Top Stories of the Year - #2014In5Words

Ferguson the 2014 Selma, Alabama

Perhaps the biggest story of the year, the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer in a town called Ferguson ignited protests in Missouri and around the country. Failure to indict the officer and similar deaths at the hands of police led to rallies of tens of thousands in New York and elsewhere.

Ebola Matters When In U.S.

Despite the fact that the Ebola virus has now killed more than 7,000 people in Africa, the only time it seemed to matter in American mainstream media was when there were any suspected cases in the U.S. of which there were only four confirmed.

Keep Your Poor, Tired Kids

A crisis of Central American children streaming across the southern U.S. border exposed some very callous responses by many Americans who wanted to send them back to face violence in their homes.

MH370 Disappearance A Perpetual Mystery

A Malaysia Airlines plane veers off course and completely disappears. It was so inexplicable a certain cable news program actually mentioned the possibility of the disappearance being related to “aliens.”

Who the Hell is ISIL/ISIS?

The Islamic State suddenly burst on the scene stoking new fears among Americans and confusing foreign policy leaders who, frankly, have no clue what to do in Syria. Who do we hate more, Syrian President Bashar al Assad or ISIL? 

Donald Sterling Sees Black People

At NBA games where, according to him, they don’t belong… unless they’re playing on the court, of course. 

Recreational Marijuana Sees New Highs

Pot got legal in four states and D.C., and is now being decriminalized in several other states as well. That said, the federal government still considers it a crime.

That is Some Freezing Water

Suddenly everyone on your Facebook page was dumping ice water buckets on themselves to support ALS. Most of them probably didn’t contribute — the whole point of the campaign — but more than $100 million was raised.

Boko Haram Makes Girls Disappear

A fundamentalist group in Nigeria kidnapped more than 200 school girls provoking a #BringBackOurGirls campaign. However, it still remains a mystery whatever happened to them, though many were probably forced to convert to Islam and were then married off.

Seth Rogen versus North Korea

North Korea is believed to have hacked into the network of Sony’s movie studios, ostensibly because of a film that features Kim Jong-Un. A nice benefit to the hack was the release of Sony work emails and we all got to see how catty (and racist) Hollywood producers can be.

Secret Service Becomes Keystone Cops

The U.S. Secret Service were involved in another series of scandals including allowing an armed security contractor to get onto an elevator with the president, an officer leaving a bullet in a tryst’s hotel room, letting a White House fence jumper get all the way to the West Wing and drunken nights in Amsterdam. The director eventually resigned.

We Miss You Robin Williams

Comedian and actor Robin Williams committed suicide leaving millions of sad fans and a debate about how to deal with depression. 

The Cold War Lifts Head

Civil strife broke out in Ukraine and Crimea became part of the Russian Federation, to which the U.S. reacted by sanctioning Russia and sending military aid to Ukraine. How hot the potential for a new Cold War gets remains to be seen, but U.S.-Russian relations have fallen far from the failed “reset.”

Obama Wants a Caribbean Vacation

In Cuba, to be specific. The president declared the U.S. embargo outdated and revealed a plan to normalize relations. Removing one of the biggest obstacles to that end, Obama agreed to a swap of three Cuban nationals imprisoned in the U.S. — the remaining members of the Cuban 5 — for Alan Gross, a USAID worker jailed in Cuba. Many conservatives — and some Democrats — accused the president of giving up too much with getting too little in return.

General Motors Recalls Deadly Cars

GM recalled millions of cars over a faulty ignition switch that caused the deaths of more than 30 drivers and passengers. The news made many Americans wonder if the $50 billion taxpayer bailout for America's largest automaker was worth it.

Democrats Lose Everything in Midterms

It was a bad year for Democrats as Republicans gained seats in the House, won control of the Senate and gained even more power in the states. After the crisis, progressives supporting Senator Elizabeth Warren blamed mainstream Democrats for going “GOP Light.”