PORTLAND – A case of criminal history appearing to repeat itself dominated the news in Oregon for much of this year after the bodies of two missing Oregon City girls were recovered at the home of Ward Weaver, the son of a convicted murderer.

The Weaver case was voted the top story of 2002 in an annual survey of newspapers and broadcasters by The Associated Press. Close behind on the list were the wildfires that ravaged the state last summer, and the economic woes that gave Oregon the highest jobless rate in the nation.

In a case that has not yet gone to trial, Weaver faces aggravated murder charges in the deaths of 12-year-old Ashley Pond and her 13-year-old friend and classmate, Miranda Gaddis, who disappeared last winter from their apartment complex near the house Weaver rented.

He has pleaded innocent.

Ashley’s body was found buried under a concrete slab Weaver had poured in his back yard, a chilling similarity to his father, convicted of killing a young man and raping the man’s girlfriend before killing her and burying her body beneath a concrete slab in his back yard in California.

The father, Ward Weaver Jr., is on death row in California while his son, Ward Weaver III, faces a possible death penalty in Oregon if convicted.

The extensive search for Ashley and Miranda drew national attention, as did the long investigation by the FBI and several police agencies leading to the recovery of their bodies by a team of forensic experts.

Other crime stories made the editors’ list of Top 10 stories, along with tragic accidents, politics, a court battle and the economy. The other leading stories were:

2. WILDFIRES: The biggest wildfire in the nation raged through southern Oregon while other large fires spread across much of the dry forest and range land in central and eastern Oregon last summer, keeping fire crews busy for months.

The Biscuit Fire burned nearly 500,000 acres in the southwest corner of the state and cost more than $154 million before November rains finally allowed crews to declare it under control nearly four months after it started in the Siskiyou National Forest near the California border.

3. ECONOMY: The Oregon economy led the nation in recession and the state had the highest unemployment rate in the country for nearly the entire year. The Legislature held five special sessions to deal with a budget crisis triggered partly by reliance on income taxes that shrank with the economy.

The state had the third-fastest growing economy in the nation during the 1990s as it rode the high-tech boom and computer chip maker Intel Corp. became the single largest private employer in Oregon.

But many high-tech companies and dot-com spinoffs went bust in 2001 just as wholesale electricity prices skyrocketed during the Western energy crisis, hitting electronics and other durable goods manufacturing especially hard in Oregon – the core of the state economy in 2002.

4. COOS BAY FIREFIGHTER DEATHS: Three Coos Bay firefighters died Nov. 25 battling a blaze at an auto parts store, marking the worst loss of life for fire crews in Oregon history.

More than 1,000 firefighters from across the Northwest attended their memorial service, standing at attention and saluting as a silver fire bell rang 15 times – the signal 5-5-5 – for Lt. Randy Carpenter and firefighters Chuck Hanners and Jeff Common.

5. KULONGOSKI: After serving as a lawmaker, attorney general and state Supreme Court justice, Ted Kulongoski added the title governor-elect in 2002, beating Republican challenger Kevin Mannix by about 3 percent – a margin Mannix claimed would have disappeared had it not been for the third-party candidacy of Libertarian Tom Cox.

Like his fellow Democrat, departing Gov. John Kitzhaber, Kulongoski will face a Legislature dominated by Republicans, a huge budget shortfall, state pension fund reform and rising health care costs as lawmakers prepare to convene following his inauguration on Jan. 13.

6. LONGO: Christian Longo was partying and snorkeling with tourists in the Mexican resort city of Cancun when FBI agents arrested him and charged him with murdering his wife and three children in Oregon, then dumping their bodies into coastal inlets in Waldport and Newport.

Longo now faces trial in February on aggravated murder charges and has written his former sister-in-law to ask her to help him avoid a possible death penalty if convicted.

7. LOGGING AND PRESIDENT BUSH: President Bush applied heavy political pressure to increase logging on Northwest national forests by easing environmental regulations that protect salmon and other species under the Northwest Forest Plan drafted by the Clinton administration.

Bush also sought to streamline the process for obtaining permits to thin forests and clear undergrowth to help prevent wildfires, or at least make them less destructive to mature trees.

8. TERRORISM ARRESTS: Five men and a woman were charged with plotting to help the terrorist al-Qaida network, prompting U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to declare the case a “defining day” in the war on terrorism.

Five were arrested in Portland and a sixth remains at large. The suspects have pleaded innocent while federal prosecutors have released details of the investigation indicating the accused conspired to travel to Afghanistan to help wage war against the United States.

One undercover agent recorded a conversation by one suspect who allegedly threatened to attack targets in this country.

9. ASSISTED SUICIDE: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft went to federal court to try and block Oregon’s landmark assisted suicide law, but U.S. District Judge Robert Jones issued an emphatic ruling saying states have an absolute right to regulate medical practice, including physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Jones’ ruling, leaving Ashcroft to face a U.S. Supreme Court which has already ruled in favor of states’ rights to regulate medicine in the case of assisted suicide.

10. MOUNT HOOD DEATHS: An accident that swept Mount Hood climbers into a crevasse ended in the deaths of three climbers and the crash of an Air Force Reserve rescue helicopter, with dramatic footage captured by television news helicopters.

The rescue helicopter crew survived the crash, but a military inquiry board found the pilot to blame for what amounted to trying too hard to help.

OTHER PROMINENT STORIES:

A jury finds the anti-tax organization founded by failed Republican candidate for governor Bill Sizemore used forgery and racketeering to pursue its aims, orders payment of $2.5 million to state’s two largest teachers’ unions.

Efforts continue to find solutions to competing water demands between farmers and fish in the Klamath Basin.

West Coast dock strike cripples Oregon ports.

Ruth and Brian Christine are sentenced to seven years in prison for kidnapping their own children at gunpoint from state child welfare workers.

The state Public Employees Retirement System faces potential $15 billion shortfall, reforms promised.

Several stories making recurring headlines got few votes in the survey – including the role of Portland General Electric in the Enron scandal; the problems that Portland Trail Blazers players have caused for the team’s image by brushes with the law and fights at games; a $25 million jury award to the state of Oregon to remove the last of the New Carissa shipwreck from a public beach; and former Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington taking over as the starter for the Detroit Lions.