Welcome to 2009, a new year filled with promise. When the sun rises each day, there's always hope. Well, the Volusia County countdown of the top 100 stories is coming along, slower than anticipated, but Rome wasn't built in a day either. We're close to reaching the midpoint. When we finish this, it's on to the top 100 stories of 2008 for Southeast Volusia.
The results of both countdowns should spark plenty of debate as rankings often do.
We'll also have our individual accolades for "outstanding young person of the year," "outstanding public servant" and "citizen of the year."
While there is reason for hope in the new year, there are plenty of challengers ahead, especially on the economic front.
Barack Obama, our president-elect, will have plenty of challenges, as well as dealing with foreign affairs. He'll have an assist from former primary foe Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state. Speaking of Hillary, there's also a good chance Caroline Kennedy will get her New York senate seat.
And there's plenty of controversy with Obama's former Illinois senate seat. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has appointed Roland Burris as the senate-designate, but the Illinois secretary of state refuses to certify him and Senate Democratic leaders say he's not welcome because of the alleged scandal perpetrated by the governor in trying to sell the seat.
Federal bailouts continue. General Motors got its $4 billion loan and Chrysler is awaiting its loan, too.
Well, the Time Warner/Bright House cable dispute with Viacom is over. The two sides reached agreement, averting a threatened blackout of 19 channels by Viacom, including MTV, V-H1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. As of midnight last night, those channels were to disappear and with them such popular kids programs as Dora the Explorer and Spongebob Squarepants. I would have been missing my nightly staple of the "Fresh Prince" and "George Lopez."
As you loyal readers may recall, I wrote a blog on this very subject at 2 a.m. on Tuesday when I saw the alerts flashing across the TV screen.
I didn't see anything in the Daytona Beach News-Journal or the Orlando Sentinel the next morning. I wrote an e-mail inquiry to the Sentinel and less than an hour later, there was a story posted by the TV writer (Nah, it couldn't be that I lit a fire under them...). The News-Journal didn't have anything until much later in the day from the wire services.
Back to our discussion about hope in the new year, here's hoping our local municipalities will find ways to keep spending down. This is something we will be watching closely and reporting.