Here are the biggest local news stories of the year, 10 at a time.

MANATEE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT

The threat of continuing protests prompted the Manatee County Commission in August to order that a 22-foot granite Confederate memorial on the courthouse lawn be placed into storage until a new site for it can be agreed upon.

But the 8.5-ton obelisk broke as movers lifted it.

Just three days earlier, hundreds of protestors gathered at the courthouse. Objectors called the monument that the United Daughters of the Confederacy donated to the county in 1924 a tribute to racism and slavery that does not belong at a place where residents seek justice. Counter protestors defended the memorial as a recognition of war veterans and Southern history.

The monument, which county officials say can be repaired, is being kept at an undisclosed location.

MINIVAN PLUNGES INTO VENICE INLET

The deaths of Carol Hayden, 64, and her father, Eugene Hayden, 88, in May, shocked area residents — and especially the community within Village on the Isle — as they drowned after their minivan plunged into the Venice Inlet, off of the South Jetty.

Many horrified onlookers watched as the vehicle sank while currents carried it toward the Gulf of Mexico. Two bystanders, Tim Cobb and Brett Stevens, jumped in to try to help Venice Police Office Paul Watson rescue the Haydens.

Hundreds mourned the father and daughter at a candlelight vigil hosted at Village on the Isle. They were remembered as being loving, free spirited and fun to be around.

PLAYERS CENTRE RECEIVES $1 MILLION GIFT

In the midst of a fundraising campaign that will lead to a brand new multi-theater complex in Lakewood Ranch, the Players Centre for Performing Arts received a major boost with one of the largest gifts in its history. In June, the Muriel O’Neil Fund for the Performing Arts at the Community Foundation of Sarasota County announced it was making a $1 million gift to the theater’s new project.

Managing director Michelle Bianchi said the theater is still negotiating with the city of Sarasota and private developers on the sale of its current facility. Funds from that sale would be used for the first phase of the Lakewood Ranch project, which she hopes will begin in 2019. The theater, the oldest performing arts organization in Sarasota, announced in 2016 that it will leave its longtime home in Sarasota for Lakewood Ranch, where it will have space to expand its operations.

Bianchi said fundraising is moving forward but the efforts were derailed a bit in September after Hurricane Irma caused more than $150,000 in damage to the existing facility.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA MARKET

You can’t smoke it, but 2017 was the year medical marijuana became available in Florida in edible and other forms, creating one of the largest marijuana markets in the country and a rush of new companies looking to serve patients.

Florida lawmakers passed legislation in June implementing the voter-approved 2016 constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana. The chief backer of the constitutional amendment promptly filed a lawsuit, saying the Legislature’s ban on smoking medical marijuana violated the intention of the amendment.

While that court case plays out, medical providers and marijuana companies aren’t wasting any time getting the product to patients in other forms, such as edibles and oils. The first Southwest Florida marijuana dispensary opened in Bradenton in September, and a Sarasota company recently began growing marijuana with plans to open dispensaries in 2018.

ALEX MILLER RESIGNS FROM LEGISLATURE

Sarasota state Rep. Alex Miller shocked local political observers in September by resigning just nine months into her first term, citing business and family obligations.

Miller’s resignation prompted a rare special election to fill her seat, and it put the northern Sarasota County House district in the spotlight as a race to watch to see how the political winds are blowing after the election of President Donald Trump.

The state Democratic Party is strongly supporting Siesta Key attorney Margaret Good in the race, hoping to flip the seat and boost enthusiasm in the party heading into the 2018 midterm elections. Republicans are rallying behind James Buchanan, the son of U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, to try to hold onto the seat. There is also a third party candidate, Libertarian Alison Foxall.

GUNS IN THE COURTHOUSE

A trio of appellate judges from the Florida Second District Court of Appeal are trying to determine the extent of a judge's powers and how they impact the sheriff's responsibilities.

The constitutional impasse began after Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight ordered all of his deputies out of all non-courtroom facilities operated by the court. Chief Judge Charles Williams sent the sheriff an order, telling him to return the deputies to their screening stations.

The sheriff appealed the judge's order to the appeals court, where the case remains.

The impasse began when Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, tried to enter the “Sarasota Historic Courthouse” on Main Street with a concealed weapon.

Private security guards and a sheriff’s deputy denied Steube access. He later complained to Knight in an email an hour after the encounter. “I informed the security guard that I had a concealed carry permit and was licensed to carry,” Steube wrote. “The agent said that it was a government building and I was not permitted to carry weapons.”

GROCERY BOOM

Move over Publix, there’s new competition in town and more on the way.

Two-thousand seventeen was a big year for the organic grocery business in Southwest Florida, with long-anticipated projects like the Lucky’s Market at Westfield Siesta Key and Sprouts Farmers Market in Pelican Plaza at U.S. 41 and Beneva Roads finally coming to fruition. Both stores welcomed hundreds of people for their grand openings in April and October, respectively. Sarasota’s second Whole Foods Market hasn’t announced a grand opening yet, but the grocery store at the intersection of Honore Avenue and University Parkway is expected to open in the coming weeks.

The grocery boom will continue into 2018. Earth Fare has plans for its first Southwest Florida store underway at the northeast corner of State Road 70 and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. Locally owned Detwiler's Farm Market has plans for a fourth store at at 1800 U.S. 301 in Palmetto, and company officials have said that figure could grow to as many as 10 stores from Tampa to Fort Myers in the next decade.

Even Publix is getting in on the action. Florida’s big green grocery giant has its first Osprey store under construction in the old Southbay Shopping at Blackburn Point Road and U.S. 41. Documents filed with the city of Sarasota also show the company has a new store in the works in Town and Country Plaza at Fruitville and Beneva roads.

CITY OF SARASOTA PENSION ERRORS

Sarasota city leaders hired a new pension manager in 2017 after several issues with its former manager, including more than $30 million in accounting errors in the city's pension fund ledgers.

Although the errors were only on paper — the $30 million was never gone, simply misreported on general ledgers for those accounts — they led to the discipline and eventually the resignation of pension manager Harry Ramphal. Ramphal also was responsible for an overpayment of more than $38,500 to one city retiree in 2016, which the city then had to try to recoup.

Cynthia Akersloot was promoted from pensions accountant to replace Ramphal later in the year and city auditor and clerk Pamela Nadalini has said the city has adjusted its internal controls to prevent the same mistakes from occurring again.

DIVERGING DIAMOND OPENS

The long-awaited "diverging diamond" interchange finally opened at Interstate 75 and University Parkway in May.

The $74.5 million federally funded project was officially completed in time for the 2017 World Rowing Championships in September, as promised before the project began three years ago.

The interchange that briefly crosses traffic onto the opposite side of the road is the first of its kind in Florida and the largest of its kind in the country. But more diverging diamonds are on the way in Florida, including modified interchanges at I-75 intersections with U.S. 301, State Road 64, State Road 70 and Bee Ridge Road.

CARLIE BRUCIA

Susan Schorpen, the mother of young murder victim Carlie Brucia, died in Polk County in April of a suspected overdose, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff said she was one of eight victims believed to have died in in the county in 2017 because of a heroin overdose.

Schorpen’s emotional pleas for the return of Carlie after she was kidnapped by Joseph P. Smith from Evie’s Car Wash on Bee Ridge Avenue captivated the nation during a six-day search in February 2004.

In July, a Sarasota County circuit judge granted a part of Smith’s motion to vacate his death sentence for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Brucia. The ruling, which did not overturn the verdict, stated that he was entitled to the vacation of his sentence under the amended death penalty statute.

A date for the new sentencing trial has not yet been set.