Over-the-top local stories.

Byline: Bob Welch / The Register-Guard

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the last in a three-part series about the year 2002. Today, a look at the top local stories of the year:

In a horrific outbreak of violence, furniture is burned, traffic signs destroyed and police pelted with bottles as upper-crust fans at Autzen Stadium protest "a total lack of quality Chardonnays" on the Club at Autzen's pre-game wine list.

As part of the new Homeland Security Act, Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft announces that children waiting to get on "The Frog Hopper" ride in the Gateway Mall food court must first submit to weapons searches.

An investigation into money-mismanagement charges at the Oregon Coast Aquarium shows that for a three-year period in the mid-'90s, Keiko the killer whale, choosing numbers by tapping his fluke on the aquarium glass, lost more than $2 million playing Lotto - and that the aquarium covered his losses.

In the face of mounting pressure, "Voice of the Ducks" radio station KUGN puts an end to "hate radio" by dropping the post-game call-in show in which listeners savagely flame University of Oregon coaches after losses.

Broadway reopens and to celebrate the dramatic step into downtown progressiveness, Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey drives the lead covered wagon.

After a freak windstorm topples power lines and trees, neighbors help neighbors in the Ferry Street Bridge area by running extension cords from houses without electricity - to an exterior outlet at EWEB.

Eugene citizens greet the unveiling of the new federal courthouse design with their usual split verdict: Half think it "celebrates the state's rivers and mountains with avant-garde flourish." And half think it "celebrates futuristic nuclear-bomb shelters."

The Oregon-Oregon State football rivalry turns ugly as pre-game trash-talking sinks to all-time lows. Finally, to quell worries of violence, the two warring factions reach a compromise: A neutral crew will do the TV broadcast of the game.

Districts close schools, lay off teachers and cut programs in a desperate attempt to save enough money to sponsor the annual Public Employees Retirement System Club Med "Visualize-Your-Future" Cruise.

Disgruntled smokers, banned from puffing in Eugene bars, begin brandishing "I smoke and I vote" bumper stickers, apparently to prove they've got half a mind to move to Springfield, where smoking is still allowed.

A Register-Guard investigative report shows that although the UO Athletic Department refused to move back the start time of the Oregon-Portland State football game two hours so it wouldn't conflict with the Eugene Celebration parade, the UO was, if TV stipulated, willing to play at 3 a.m. on a Wednesday - in Guam.

Eugene's urban forester discovers what he believes to be the largest fir cone ever found in Lane County, only to find it is actually the remains of one of the city's turn-of-the-century tree sitters. (CBS-TV immediately buys the rights to the story for a "CSI" episode.)

Attorneys representing owners of the New Carissa file a countersuit to Oregon's countersuit that it filed against the owners' countersuit, claiming that the original countersuit was, technically, a countersuit to a previous countersuit.

Bill Clinton whips Democrats into a frenzy at a McArthur Court rally, then complains that he wasn't given enough time to speak. Mac Court officials defend the use of the 35-second clock.

Lawmakers in Salem, seeking a solution to school-funding woes, say they finally "get it" after a survey shows that two-thirds of the panhandlers at the state's freeway off-ramps are principals raising money for their schools.

After a Eugene artist wins acceptance in the annual Mayor's Art Show with a paint-splotched section of wooden wall used as a backdrop to put advertising on LTD buses, copycat artists go to work for the 2003 show, the two early favorites being "Cantaloupe Rinds Extracted from Compost Pile" and "Fluffy's Fur Ball Petrified on End Table."

In a protest reminiscent of the anti-war fervor of the '60s, UO professors walk out of classes, take over President Dave Frohnmayer's office and threaten to quit - if they're forced to use the new "O" logo on their letterheads.

The celebratory atmosphere of the new Eugene Public Library's opening is tainted with the revelation that Craig Hinckley, the 6-year-old boy who checked out the first book in the old library 43 years ago, never returned the copy of "Curious George" and, thus, owes $1.34 million in overdue fines.

The Register-Guard fires columnist Bob Welch after learning that, taking a cue from the movie "Capricorn One," he faked his elk-hunting trip to Northeastern Oregon and spent the week hot-tubbing at Sunriver.

And on that bubbly note, a Happy New Year to all.

Bob Welch can be reached by calling 338-2354 or by e-mail at [e-mail].