There’s nothing like a slow news week for reporters to concoct a bitter and divisive – but hypothetical – battle that’s only three years away.

In the spirit of the season, here’s our list of five outstanding stories from local and regional papers you might have missed this year — but shouldn’t have.

The New York Times has printed yet another story about itself, and the best thing we can say about it is at least there’s no mention of Judith Miller.

It’s not every day that a business columnist cooks up a suspect trend and then tells his readers repeatedly he has no idea why the trend is so.

Faced with scant details on a breaking news story, should a business reporter run with speculative numbers, or wait to get those numbers right?

Agricultural policy is hugely important, both in the U.S. and abroad. So why has the American press failed to help us understand what’s going on at the latest round of WTO talks?

Is the world’s most successful company committing one of the greatest inventory screw-ups ever? Or is the Xbox shortage just a shameless publicity stunt?

The Los Angeles Times‘ print circulation struggles are no secret. But now the paper faces a threat so dire, so menacing, the Associated Press decided it deserved an entire article: Barbra Streisand.

How did Jon Vessey and his California farm come to be featured in five major news outlets over the past two months?

We’ve often remarked that journalists snap into brain freeze when faced with the prospect of covering a story filled with numbers, and AP television writer David Bauder has proved to be no exception.