Readers pick top stories of 2021

Top 10 stories as chosen by the people who matter … you!

Observing the tradition of hometown newspapers across the country and across the decades, the Reporter looks back at the top stories from 2021 as we close out the year. This time, we let our readers decide which stories mattered the most. The following list was compiled by from our website, ReadTheReporter.com.

In the spirit of Hoosier native David Letterman, we are counting down our Top 10 list from No. 10 to No. 1.

– 10 –

The 10^th most-read item in our pages this year comes from Sheridan High School’s 10^th grade English class, taught by Abby Williams. Every week during the school year we publish a column written by one of her students, and Keaton Lambert’s column, “There is no such thing as an assault rifle,” gained enough readership to make the list.

Lambert’s column begins, “There is no such thing as an assault rifle. Even though it is a commonly used term, it is incorrect both literally and grammatically.”

You can read the entire piece online at this link.

– 9 –

Coming in at No. 9 is another opinion piece, this time in the form a letter to the editor from Mike Pflum in Waverly, Ind. His letter explores his disappointment in our current U.S. president in no uncertain terms and is available at this link.

You can submit your own letter to the editor by filling out the “Contact The Reporter” form at ReadTheReporter.com or by emailing us directly at News@ReadTheReporter.com. Be sure to include your city of residence and your phone number. We will never publish your contact information, but it is our policy to confirm the authorship of anything submitted electronically.

– 8 –

At No. 8, we have an article about three accidental Hamilton County deaths in one weekend. While we do not follow the national news media principle of “if it bleeds, it leads,” we do take seriously our responsibility to bring you accurate news, even when it’s bad. You can read this unfortunate article at this link.

– 7 –

To balance out the bad news, at No. 7 we have some good news with “balance” right in the headline. “Aspiring Fishers MasterChef balances it all” was our first feature about Kelsey Murphy’s appearance on 11th season of MasterChef Legends on FOX. Her appearance on the show was a source of great pride for Hamilton County, and Murphy went on to make national news by winning the top spot at the end of the season.

You can read our first article on Kelsey at this link and you can read her thoughts after winning the grand prize at this one.

– 6 –

At No. 6, we have the announcement about the courthouse square being removed from the new Noblesville city logo. This little article gained a great deal of traction, especially on social media. To read all about it and to see the new logo side-by-side with the old one, click this link.

– 5 –

A surprise late entry in December made this list at No. 5. A very short piece about a semi-trailer that coasted into the water and floated to shore just off 121^st Street in Fishers was well-read enough to land it firmly in the middle of our Top 10 list. You can read all about it at this link.

– 4 –

At No. 4, we have a story from our news-gathering partners at WISH-TV News 8. A look at late-September vaccination rates showed that six Indiana ZIP codes had over 90 percent COVID-19 vaccination rates, and two of those were right here in Hamilton County. The full story is available at this link.

– 3 –

At No. 3, we have a less fortunate COVID article. In early April, Hamilton County’s COVID-19 positive cases rate moved us from the blue level back to yellow under the state’s Weekly Two-Metric Score system. You can revisit that article at this link.

– 2 –

We have combined a few articles in the No. 2 spot, because if we didn’t put these all together, you’d be reading about police asking for the public’s help in searching for criminals all over this list.

When we get a press release from any of our local law enforcement agencies calling for the public to help them locate suspects, we sometimes have a little too much fun with the headlines. They tend to contain a lot of alliteration by ambitious newsmen placed in powerful positions.

Click on the following headlines to re-read a few reader favorites:

• Daffy dude filmed fleeing with bundle of Best Buy booty
• Help Carmel cops bust burglars from hotel heist
• Couple saves big money by stealing at Menards

– 1 –

And our No. 1 most popular story of 2021 is … Paul Shaffer, can you give us a drum roll please? … “Former V.P. Mike Pence moves to Carmel” by Fred Swift.

Fred has his picks for the top news stories of the year elsewhere in today’s edition, and he may be surprised to read that his piece on Pence was the most read article of the year on our website. We didn’t tell him, so he’s finding out the same way you are. You can read all about Pence’s move at this link.

Happy New Year, Hamilton County. We will see you again in print on Monday!