The top 10 stories of the year (sort of)

This photo by Kit Doyle shows the aftermath of the ice storm in Cairo, Ill.

The list, which was printed and posted online Sunday, was determined by a great scientific process -- the members of the Southeast Missourian newsroom ranked their top 10 stories, and the scores were tallied to determine each story's final placement on the list. On each person's email ballot, the No. 1 story was assigned a value of "10", while the No. 10 story was assigned a value of "1".

For those who are interested, here are my rankings, in order of biggest story to 10th-biggest story:

1. Ice storm blankets region

2. Joshua Kezer freed from prison

3. Bad economy hits home

4. Murders of Jamie Lynn and Derrick Orman

5. Rod Jetton charged with assault

6. Larry Rice seeks ownership of old federal building

7. Tour of Missouri hits Cape Girardeau

8. City starts construction on multi-million dollar parks projects

9. City council approves automated trash pickup

10. Former Gov. Warren Hearnes dies

The Missourian staff rankings were similar, with some noticeable differences, like the top story.

1. Joshua Kezer freed from prison

2. Ice storm blankets region

3. Murders of Jamie Lynn and Derrick Orman

4. Larry Rice seeks ownership of old federal building

5. Bad economy hits home

6. Rod Jetton charged with assault

7. Community college partnership approved

8. Tour of Missouri pedals through Cape Girardeau

9. Cape Air replaces Great Lakes Airlines and sees a surge in passengers

10. Purcell's Sunshine lawsuit heads to the Missouri Supreme Court

So tell me, are my colleagues horribly out of touch with our readership? What are your top stories?

Here's another list -- the most read stories of the year on semissourian.com, sort of. The problem is, this list isn't entirely accurate, because when we made significant changes to the site in the spring, we lost the data on pageviews for those stories posted before the switch.

So what we're left with are the most viewed stories since April. Here are the top 10.

1. Police: 15-year-old in Cape Girardeau shooting reached brothers before dying

This story was posted the day after the shootings of Jamie Lynn and Derrick Orman.

2. Authorities allege estranged husband was target in Missouri Avenue shootings

This story was posted two days after the Orman murders.

3. Mr. Obama: I'm calling you out

This is an op-ed column by William Piercey Sr. that was originally published in our newspaper and later read by Rush Limbaugh on his radio talk show.

4. One dead after North Kingshighway accident; coroner identifies victim

The fatal accident that happened last week here in Cape Girardeau.

5. Wreck near Oran leaves two teenagers dead, four others in serious condition

Fatal accident that happened this summer and sent an area school into mourning.

6. Third suspect in Missouri Avenue killings arrested; prosecutor says all involved now in custody

The arrest of Samuel Ray Hughes puts all suspects in the Orman killings in jail.

7. Two suspects arrested in two Cape Girardeau burglaries

I'm not sure just why these September arrests sparked so much interest.

8. Sonic employee charged with cooking meth in restaurant

Also a recent story. The headline says it all.

9. Airplane crash kills two Cape Girardeau men

November crash killed a prominent area businessman.

10. Motive for Perry County shooting 'anybody's guess,' sheriff says

A follow up to the September murder-suicide.

We recently asked in our weekly online news poll what readers thought was the year's top story. Here are the results of this very unscientific poll. And keep in mind, this poll was just asking for one answer. I'm only including five because the vote count for others was rather low.

1. Ice storm cripples much of Southeast Missouri: 38.4% (325 votes)

2. Joshua Kezer is declared innocent after spending more than a decade in prison for the death of Mischelle Lawless: 24.1% (204 votes)

3. Pregnant mother, teenage son are shot and killed while sleeping: 13.8% (117 votes)

4. Former House Speaker Rod Jetton arrested for assault during alleged sexual encounter: 6.7% (57 votes)

5. Unemployment and foreclosures rise as region is affected by poor economy: 4.0% (34 votes)