A controversy over school-sanctioned prayers at West Lincoln Attendance Center was selected as the top news story of 2012 by participants in a poll on The Daily Leader website.

     In the unscientific poll, the prayer controversy captured about 25 percent of the total vote.

     The disappearance and subsequent arrest of a woman in Copiah County ran in second place, with about 17 percent of the vote.

     The impact of Hurricane Isaac on the area landed at third place, with 14 percent of votes.

     Rounding out the top five were the resignation of Circuit Clerk Terry Lynn Watkins and subsequent special election to fill her seat, at about 9 percent, and increased oil exploration efforts in Southwest Mississippi, garnering 7 percent in the poll.

     The year’s top story got under way in October when the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi sent a letter to the Lincoln County School District alleging numerous violations at West Lincoln of the Constitution’s separation of church and state.

     At West Lincoln, these included prayers offered before football games and by teachers before tests or meals and religious objects placed on classroom walls by teachers.

     District Superintendent Terry Brister and West Lincoln Principal Jason Case admitted some of the allegations were factual, though they denied others. Brister said he would work with the ACLU to ensure violations stopped.

     “Separation of church and state took place with the Constitution,” he told The Daily Leader at the time. “I don’t have a choice.”

     Members of the West Lincoln community were largely outraged and signs in support of prayer at West Lincoln sprouted in yards across the area. At least two rallies have been held in Brookhaven lambasting the ACLU’s actions.

     The school district and its attorney remain in talks with the Mississippi ACLU to discuss measures ensuring violations are discontinued.

     Voters’ second selection for top story dates from earlier in the year.

     Linda Reed, a Carroll County woman who worked as a bookkeeper in Gallman, was reported missing April 30. A search effort quickly discovered her car on a back road near Crystal Springs with personal belongings in it and family members feared the worst.

     Subsequently, her employers, Moore’s Fabrications, reported discrepancies in her bookkeeping records for the business.

     An investigation by the FBI determined at least $20,000 was missing. Law enforcement declared in October Reed was no longer a missing woman but a wanted woman.

     About a week after this announcement, authorities found Reed in Longview, Texas. She was returned to Copiah County and charged with embezzlement.

     The poll’s third-place story highlights the damage of Hurricane Isaac.

     Isaac ripped through Lincoln County in August, bringing buckets of rain and strong wind.

     The area was spared a repeat of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, though. In Lincoln County, there were widespread power outages and downed trees. Some houses suffered heavy damages.

     Cleanup efforts proceeded quickly, but area officials remained bogged down for months working to clear the debris off the right of way of roads.

     The fourth-place poll finisher kicked off early in the year. Terry Lynn Watkins resigned her post as circuit clerk of Lincoln County in January, in the first week of her fifth term of office. She resigned three days before her trial on embezzlement charges was scheduled to begin. Her resignation was part of a plea deal in which she also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges.

     A special election to fill the remainder of her term was scheduled for Nov. 6 to coincide with the presidential election. It initially attracted nine candidates, but things took another strange turn when it was discovered interim Circuit Clerk Sherry Jordan had mistakenly failed to collect a required petition from each candidate.

     In a scramble to turn in petitions before the September deadline, eight of the original nine candidates successfully qualified.

     Ultimately, Dustin Bairfield, who’d run against Watkins in the 2011 county elections, prevailed in the special election and took office in December.

     Further south, oil exploration efforts heated up, and filled out the poll’s fifth place.

     Exploration has been particularly strong in Wilkinson and Amite counties. New drilling techniques, called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” have enabled access to natural gas deposits previously not easily accessible.

     It’s still unknown whether the area will yield the kind of oil boom that has struck other parts of the country, but area economic leaders remain optimistic.

     Though not directly located in the boom area, Lincoln County could benefit from increased traffic through the area and the need for more retail and housing.