Has it been another whole year already? One trip around the sun ago, we took a look at five stories that were buried by the press ["Six Feet Under," Jan. 13]. Coverage in general got a little better this year, if only because official misconduct was so egregious that it couldn't be overlooked. Still, the media loves the Big Story, and at times similar but less-sexy stories get lost. Below are five stories you may have missed this year, where they surfaced (or at least where they caught our attention), why they were overshadowed, how verifiable they seem to be, and who benefited and suffered most.

THE STORY: Slate's Dan Markel points to an investigation in the Houston Chronicle exposing evidence that Texas executed an innocent man, Ruben Cantu, in 1993. Cantu was convicted of murder chiefly on the testimony of an eyewitness who has since cleared Cantu of the crime.

OVERSHADOWED BY: The execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams. After all, on one hand you've got an already-dead Latino; on the other, a circus involving a kid-lit-writing gangbanger, candlelight vigils and a certain always-newsworthy bad-actor-turned-bad-governor.

HOW TRUE?? The Chronicle is circumspect about making claims one way or the other, but dances very close to full exoneration.

WINNER: John Singleton. Just in time for next year's Oscar season, Tookie: The Movie (sure, it's been done on TV, but nobody saw the Jamie Foxx one), produced by Tim and Susan, starring 50 Cent as Tookie (what was the part after "Get rich" again, Fiddy?), Sean Penn as Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Steve Earle as Sean Penn.

LOSER: Self-defeating death-penalty opponents, who chose instead to rally around Tookie. Sure, he had the advantage over Cantu of still being alive and rescuable. But just because Ice Cube has become the cuddliest black dad since Bill Cosby, that doesn't mean that white suburbia is ready to embrace the head Crip, even if he did reinvent himself as Compton's Dr. Seuss.

THE STORY: In another shrug of its shoulders at the Voting Rights Act, Alberto Gonzales' DOJ waved its bejeweled hand at a new Georgia law requiring voters to present photo IDs, without providing any alternative options.

OVERSHADOWED BY: Similar Justice Department lack of objection over Tom DeLay's rejiggered Texas legislative districts, despite the qualms of department lawyers. Given that the two stories share a similar theme of Republicans attempting to suppress the turnout of certain types of voters, I can't argue with focusing on the one featuring a high-profile Evil, Right-Wing Celebrity, but DeLay's concerns are more with grabbing power, where Georgia's law feels more like a good old-fashioned poll tax.

HOW TRUE?? Despite what year your calendar might read, it's true.

WINNER/LOSER: Actually, the law's in a bit of a stalemate at the moment, under injunction and seemingly on route to being overturned. The Georgia legislature is willing to compromise as long as voters without photo IDs promise to call them "Massuh."

THE STORY: California's National Guard has quietly set up a special intelligence unit with authority to monitor information on potential terrorist threats. One such threat apparently was a Mother's Day anti-war rally organized by the families of slain U.S. soldiers.

OVERSHADOWED BY: This was treated as a local story, but now that we know that Bush is listening in on your phone conversations, seems maybe it's not such a good idea to let these "death by inches" stories slip by unnoticed.

HOW TRUE?? Absolutely, but what's the big deal? If we have to sacrifice a few freedoms in order to protect those freedoms, isn't it worth the loss of those freedoms to prevent the terrorists from taking them away?

WINNER: Circular logic.

LOSER: Cindy Sheehan, who is absolutely sick and tired of clicking over for call waiting only to find nobody there.

THE STORY: In February 2001, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis was murdered gangland-style. Boulis was the founder of SunCruz Casinos, the sale of which is one of the myriad shady dealings for which lobbyist Jack Abramoff is now in a whole heap o' trouble. Abramoff, of course, counts Tom DeLay as one of his bosom chums, and the senator is facing the consequences of some of his own ethical lapses, many of which are linked to Abramoff in complicated ways. Actually, the whole thing is very labyrinthine and hard-to-follow. Let's just say that on the outskirts of the moral black hole labeled "Tom DeLay" lies one dead Greek body.

OVERSHADOWED BY: Lots of ugliness perpetrated by DeLay and/or Abramoff. Bilking Indian casinos out of millions, bribery, you name it. All of which is slightly easier to explain than a four-year-old murder on the periphery, which may or may not have vague ties to some of the players.

HOW TRUE?? Who knows? Just trying to think about all the various threads of the story at one time is migraine-inducing. There was a murder, and there are legit questions leading back to Abramoff, or at least his partner, but too many characters muddle the story. Of course, pinning the crime on The Hammer would be a much tidier narrative (despite the fact that even the wildest speculation hasn't pegged this any closer than two or three degrees of separation from DeLay himself). To wit:

1. He's evil.

2. He used to be an exterminator. Even (or should I say, especially) the laziest novelist would see the poetic parallels in that.

3. Have you seen that mug shot? DeLay's stage-managed grin is a perfectly coiffed death's-head; slap on a little clown white and you have a self-portrait worthy of John Wayne Gacy. One glance at that distorted rictus and you can see that this guy's left some bodies in his wake. Even if they don't belong to Konstantinos Boulis. But for expediency's sake, let's pretend that they do.

WINNER: Tom DeLay, naturally. For apparently getting away with … something. Even if no one is sure of exactly what.

LOSER: Texas justice, R.I.P.

THE STORY: Kansas sank back into the primordial ooze by removing the term "natural explanations" from its definition of science. Which is akin to removing the word "past" from a history curriculum.

OVERSHADOWED BY: The recent faith-in-humanity-restoring election in Dover, Pa., which resulted in the complete roust of the IDers, and proved that somehow all of the community's dumbest members wound up on the school board. Kansas stealthily moved under the cover of Dover, being savvy enough to not mention "intelligent design" or creationism; and since by now almost everyone pictures Kansas' entire population as resembling the kid from Deliverance, the media just yawned and looked away.

HOW TRUE?? Shockingly, appallingly, Jesus-freakingly true.

WINNER: The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

LOSER: God. Seriously, the big guy can't survive much more of this shit.