Phil Lewis: Time to rank top stories from 2003

Each year, about a week before Thanksgiving, newspaper editors across America are polled.

The Associated Press, the world’s leading news service, wants each newspaper to rank the Top 10 stories of the year.

The balloting, which used to be done by paper ballot but is now done by e-mail, is the basis for an AP story that many newspapers publish right before Christmas.

As was the case in 2000 with the Bush-Gore election and 2001 with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, there’s little doubt what will top the annual list.

The war with Iraq is a sure bet, even with six weeks left in 2003.

Picking the next nine stories is a bit tougher. The AP supplied a list of 49 news events for newspapers to consider with the Iraqi war topping the ballot. Editors can write in a Top 10 candidate if they don’t see it on the ballot, but the list is rather thorough.

Here are the remaining 48 choices:

1. Race for Democratic presidential nomination; Howard Dean leads polls.
2. California recall campaign; Arnold Schwarzenegger elected governor.
3. Deaths mount in Israeli-Palestinian conflict; peace plan founders.
4. Economy improves but joblessness and state budgets remain problems.
5. Space shuttle Columbia breaks apart; seven astronauts die.
6. Southern California wildfires kill 22, destroy 3,600 homes.
7. Crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
8. Illinois governor commutes 167 condemned inmates’ sentences.
9. Trials of Washington-area sniper suspects.
10. President Bush pushes through budget with tax cuts and deficits.
11. Consecration of gay Episcopal bishop divides Anglicans worldwide.
12. Air Force Academy scandal involving dozens of rape allegations.
13. Elizabeth Smart found nine months after her abduction in Utah.
14. Arson attack on South Korean subway trains; 198 killed.
15. Fire during rock concert at Rhode Island nightclub kills 100.
16. Assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
17. Outbreak of SARS kills nearly 800 worldwide.
18. Dispute over continued care for brain-damaged Florida woman.
19. Rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from Iraqi hospital.
20. Tornadoes kill 40 in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
21. Terror blasts in Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Morocco, Indonesia,Turkey.
22. Investigation of mutual funds leads to another corporate scandal.
23. Jayson Blair scandal at New York Times; top two editors resign.
24. Warfare in Liberia; Charles Taylor forced from power.
25. Supreme Court allows colleges to select students based partly on race.
26. Staten Island ferry crashes into pier; 10 killed.
27. Supreme Court strikes down state bans on homosexual sex.
28. Actress Katharine Hepburn dies at 96.
29. Basketball star Kobe Bryant charged with sexual assault.
30. Congressional probe find lapses by CIA, FBI before Sept. 11 attacks.
31. Green River killer Gary Leon Ridgway pleads guilty to 48 slayings.
32. Bob Hope dies at 100.
33. Blackout hits parts of U.S. and Canada; millions lose power.
34. Violence persists in Afghanistan.
35. Thousands die in European heat wave.
36. Efforts to provide more funding, cheaper drugs for global AIDS crisis.
37. Paul Hill executed in Florida for slaying of abortion doctor.
38. Global hunt for al-Qaida leaders; new bin Laden video surfaces.
39. New York Stock Exchange chairman resigns over pay package.
40. Hurricane Isabel pounds North Carolina, knocks out power to 1 million.
41. Republican lawmakers approve disputed Texas redistricting plan.
42. Congress bans "partial birth abortion"; court challenges follow.
43. Smugglers abandon illegal immigrants in trailer in Texas; 19 die.
44. Lawyer/activist Iranian woman wins Nobel peace prize.
45. China conducts first space mission.
46. Olympic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph arrested in North Carolina.
47. Track and field threatened with major scandal over steroid THG.
48. Alabama Supreme Court chief justice ousted in Ten Commandments dispute.

For the record, here’s how the voting went in 2002:

1. Bush issues ultimatums to Iraq.
2. Sniper killings in the nation’s capital.
3. Catholic sex abuse scandal.
4. Corporate scandals plague Wall Street.
5. U.S. economy suffers.
6. GOP recaptures the U.S. Senate.
7. War on terrorism.
8. The Mideast conflict.
9. Nine coal miners rescued after 77 hours.
10. The nation observes Sept. 11 anniversary.

Phil Lewis is editor of the Daily News; his email address is pplewis@naplesnews.com.