One of the traditional newsroom activities in December is to look back at the top stories of the past year, and this time around, we’re asking you to help choose them. We’ve come up with 40 or so of the big stories in Ohio and Greater Cleveland in 2022. That’s a lot. It was a newsy year. We’re not going into great detail on each, relying on you to remember them if you choose to vote. And if you don’t recall a few, they probably don’t belong in the top 10. This is a survey involving local and state stories, not national stories. Plenty of news outlets examine the top national and international stories, but few examine those closer to home. In the poll online, we’re asking you to click on the 10 you think are the biggest or most important. We’ll wait through Thursday the 15th to give people a chance to fill it out, and the 10 that get the most clicks win. We’ll publish a story at year’s end revealing the list. Before I get to the list, allow me a brief plug. This is a long list, and we covered each story on it exhaustively. In some cases, we uncovered the stories, meaning that absent our work, no one would be aware of the stories to this day. Ours is the only newsroom in Ohio that covered all of these stories. No one else has the resources, the talent or the dedication to do it. What you know of these stories you likely learned from us. If you value that – if you value having an independent watchdog news organization striving to thoroughly report the news that matters to you – please consider subscribing if you don’t already do so. You can sign up at cleveland.com/subscribe. The story list is below, and to pick your top ten, please visit https://tinyurl.com/OH2022topnews The Ohio Heartbeat bill takes effect, nearly prohibiting abortion in Ohio, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, but then the law is suspended pending a court challenge. Ohio’s top elected officials fail to follow the requirements of the Ohio Constitution in drawing legislative and Congressional maps, allowing gerrymandering to continue in Ohio and creating a showdown with the Ohio Supreme Court, when Republicans refuse to follow the court’s orders. Republicans sweep all Ohio statewide elections in November, including senator, governor and Ohio Supreme Court. Two men get caught cheating big-time in a Cleveland fishing contest on Lake Erie Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pinkey Carr gets thrown off the bench because of her outlandish behavior in the courtroom. Akron Police shoot and kill Jayland Walker Multiple East Cleveland police officers, including the police chief, are indicted on a variety of charges for abusing the public, including stealing from motorists. Sherwin Williams starts construction on its downtown headquarters, a skyscraper on Public Square. Ford commits $1.5 billion for upgrading a Lorain County plant, to produce electric vehicles Intel makes a billion dollar plus-commitment to building a microchip plant near Columbus Cleveland State University ousts short-term president Harlan Sands, replacing him with Laura Bloomberg. The Christmas Story House, a prime Cleveland tourist attraction, gets put up for sale Inflation hits the region and state, along with the rest of the nation, causing big increases in the prices of gas, food and many other items. Cuyahoga County elected officials nearly steamroll to the purchase of a toxic site for a new jail but abandon the plan at the last minute in the face of widespread opposition. Cuyahoga County’s Department of Children and Family Services has a crisis in which children are sleeping in a county building, with some being abused, sex trafficked and raped. Cuyahoga County Council, despite needing around $1 billion for a new jail and courthouse complex, spends $40 million on the failed Global Center of Health Innovation, formerly called the Med Mart – and then announces it has no money for courthouse renovations. Warrensville Heights Mayor Brad Sellers announces his run for Cuyahoga County executive but drops out almost immediately, after cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer report he gave himself tax breaks in violation of state ethics rules. Off-duty Cleveland police officer Shane Bartek is killed in a carjacking on the eve of the new year. Firefighter Johnny Tetrick is killed while on a rescue run at a car accident on Interstate 90 in November. Subpoenas reveal the FBI is investigating two former Northeast Ohio elected officials, former Cleveland City Councilman Basheer Jones and former South Euclid Municipal Judge Gayle Byers-Williams Cleveland’s just-confirmed U.S. Attorney, Marissa Darden, resigns without ever having started in the job, Months later, news reports show she had visited an undercover FBI agent in Miami who later was sent to prison for corruption. The first opioid trial in the United States involving pharmacy companies – with Lake and Ashtabula Counties as the plaintiffs – results in a $650 million judgment. Much-heralded MetroHealth CEO Akram Boutros is fired amid allegations that he secretly awarded himself nearly $2 million in extra bonuses. The Browns sign quarterback Deshaun Watson despite dozens of allegations of sexual abuse, and Watson later gets suspended for the first 11 games of the season, after settling with dozens of his accusers who filed civil suits against him. The Cleveland Guardians, in their first year with their new name, have a surprise winning season and make a run into the playoffs. The Cleveland Cavaliers, fresh off their own surprising season, sign superstar Donovan Mitchell and get off to a terrific start in the 2022-2023 season. Cuyahoga County Council members violate the spirit of the county charter and set aside $66 million in one-time stimulus dollars for slush funds for pet projects such as a golf clubhouse, igniting criticism from the framers of the county charter. Much-respected Cleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon announces he will leave his position in the spring of 2023. Starbucks workers in multiple Northeast Ohio locations vote to unionize. Justin Bibb takes office as Cleveland’s first new mayor in 16 years and has a year of some ups and some downs. The NBA All-Star game brings a raft of entertainment world celebrities to Cleveland. Thanks for reading. | 