Year retrospective — Top 10 local news stories

"FOUND! 'Nothing short of a miracle,' " blared the headline announcing the safe return of kidnapped Salt Lake City teenager Elizabeth Smart nine months after she'd been abducted from her bedroom in the middle of the night.

Elizabeth's appearance in mid-March on a Sandy street alongside the homeless couple who were later charged with kidnapping and sexual assault did seem miraculous to the people around the world who'd followed her story.

Her ordeal topped the Deseret Morning News editors' list of the state's biggest stories of 2003, outranking Gov. Mike Leavitt's appointment to a top post in the Bush administration, which opened the door for Utah's first woman governor. The Smart story also ranked ninth nationally (see related story).

Other stories that made the editors' list included the acquittal of Salt Lake Olympic bid leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson; the ongoing debate over the future of downtown and the Main Street Plaza; and the saga of a young boy diagnosed with cancer whose family refused to let him be treated.

Here's the Top 10 for 2003, according to the newspaper's editors:

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1. Elizabeth Smart: In October, Elizabeth breaks her silence in an interview with NBC's Katie Couric and said she is "pretty much the same." The high-school student also speaks with Oprah Winfrey and is the subject of a book by her parents as well as a made-for-TV movie that aired on CBS in November.

Meanwhile, legal proceedings for her alleged captors, Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, have been on hold for several months while mental competency evaluations were conducted.

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2. Leavitt goes to Washington: The three-term governor is tapped in August by President Bush to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Earlier in the year, Leavitt said he wasn't interested in the "highly problematic" job but changed his mind after being wooed by the White House.

Although some Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., tried to block his appointment because of concerns over a number of environmental-related issues, Leavitt won Senate confirmation in October by a vote of 88-8.

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