More than 33,000 jobs lost, millions of dollars cut from the state budget and foreclosures peppering neighborhoods across the state _ many Idaho residents spent 2009 hoping and praying for better times ahead.

The economic crisis touched nearly every aspect of life in Idaho, reaching into public school classrooms, local housing markets, the halls of the Statehouse and the courts to become the biggest news story of 2009.

Still, hopes are high that economic recovery could be the story of 2010: Idaho's chief economist Mike Ferguson said earlier this month that Idaho's non-farm employment showed a slight uptick in jobs in November. Ferguson said if the trend holds, it could mean the state has hit rock bottom and can begin to look for a path out of the recession.

Here are the other top stories of 2009 chosen by The Associated Press:

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Idaho soldier missing in Afghanistan:

The news began July 2 as a cryptic U.S. military announcement: An Army private was in Taliban hands after walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan. No name was released, officials said, to protect the soldier.

On July 17, however, the frightened face of Bowe Bergdahl, from tiny Hailey, Idaho, became familiar to the world after Taliban militants released a video of 23-year-old. Residents of Hailey adorned Main Street trees with yellow ribbons. Their message: "Bring Bowe Home."

In mid-December, the Taliban's media arm announced it would release a new video of a captive U.S. soldier. So far, however, no video has emerged publicly.

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Public wolf hunts:

Idaho was joined by Montana in opening the first gray wolf hunts in the lower 48 states after the animal was removed from the endangered list across much of the Northern Rockies. Gray wolves once ranged from Alaska to Mexico, but hunting, trapping and government-sponsored poisoning wiped out the species across most of the lower 48 states by the 1930s. The animals were listed as endangered in 1974, and didn't return to the region in significant numbers until 66 Canadian wolves were relocated to Idaho and Wyoming in the mid-1990s.

Idaho's efforts to allow the animals to be hunting spawned federal lawsuits, but despite the legal battles the season opened Sept. 1 with a quota of 220 wolves.

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The acquittal of Robert Aragon: