Top Utah news stories of 2020: A year like no other Dec 26, 2020, 10:00pm MST
Juliet Tuineau, Ray Tuineau’s widow, pours a bucket of soil on her husband’s coffin during a burial service at Valley View Memorial Park in West Valley City on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. Ray Tuineau was one of the more than 380 Utahns who died because of COVID-19. |
Yukai Peng, Deseret News
The pandemic.
The nearly yearlong ravages of the COVID-19 virus left little for Deseret News editors to debate when they rallied for their annual assessment of the year’s most important news stories.
But even though the COVID-19 public health crisis and its widespread impacts occupied an outsized portion of the 2020 news cycle, a pair of natural disasters, Utah’s role in a nationwide reckoning on racial justice issues, tragic crimes, an unusual election and the opening of a stunning, $4 billion airport project all made headlines in a year that’s been like no other.