2011

(Image of the Washington National Cathedral by Mesut Dogan/Shutterstock.)

(Image of the Washington National Cathedral by Mesut Dogan/Shutterstock.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It took 83 years to build the iconic Washington National Cathedral, but a rare East Coast earthquake last summer took just seconds to send carved stone finials tumbling from the heavens to the ground below.

Now, six months after the 5.8-magnitude quake, the cathedral is facing repair costs of at least $20 million, and a reconstruction timeline that could stretch out a decade or more.

The bill to fix the iconic church is now at least $5 million more than original estimates, said church officials, who are still working to stabilize the building, repair its intricate stonework and raise money to continue the restoration.

So far, donations for repairs have reached $2 million, or 10 percent of the predicted cost.

Duane Shank 1-02-2012

In mid-December, the Religion Newswriters Association released its top 10 religion stories of the year.  

The Associated Press now has its annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors and their choices for the top news stories of 2011.

Since this exercise is certainly a subjective one, your list might also be different from mine or the AP's.  What would you add or delete from these lists?

Duane Shank 1-02-2012
Pinetop Perkins via Wylio: http://bit.ly/tCKyOF

Pinetop Perkins via Wylio: http://bit.ly/tCKyOF

It’s good to start a new year by remembering those who passed in the just concluded year.  These aren’t the most famous (or infamous), and I didn’t know them personally (or, at best, had met several briefly), but their lives touched mine in three of my passions: American roots music, politics and public life, and baseball.