| Happy New Year, Katy Insiders! I hope you all had a meaningful and restful holiday season. It's officially 2023, so I thought that to celebrate the new year we'd take a look back on the top Katy stories from 2022. Check out this hits from last year -- and any current updates on where the story is now. A tablet containing the words of an ancient Hebrew curse predating the Dead Sea Scrolls was uncovered and translated by an archaeologist from Katy. The discovery could be proof that the Bible is hundreds of years older than scholars previously thought. I check in with Dr. Scott Stripling regularly, and I'm hoping in the next few months we could have confirmation that his discovery is the real deal. As Katy ISD's book policy continue to draw controversy, a Katy ISD teacher "decimated" the classroom library. The district now requires parents to "opt-in" for their children to have access to classroom libraries. A blackmail attempt left a Houston restaurant bombarded with 1-star Google reviews. Katy foodies weren't having it, and they flooded the restaurant's Google page with 5-star reviews until Google was able to remove the fraudulent 1-star reviews. The situation is rectified for now, but it seems that similar blackmail efforts are on the rise across the country. Paetow High School's head football coach and campus athletic coordinator Lonnie Teagle resigned from his position after an allegation of inappropriate conduct with a student. Teagle was officially charged with two felonies: "improper relationship with a student" and "indecency with a child sexual contact," in November. A beer brewed at Katy's No Label Brewing Co. was ranked the No. 2 beer in the world at the world's largest beer competition. Real estate website Opendoor released its annual list of the top 20 "hottest" ZIP codes in terms of real estate, and two in Katy made the cut. The study ranked ZIP codes 77494 and 77493 as the No. 7 and No. 9 neighborhoods in the country, respectively. First Christian Church in Katy is seeing massive growth despite open hatred over its embracing of the LGBTQ community. Its recent fundraising event "Drag Bingo" drew protesters with guns and Nazi salutes. Two Katy restaurants were named to Yelp's list of the top 100 places to eat in Texas for 2022. In the list, That's My Dog and Pappa Gyros ranked No. 27 and No. 84 respectively for the best food joints in Texas, based on ratings from the popular review website. Fort Bend County is requesting $40,000 be returned from a political consulting firm with Democratic ties hired for a COVID outreach. An audit found the company submitted questionable expenses and did not comply with terms of the $345,000 deal. Following the results from the audit, the county is now auditing more contracts with Democratic consulting firms. Sports-themed entertainment venues are having a moment in Katy. Home Run Dugout, a new baseball entertainment venue similar to Topgolf, announced that it will be opening a Katy location. The new venue will be opening some time this year. Meanwhile, Tiger Wood's Popstroke opened in December. Popstroke is billed as a family-friendly golf and dining experience designed and co-founded by Woods. What was your favorite story of 2022? Let me know your thoughts at claire.goodman@chron.com. | 
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