When the Times Free Press annually ask readers to help us select the top stories of the year, the newspaper routinely confines our list to stories from the metropolitan Chattanooga area and Tennessee.
However, as an editorial page, we would be remiss if we didn’t put the presidential election and all its attendant stories (former President Donald Trump’s legal affairs, the assassination attempts on Trump, President Joe Biden’s mental acuity, the Biden-to-Vice President Kamala Harris torch passing and the election) at the top of the list.
Although local and state government decisions will have a bigger effect on our lives than those at the federal level, decisions made at the federal level the last four years and the four years to come unquestionably have and will have their effect.
So, with that in mind, here are our top stories of 2024:
› We haven’t measured it, but there’s no question presidential politics took up more space in this newspaper (and probably all dailies across the country) than any other subject. Trump, after all, is resilient. Whether you like him or hate him or are somewhere in between, you have to admire the fact he didn’t throw in the towel despite everything thrown at him (some of it, as usual, his own making).