The past 12 months have been hectic to say the least. Gone, it seems, is the slow pace of life so many people long associated with rural living. As eastern Wake County has become more suburban, the pace of life — and news — has increased.

Here's a look at some of the biggest news stories of 2008. Feel free to comment if you think we've left something out.

The nation's biggest big-box made news throughout the region in 2008. Wal-Mart pulled out of plans to anchor a new shopping center in Knightdale. That decision effectively scuttled the entire project for developer Rick Rowe. He faced stiff opposition from neighbors who didn't want the commercial development in their backyard. Meanwhile, in Zebulon there were no such problems with neighbors as Wal-Mart opened its store on N.C. 97 at U.S. 264. The opening of that store has brought with it several other chains, including Alltel, RadioShack and Murphy Oil.

Business news was a regular part of the news junkie's diet in 2008 as the housing market crumbled and banks started admitting problems with risky subprime mortgages. No banks in eastern Wake County have shuttered their doors, but the pace of residential development has slowed to a crawl as developers find it difficult to gain access to credit. The biggest victim of the credit crunch appears to be the developers of Wendell Falls who have all but stopped work on a project that would triple the town's population.

The past year also saw an historic election. Barack Obama defeated John McCain for the presidency, becoming the first black person to ever win that office. Before Obama defeated McCain he had to fend off a challenge from former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton who entered 2008 as the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination. Her campaign included a barnstorming visit to North Carolina by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who held a rally in downtown Zebulon just a few days before the North Carolina primary in May.

Next week's print edition of the Eastern Wake News will include a closer look of what made the headlines in 2008.

NBC has announced that John McCain will appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Tuesday, Nov. 11th, 11:35pm. This will be McCain's first appearance since the election. Read the NBC press release here.

Here's one from 35 years ago that still seems relevant today -- whether you're pulling for That One or the "Country First" guy. If you've not yet voted, please be sure you make plans to get'r done on Tuesday.

Take this for whatever it's worth: College newspapers are endorsing Barack Obama for president in overwhelming numbers.

So says Editor & Publisher, a journalism trade publication. By its count, Obama leads 63-1. The "1" is the paper at the University of Mississippi.

The New York Times has a fascinating article about how the election storyline in The West Wing (which ended in 2006) is eerily foreshadowing the Obama-McCain race. West Wing writers actually based the Jimmy Smits character (young Democratic congressman and Presidential hopeful Matthew Santos) on Barack Obama, who had just delivered a big speech at the DNC in 2004. There are also incredible similarities between John McCain and Alan Alda's character -- a longtime Republican Senator with white hair and a reputation for "straight talk."

Read the story here.

Earlier this month, two Campbell University students and a buddy from Virginia Tech were up in Virginia Beach for a John McCain rally.

It was their lucky day. The Straight Talk Express rumbled by, they waved it down, and the candidate himself got out and chatted them up. McCain even gave them some hot chocolate - after his secret service detail had inspected their cell phones.

The Campbell students are Eric Paul Hardy and Michael Meredity and their Virginia Tech buddy is Brendan Ahurns. Their tale is recounted in a recent Campbell University press release. I can't find a link to the release, so here are the essentials:

 "We were just out and about and driving up the boulevard on Ocean Front approaching the Hilton Hotel," said Hardy, who is a junior government major from Shoals, NC. "There was no one around, but when we looked to our immediate left, there was the Straight Talk Express."

Some communications professors from universities across the nation are taking issue with the way the McCain/Palin camp is putting out information.

As I write this, 138 professors, including a handful from the communications departments at N.C. State and UNC Chapel Hill, have signed an online statement criticizing the Republican presidential candidate's campaign for what it claims are distortions. Among other issues, the statement criticizes McCain's linking Democratic nominee Barack Obama to Bill Ayers, a 1960s domestic terrorist-turned-university professor. You may recall that Ayers is himself the subject of an online petition this campaign season and is enjoying the support of many of his academic colleagues.

The communications statement also charges the McCain camp with stoking "the fires of racism" for some controversial comments made by local Republican groups.

The statement does include a vague admonition to Obama's camp but does not mention specifics. It says in part:

"Both major campaigns have been criticized by fact-checking organizations for prevarications. We call on both campaigns to halt blatant misrepresentations of their opponent's positions.

It would be misleading, however, to imply that since "both sides do it," there is no qualitative difference worth noting. In recent weeks, the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin has engaged in such incendiary mendacity that we must speak out. The purposeful dissemination of messages that a communicator knows to be false and inflammatory is unethical. It is that simple."

The McCain appearance on Letterman was actually pretty funny last night.

When Letterman asked McCain why he cancelled on him back in September, McCain said, "I screwed up." Twice. Big laughs. McCain was funny and relaxed.

Then they got into a slightly more heated political discussion and things were tense at times. A lot of the same ole same ole: not enough town hall debates, spread the wealth, Joe the Plumber, and Sarah Palin -- about whom McCain said, "I didn't know her well at all."

Letterman pressed him pretty hard his Obama/Ayers attacks, and McCain got a little heated in his criticism. But he seemed momentarily stunned when Letterman asked him about his own relationship with Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy.

If you missed the show, it's on the Late Show with David Letterman website.

But this wasn't the only place serving up political laughs last night. McCain and Barack Obama roasted each other at the Al Smith Dinner in New York, and they were pretty funny. Obama said that his first name is actually Swahili for "that one," and McCain revealed that Obama's pet name for him is "George Bush." There's video here.

Joe Biden appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, but according to the LA Times blogger, it wasn't all that funny -- except for Biden's "gaffe" intro.

And -- this could be great -- Sarah Palin is scheduled to appear on Saturday Night Live tomorrow night. Now that is a DVR Alert!

Hey, remember last month when John McCain cancelled on David Letterman so he could dash back to D.C. and save the economy? So does Letterman. Tonight we get to see if Dave is over it yet. There's a lot of buzz about McCain's appearance (CBS, 11:35 p.m.): Will they patch things up? Will there be tension? Or will it be a total letdown? 

With the presidential campaign entering its final weeks, both candidates' celebrity supporters are speaking up. And here are competing endorsements from the twangy end of the musical spectrum. On one side, we have bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley representing the blue; and on the other, country scion Hank Williams Jr. representing the red.

We report, you decide.