The new year is just a few days away! What will you remember about 2015? If trying to reflect on your year is about as easy as trying to remember what you ate yesterday, let’s do a quick review of Arizona’s newsworthy year. Here are a few things that kept Arizona in the news around the world and were just a little too weird to not forget.

1. In February, a couple of llamas decided to escape their captors by running through the streets of Peoria.
gorfor/Flickr


This was my favorite story from the year, partly because so many people were involved in trying to catch them and CNN shifted their terror news focus onto llamas on the run. Also, we live in Arizona so there should be more people with lasso skills.
2. Senate Bill 1241 was passed and signed into law by the governor, which bans cities from banning plastic bags.
Regan Walsh/Flickr
Evidently it's a "state" issue not a city issue.
3. A Tombstone reenactment got a little too real in October when an actor used live ammunition, shooting two people.
Andrew Rollinger/Flickr
4. A congressman boycotted the Pope's speech to Congress because of their differing views on climate change.
Speaker John Boehner/Flickr
I'm not sure how that impacted Paul Gosar's constituents, but other members of Congress seemed quite pleased with seeing the Pope.
5. A rouge pumpkin rolled down the streets of Peoria.
Karen/Flickr


Thankfully, no one was injured by the 350-pound inflated squash.

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6. Our governor announced plans to rebrand Arizona to fix up some of our image problems from years past.
Lonny Weaver/Flickr
7. In November, Arizona made national news when a three and a half week old baby goat was stolen from the state fair.
Kevin Dooley/Flickr


Thankfully, Gusgus was found and returned home.
8. A Pinal County family came back from Disneyland with measles, exposing upwards of 1,000 people in Pinal County and Maricopa County to the highly contagious disease.
NIAID/Flickr
9. Late night earthquakes and their aftershocks hit the state in November.
Dave Schumaker/Flickr
The three earthquakes were considered "light" since they measured 4.1 and lower on the Richter scale, causing no known damage.
10. ADOT has gotten clever in their signs this year.
Photo via Arizona Department of Transportation
Referencing the new Star Wars film and a much detested green pea guacamole recipe from the New York Times, ADOT has stepped up the sign writing game.

Are there any other strange Arizona news stories you remember from this year? What do you think made 2015 a year to remember?

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