NEWPORT-Cocke County has a wide range of events headlining the top stories of 2012.

The biggest story to start the year was multiple rockslides on Interstate 40. The two rockslides happened just days apart, but fortunately for the local economy both slides were cleared within days to allow westbound traffic to flow again on I-40.

A positive event with the start of the year was a visit to Cocke County by Secretary of State Tre Hargett.

In court news, the arraignment of local businessman Dan Ford in the 2011 traffic death of a bicyclist on Wilton Springs Road was a major story in January. Ford's trial is scheduled after the first of the year.

Also in court news, Jeff Stock was returned to Cocke County in January and arraigned in the death of teenager Megan Maxwell, who disappeared in April of 2009 and whose body was discovered in November 2010 in a rural area of Cocke County. Stock's trial is scheduled in January 2013.

March brought some good news with the announcement that Newport Cinemas was re-opening after being closed for just over a year.

For more details, please see the Tuesday edition of the Newport Plain Talk.