It was the year many of us would like to put in the rear view mirror.
But even on New Year’s Eve — with all the hope and prayers for better days ahead — the events, actions and circumstances of 2020 are by no means fading away.
The threat of the worldwide pandemic has not diminished despite news that vaccines are on the way. The holidays have brought on a surge in local COVID-19 cases and deaths as the virus continues to spread through Merced County.
Local mom-and-pop stores, restaurants and other small businesses are still facing closures and financial ruin as local, state, and federal agencies scramble to roll out new rounds of economic relief packages.
The status of our education system — from elementary schools to the university level — remains tentatively in hybrid learning and the reality of an unpredictable, immediate future.
The fallout of last summer’s violent social unrest across the nation continues to simmer, and the controversies and consequences of a historic election year remain in the public eye.
With this in mind, the Times presents our most memorable pictures of 2020.
You know, they say every picture tells a story.
Well, we say the story in each of these pictures … isn’t over yet.

SHELTER FROM THE VIRUS — Monica Villa kneels just inside the door of her hotel room along with her dog Dory-fish. Villa made the local news once again in 2020 for entering the mayoral race as a candidate while also participating in the statewide Project Roomkey program for seniors and other vulnerable residents who are homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CONTROVERSIAL TOWN HALL – A resident puts a chokehold on Merced City Councilman Fernando Echevarria after the leader requested him to do so in order to demonstrate how the manuever can be dangerous if used by police. The display during an outdoor town hall meeting on police use-of-force policies infuriated many of the residents present who complained it was offensive. Echevarria would later be censured by his colleagues on the council for his actions during a period of local protests marked by the Black Lives Matter movement.