Top 10 stories of the year in the state

1) LEGISLATURE APPROVES BIG BOEING TAX BREAK, MACHINISTS REJECT CONTRACT OFFER: Called back unexpectedly by Gov. Jay Inslee, lawmakers in November OK’d $9 billion in tax benefits through 2040 for the aerospace giant. Inslee said the deal was needed so Boeing would build the 777X in the Puget Sound area, employing thousands. But shortly after, local machinists rejected a contract offer from Boeing, saying the profitable company was unfairly asking them to give up their pension.

2) STATE DEVELOPING RULES FOR LEGAL POT INDUSTRY: It’s not the usual fare of state bureaucrats, but Washington officials spent 2013 coming up with rules for the legal sale of marijuana. In 2012, state voters approved recreational pot use for adults. By the middle of 2014, people 21 and over should be able to go into state-sanctioned stores and buy the drug. The state will allow 334 pot shops.

3) INTERSTATE 5 BRIDGE COLLAPSES NEAR MOUNT VERNON: In May, an oversized truck struck an Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River, causing the span to collapse into the water. Remarkably, nobody was killed or seriously hurt, but the accident caused detours for weeks after the mishap. That section of freeway, connecting Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., normally sees about 70,000 vehicles a day.

4) SEATAC VOTERS APPROVE $15 MINIMUM WAGE: People in the airport city of SeaTac narrowly approved a $15 an hour minimum wage for many workers. The result placed Washington at the forefront of the national debate over wages. Washington already has the nation’s highest state minimum wage at $9.19 an hour. The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour.

9) MURRAY DEFEATS McGINN FOR SEATTLE MAYOR: Ed Murray, who led the successful effort to legalize gay marriage in the state, won a closer-than-expected contest against Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. There was little separating the two liberals on policy, but Murray promised to be more collaborative than the defeated incumbent, whose outspoken criticism of the Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel replacement plan and contentious negotiations with the Justice Department over Seattle police reforms rankled some.

10) BALLMER LEAVING MICROSOFT: Steve Ballmer announced in August that he would retire from Microsoft, a company he has led since 2000. Known for his bombastic stage presentations at company meetings, Ballmer became a billionaire many times over as he led the Redmond-based tech firm to explosive growth. While criticized as slow to adapt to changing consumer tastes, there was no immediately obvious successor at one of the Northwest’s most successful businesses.