It has been almost a decade since murder topped the Rocky Mount Telegram's annual list of most significant local stories for the past year.

A Nash County family in 1998 lost four people when a troubled man killed his grandfather and two uncles during a birthday party. The man, Keith Lamont Powell, later killed himself, sending shockwaves through the small community between Drake and Red Oak and the rest of the Twin Counties.

This year, the editorial staff and newspaper department heads chose another shocking homicide as the biggest news story of the past 12 months in Nash and Edgecombe counties.

1 - Rocky Mount police investigated a dozen homicides in 2006, the most since the record-setting year of 1995 when 16 murders occurred in the city.

But it was a Nash County homicide in December that drew the most attention this year in the Twin Counties.

Businessman Mark Bowling was arrested and charged with killing his wife of seven years a few weeks ago in Nash County. Bowling's suspected mistress also was charged in the shooting death of 45-year-old Julie Bowling.

Mark Bowling, 36, started a successful funeral home operation in 1998, and since then, he opened three more offices in Eastern North Carolina. But a branch in Tarboro closed in October, and speculation of money woes began to circulate.

Behind his business dealings, authorities said, Mark Bowling had a darker life, including at least one affair with another woman. His eight-year on-again, off-again affair with Rose Parker Vincent apparently culminated Dec. 8 when authorities say Vincent gunned down Julie Bowling in the garage of her home on River Glenn while Mark Bowling was on vacation in Florida.

Vincent and Mark Bowling met in 1998 at Vincent's stepmother's funeral, in which Bowling directed the services. Mark Bowling, then 27, started a relationship with the then-19-year-old Vincent, authorities said.

Investigators said they believe a fax and computer files link Bowling to his wife's death. Detectives also confiscated Julie Bowling's journal from her Nash Day Hospital locker, where she worked.

Vincent confessed to the shooting the day after the murder, authorities said, and apparently linked Mark Bowling to the murder. Both Vincent, 27, and Bowling could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the case.

2 - Andre Knight first came to public notice in 1998 when he battled the Rocky Mount City Council over plans to open an adult day care on Falls Road. His petition to rezone his property for business in an all-residential neighborhood was denied, putting him on the path to run for a seat on the City Council.

In 2003, Knight became one of four black council members to be elected to the board, the first time in city history that the council had a black majority.

But in September, the Rev. Roosevelt Higgs, first vice chairman of the Edgecombe County Democratic Party, filed a challenge against the councilman's residency in Edgecombe County.

The challenge has worked its way through the court system, making it all the way to the N.C. Court of Appeals. Along the way, Knight lost his seat on the council and then finally received a temporary injunction that is expected to last until his term expires in November.

The challenge, initially described by Higgs as an attempt to target Knight's ties to the Edgecombe County Democratic Party, polarized the community along racial and political lines.

Jerry Fisher bashed Knight on his WHIG-TV ?Morning Show,? and Rocky Mount resident Kenneth Pledger admitted giving behind-the-scenes advice to Higgs in an effort to discredit Knight. Their assistance drew criticism from the black community.

3 - At the end of March, retailers in the state began selling N.C. Education Lottery tickets.

North Carolina became the last state on the East Coast to adopt a lottery when lawmakers approved the games during last year's legislative session.

The lottery, touted as a boon for public schools in North Carolina, has drawn mixed reviews during its first nine months, particularly in the Twin Counties.

More and more games have been added to the long list of possible ways to win big bucks, including the Powerball chance to receive millions of dollars if a ticket matches the weekly drawing numbers.

But despite the additional revenues for retailers and the $119 million in prizes in the first three months of ticket sales, critics questioned whether the lottery is going to fund the school systems as well as state officials predicted.

An audit of the lottery's first three months found that it raised more than $63.5 million for educational programs. For the period covered by the audit, 28 percent of gross revenues went to educational programs.

Powerball sales started in late May, and between June and October, the lottery had sales of $233.1 million after the state launched two numbers games. Those sales were not covered by the audit.

4 - In March, state lawmakers introduced a bill commissioning a feasibility study to add N.C. Wesleyan College to the University of North Carolina system.

The study has begun looking at whether the 50-year-old Rocky Mount private school would fit well into the 16-school UNC system, which hasn't added a new college to its fold in 34 years.

Over the past nine months, a group of local leaders have organized a full-scale push to support the idea. A rally in November drew about 2,000 people to the N.C. Wesleyan campus to show support for the move, with yard signs, bumper stickers and pins.

Organizers have received hundreds of signatures on petitions, which are expected to be sent to UNC officials for consideration.

Supporters say the UNC system will get a 200-acre campus, with assets worth more than $80 million. Its 1,800-student population, which includes students on the main campus and in its off-campus degree programs in Morrisville and Goldsboro, has been growing steadily over the past few years.

UNC President Erskine Bowles said he wants to look closely at the study group's recommendation. He noted earlier this year that running a small college is an expensive way to deliver education.

5 - Three huge community service projects came to fruition in 2006 – the Imperial Centre for Arts and Sciences opened in January; the Kate & Billy Harrison Family YMCA on Independence Drive opened in October; and play began at the Rocky Mount Sports Complex in November.

The $30 million, 130,000-square-foot Imperial Centre in downtown Rocky Mount rose from the Hurricane Floyd flooding that destroyed much of the city's arts venues, and provides a new home for the city's children's museum and science center, arts center and community theater.

After years of planning, the $10 million state-of-the-art YMCA started its first full year of operation after area individuals and businesses have contributed more than $7 million to the project.

The 85,000-square-foot facility contains a running track suspended above three maple wood basketball courts and a gymnastics area; a wireless Internet cafe overlooking two swimming pools; a coed spa and sauna; two aerobics rooms; a climbing wall; multitudes of machines for cardiovascular and muscular workouts; and various other amenities, including flat-screen plasma TVs.

