Last week to vote on Columbian’s top stories of 2011

In your opinion, what was the top story of 2011 in Clark County?

Murder-suicides by fire: Tuan Dao kills himself and 5 children/ Washougal standoff

‘Gang Green’ is biggest local drug raid

Abuse cases: caged autistic kids; starved teen twins

Breaching Condit Dam

Columbia River Crossing design picked

Lousy economy: personal poverty and unemployment

State and federal deficits mean local service cuts

Davy Crockett ship clean-up on the Columbia River

After a 7-month push to bring the Bears professional baseball to Vancouver, supporters struck out

Downtown makeover: Burgerville demolished; new library opens; new City Hall; U.S. Army goes after 162 years

First Independent Bank: another local business icon is sold

Other (You decide!)

Visit our online poll to vote.

Maybe it was the biggest series of marijuana arrests in county history. Maybe it was a tragic fire that killed a desperate father and his children or last week’s standoff in Washougal. Or maybe it was the economic slump that continues to touch nearly everyone’s lives.

It’s time to pick the top local story of 2011, and readers are invited to participate.

Every year The Columbian’s news staff selects the top local news stories of the year. This year, our retrospective looking at these stories will be published Sunday, Jan. 1.

Already our reporters and editors have culled nearly 30 nominees to select the 10 finalists. We’d like our readers to choose a single top story of the year by taking a survey on our website at www.columbian.com/bestof2011 or on our Facebook page, where the finalists are listed in random order. The results will be printed in the Jan. 1 newspaper and online.

If you have another suggestion for a top story, please enter it in the comments box. Of course, it’s possible the biggest story of the year hasn’t happened yet. But that’s the news business.

Please take the survey only one time, and do so before Monday, Dec. 19.

Thank you in advance for your participation.