The Top 10 Local News Stories of 2019: #10 and #9

Oh, what a crazy year it has been!  From roosters on trial to arguments about which flags to fly and when, 2019 has had it all.  It's hard to pick out the biggest news stories when there has been so much distraction, but here we go:

#10: The 2020 Presidential race gets started in February of 2019.  Actually, Decorah had visits by Presidential candidates in 2018, but they were by candidates like John Delaney and Eric Swalwell who have had trouble getting traction in polling results.  But one of the front-runners, Elizabeth Warren, visited Decorah March 1st (https://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2019/03/21647.html), Bernie Sanders visited in September (https://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2019/09/23323.html), Pete Buttigieg spoke at Decorah HS in November (http://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2019/11/23729.html) and Joe Biden arrived on the "No Malarkey" bus in December (https://www.decorahnews.com/news-stories/2019/12/23972.html).  The Iowa Caucuses are less than six weeks away, but it's a safe bet we'll see a few more candidate visits before February 3rd.

#9: City's flag policy discussed numerous times.  When the City of Decorah's flag policy was amended to drop three veterans holidays as days when the American flag would be flown in Decorah, the response was immediate--and three days later, the decision was reversed (https://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2019/04/21952.html).  But that wasn't the end of discussing the city's flag policy.  There was an application to fly a flag honoring President Trump which got rejected (http://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2019/06/22446.html), a discussion of the Pride flags and an eventual solution in November to handle the matter administratively in the future.  (http://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2019/11/23791.html).