Next to the YMCA, the city completed the first phase of the $12 million Sports Complex, a 143-acre complex that features 11 baseball fields, two basketball courts and two concession stands.

6 - After years of changing and evolving plans, Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools officials moved forward with plans to build a new Rocky Mount High School on Bethlehem Road.

But because Life United Pentecostal Church owned a 7.69-acre tract of land that's surrounded by 52.83 acres of property that the school board bought for $1.25 million, school officials made an offer to buy the church's land.

But church leaders didn't want to sell.

So, school officials used their power of eminent domain in November to pursue buying the church property, which includes the church and parsonage, for $720,000. The church has until March 6 to file a response in N.C. Superior Court in Nash County or negotiate a deal.

Publicly, church officials have decried the offer, saying the price tag is too low and questioning the school board's voracity of looking at other sites.

But the school board looked at several sites before deciding on Bethlehem Road. It couldn't work out a deal near the new Rocky Mount Sports Complex, and it backed off the idea of locating off U.S. 64 at Winstead Avenue after seeing its value as a tax revenue source.

Even when the property is in hand, the school system will need to come up with about $40 million to build the new high school.

After inheriting a town mired in budget problems, Sharpsburg commissioners started off 2006 by firing four employees, including the town administrator and the police chief.

7 - The N.C. Local Government Commission issued several warnings to the town after an audit revealed a $268,000 deficit in the 2005-06 budget. State auditors, who worked on the town's books weekly in Sharpsburg for several months, told town officials that it needed to cut $370,000 from the budget before June to keep the town running.

In addition to completely overhauling its police force by hiring younger and less expensive officers, the new Sharpsburg commissioners took a pay cut and hiked water and sewer rates.

The firing spree began with Town Administrator Becky Maynard. After that, the town dismissed Police Chief William Pernell, Detective Joel Batchelor and dispatcher Trudy Garner, which drew ire from many townspeople. Interim Police Chief George Bottoms resigned from the police department three months after the town board appointed him to replace Pernell, citing lack of support from the board as his reason for leaving. Maynard's replacement, Victor Marrow, was forced out of office by the board six months into his tenure after a clash between him and the Local Government Commission.

The town's 2006-07 budget was not completed by June 30, which is required by state law. The town worked under an interim budget until the final spending plan was completed in July.

8 - When Danny was shot and killed during a July 21 shootout between his handler, Rocky Mount police Cpl. Chris Hicks, and a suspected drug dealer, the canine became the first police dog killed in the line of duty in Rocky Mount.

A memorial service a month later drew 350 people from across the state to honor the fallen K-9 officer.

Hicks and Danny were trying to arrest 26-year-old Marcus Henderson, who has been featured in the Twin Counties Most Wanted, during a traffic stop at Dreaver Street and Lynn Avenue. When the German shepherd pursued him, Henderson shot and killed the dog, police charge.

Hicks returned fire and wounded Henderson in the leg, and he was captured a few blocks away in a storage building.

Charges against Henderson for killing Danny remain, but since the dog's death, there's been a push to make the punishment for committing such a crime harsher.

Under the present law, the suspect accused of killing Danny is charged with a Class I felony, which doesn't carry mandatory prison time. And the law doesn't differentiate between assaulting a police dog and killing one.

Hicks has said repeatedly that Danny will never be forgotten, and he keeps his ashes in an urn at his house.

In December, Hicks began a new era in K-9 service when he started patrolling the streets with Chance, his new partner.

9- In April, demolition crews tore down Tarrytown Mall, the 26th enclosed mall in the United States and the first in Eastern North Carolina.

Tarrytown, which was built in 1963, had stood empty since Hurricane Floyd's floodwaters decimated the structure in 1999.

But in its place, a Sam's Club store slowly began its rise from Tarrytown's rubble.

Sam's Club was one of dozens of new retail stores, restaurants and industry expansions that occurred this year in the Twin Counties.

But a study released in the spring by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research on the continually ailing Eastern North Carolina economy reports that economic development efforts in the depressed region are having little overall effect.

For every economic step forward, Down East often finds itself another step back as layoffs and plant closings in one sector cancel out industrial gains in others.

The region continues to have higher poverty rates, lower per-capita income, more high school dropouts and fewer college graduates than the rest of the state.

Still, there were success stories this year, including a Cheesecake Factory bakery; Sam's Club; Cracker Barrel; Chili's; Bed, Bath & Beyond; Ross Dress for Less; Carolina Crossroads in Roanoke Rapids; Ford's Colony Rocky Mount; and the addition of nearly 900 new jobs at various plants in Nash and Edgecombe counties.

10 - In January, Rocky Mount police started a regular campaign targeting gang activity in the area.

Because gang influence has crept into other parts of the Twin Counties in recent years, area law enforcement agencies sent help to the urban areas of the city.

A Governor's Crime Commission study released last year showed that there were 8,517 gang members in 387 gangs in 2004 throughout the state. Those numbers were up from a 1999 study that indicated there were 5,068 members of 332 gangs in North Carolina.

Rocky Mount has about 200 people who belong to neighborhood groups and about 50 hard-core gang members, police said.

Throughout the year, gang violence made headlines in the Twin Counties.

In March, authorities arrested 11 teenagers after a brawl at Nash Central High School that was gang-related.

The May 3 shooting death of 23-year-old Solomon Gerald Cannon outside a residence on Aqua Court had gang overtones, police said. Detectives arrested five suspects in connection with the murder.

City Council members also passed in November a graffiti ordinance that would help clean up storefronts and buildings that still are being tagged by the city's gang members.

Staff writer John Ramsey contributed to this story.