. . . . I like to be aware of things."
Here's the Top 10 for 2003 according to the Deseret Morning News readers who entered the contest:
1. Elizabeth Smart found.
2. Former Gov. Mike Leavitt named Environmental Protection Agency chief.
3. Olene Walker becomes state's first female governor.
4. Salt Lake Olympic bid leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson acquitted.
5. Utah Jazz lose Stockton to retirement, Malone to the L.A. Lakers.
6. Parker Jensen's family successfully fights state effort to force him to undergo chemotherapy.
7. Drought continues for fifth year.
8. Utah reserve military troops called to duty in Iraq.
9. Trapped hiker Aron Ralston frees himself by cutting off his arm after he is pinned by a boulder for five days near Canyonlands National Park.
10. Flu outbreak.
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com