Year in review: My Top 10 most memorable stories of 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr.

My dream job would be pretty close to what I do right now: traveling all over the U.S. and even around the world to report the news.

I consider myself blessed to have enjoyed another (mostly) exciting year in journalism, including my full-time work with The Christian Chronicle and freelance gigs with media such as Religion News Service, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. (That’s not to mention my regular blogging for GetReligion.)

Since I love to look back and reflect, I compiled my Top 10 most memorable stories of 2018.

Here they are, in random order:

1. 25th anniversary of Waco inferno: I visited the Branch Davidian compound where David Koresh — leader of an apocalyptic religious sect known as the Branch Davidians — and 75 followers perished in a firestorm on April 19, 1993. My in-depth takeout for Religion News Service was picked up by USA Today. As part of that package, I did a Q&A with Bob Ricks, who was the face of the FBI during the Central Texas standoff — and whom I first interviewed a quarter-century earlier in the immediate wake of the siege.

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The year in tweets: My top stories, blog posts and columns of 2014

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Journalists love year-end lists.

This is mine.

Via Twitter, some of my top stories, blog posts and columns of 2014, along with a personal tweet or two:

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2013 in review: My Top 10 bylines of the year

  By Bobby Ross Jr. My Top 10 bylines of 2013: 10. Oh, Brothers!: For Rockies pitcher with 0.28 ERA, there’s a higher calling. LOS ANGELES — Rex Brothers portrays himself as “just a normal dude.” Except that he’s standing in the visitors’ clubhouse at Dodger Stadium as he makes this claim — a few hours before pitching yet another scoreless inning for the Colorado … Continue reading 2013 in review: My Top 10 bylines of the year

2012 in review: My Top 10 bylines of the year

  By Bobby Ross Jr. My Top 10 bylines of 2012: 10. I’m going to Disney church! KISSIMMEE, Fla. — At a hotel a mile west of Walt Disney World’s main gate on U.S. Highway 192, aspiring princesses and little boys with Mickey Mouse ears fill up on scrambled eggs and cereal on a Sunday morning. In a banquet room next to the breakfast buffet, children … Continue reading 2012 in review: My Top 10 bylines of the year

2011 in review: My Top 10 bylines of the year

  By Bobby Ross Jr. My Top 10 bylines of 2011: 10. Funding on the decline for children’s homes across the nation. DUNCAN, S.C. – Southeastern Children’s Home cares for neglected and abused children on a 50-acre campus overlooking the Smoky Mountains. Boys row out in a boat to catch bass and bream in a spring-fed pond. A beekeeper teaches girls how to cultivate honey. The … Continue reading 2011 in review: My Top 10 bylines of the year

2010 in review: My Top 10 bylines of the year

  By Bobby Ross Jr. My Top 10 bylines of 2010: 10. Ohio church’s message: Families matter to God. CINCINNATI – Look around you Sunday morning. Is there a mom drowning in a sea of credit-card debt? A dad who can’t seem to quit clicking Internet porn? A teen dealing with a hangover or worried about a potential pregnancy? In the 21st century, the Christian family … Continue reading 2010 in review: My Top 10 bylines of the year

The 2000s in review: My top 10 stories of the decade

By Bobby Ross Jr., Dec. 31, 2009 Ten years ago, I spent the last night of the millennium on Y2K duty at The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City’s major metropolitan daily. For the next day’s front page, I wrote: As the planet Earth’s calendars rolled, hour by hour around the globe, to a neatly even Jan. 1, 2000, a computer bug known as Y2K was supposed to wreak havoc … Continue reading The 2000s in review: My top 10 stories of the decade