As usual, Northwest Indiana and Chicago's southern suburbs saw no shortage of news -- good and bad -- during the past year.

Stories ran the gamut, from the opening of a Cabela's store in Hammond, to debate about air and water permits for BP Whiting Refinery and U.S. Steel to housing slumps to banking and casino expansions, dreams of improving passenger rail service and hopes to land a permanent carrier at Gary/Chicago International Airport

Times Business Writers Andrea Holecek, Keith Benman and Susan Erler recap the top developments below.

Cabela's opens in Hammond

After three years of discussion, planning and building, Cabela's opened at Interstate 80/94 and Indianapolis Boulevard in south Hammond on Oct. 19. The 185,000-square-foot, large-format destination store, with a staff of almost 400, is located on about 42 acres of the 100 acres of the former Woodmar Country Club, which was acquired by the Nebraska based company in 2005.

It is the company's 23rd retail location.

The construction of the $72 million store was spurred by an incentive package put together by the city and state. The development is expected to act as a catalyst for other commercial developments, including a water park, hotels and restaurants.

Steel accidents at ArcelorMittal

Following a series of maintenance problems at ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor's C blast furnace in late 2006 and a bustle pipe rupture in February, the furnace on March 1 ejected molten metal as it was being restarted, seriously burning steelmaker David Ranus.

Ranus was more than 50 feet away when molten metal was ejected from the furnace, covering the backhoe he was driving and burning through its triple glass windows.

On Aug. 28, a flash fire at the basic oxygen furnace burned seven workers, five severely. Workers were tapping the furnace to release its 300 tons of molten steel when a chemical reaction of unknown origin sent the vessel's temperature so high that a fireball of liquid steel and scrap erupted, injuring the workers.

BP under the environmental microscope

An apparently flawed story in a Chicago newspaper concerning a new BP waste water discharge permit that was approved by state and federal regulators in June caused a huge outcry from environmentalists and government officials. They charged that under the new permit, BP would be allowed to dump more harmful pollutants into Lake Michigan and the Lake George branch of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal as it treated and discharged its industrial waste water.

BP must have both new waste water and air permits for its $3.8 billion expansion.

Local Ford plant, workers see changes

Ford changed vehicle models produced at the Chicago Ford Assembly Plant for the 2008 year, reintroducing the retooled and updated Taurus and Sable, which were out of production for the 2007 model year. Despite the hoopla surrounding their launch, sales of the vehicles and other Ford models were lethargic.

UAW workers at the plant, which will begin producing the Lincoln MKS for the 2009 model year, the Chicago Heights Stamping Plant and Ford's other facilities, voted to approve a new contract with Ford in November. In exchange for approving the agreement that created a two-tier wage structure, the company established a Voluntary Employee Benefit Agreement to fund retiree health care, gave workers a $3,000 bonus and promised that -- for the life of the contract -- it would not close any assembly plants as it had proposed under its 2006 restructuring plan and wold continue production of the current model and add more.

Woodmar Mall rebuilding stalled

Demolition of Hammond's aging Woodmar shopping center at 165th Street and Indianapolis Boulevard was almost complete during the winter of 2006 with only support beams connecting the mall to the Carson Pirie Scott building remaining. Yet despite the urging of city officials, the mall remains empty except for Carson's as the mall's owner, Northbrook, Ill.-based Praedium Development Corp., failed to rebuild the mall as planned.

Under its original proposal, a new 100,000-square-foot Carson Pirie Scott store was to be built on the southwest corner of the property and the old Carson's store torn down and the mall was to host national retail tenants similar to those at Praedium's Town Square shopping center in Schererville.

-- Andrea Holecek

SkyValue ditches flights

In late April, an airline that had landed in Gary with high hopes four months before, announced it would ditch all flights. SkyValue cited weak demand in giving customers 10 days notice to get back home or get a refund.

Gary/Chicago International Airport officials revealed they had made a last-minute $325,000 loan to SkyValue in an attempt to keep it flying two weeks before. But the airline had fallen so far behind on its airplane rental payments there was no saving it.

The last-minute loan, made by airport director Chris Curry with the approval of airport authority president the Rev. Marion Johnson Jr., was approved after the fact by the airport authority board in a divided vote. Curry pointed out the loan had prevented the immediate cessation of flights, which would have left travelers stranded in far-off airports.

The money has not been repaid and SkyValue has since been sued for $2.2 million by its former aircraft provider Xtra Airways, of Elko, Nev.

Peace declared in Toll Road war

Gov. Mitch Daniels prevented a Toll Road boarder war in mid-June by pledging that the state would pay for a 40 percent discount for drivers using I-Pass on the privatized Indiana Toll Road.

Illinois had threatened to yank I-Pass transponders from 90,000 Hoosiers because ITR Concession Co. said it would not extend I-Pass users the 40 percent discount that was to be offered to users of Indiana's I-Zoom.

The Illinois Tollway Authority cried foul because Indiana residents using I-Pass get full discounts on their roadways and they also planned to offer the discount to I-Zoom users. The dispute held up the implementation of I-Zoom in Northwest Indiana.

Sale fails, NiSource flails

NIPSCO parent company NiSource Inc. announced at the end of May it had called off an effort to sell NIPSCO because offers for the utility were insufficient. NiSource stock fell 8 percent for the day after the morning announcement.

In January it had been reported that NIPSCO's electric business, with 445,000 customers in Northern Indiana, was on the sales block, with big names like Duke Energy and Exelon in the hunt. It was not until late May that NiSource CEO Robert Skaggs Jr. confirmed that sales discussions with interested parties had been initiated and then broken off.

Skaggs' announcement spelled relief for consumers and employees anxious about the sale. A sale could have reduced the number of major players in Indiana's electricity market, eventually hiking rates, consumer advocates said.

NIRPC backs South Shore extension

The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission executive board voted 9-0 in mid-December in favor of supporting legislation to finance and build the $1 billion South Shore extension.

The commission joined a parade of business groups and some town councils in backing the extension, which will need at least $500 million in local funding. The vote could give some wavering Northwest Indiana legislators cover if they vote for legislation authorizing a new tax to fund it.

Porter County Commissioner Bob Harper, a NIRPC member, opposed adoption of the resolution and questioned why it was not put to the full 53-member NIRPC commission. He said citizens currently facing a property tax crisis are leery of shouldering the burden of a new tax that will benefit relatively few people.

-- Keith Benman

Iroquois Bio-Energy goes online

Northwest Indiana opened its first ethanol production facility Jan. 18, when the long-awaited Iroquois Bio-Energy went online.

The $66 million, 44,000-square-foot plant has capacity for processing up to 14.3 million bushels of corn a year into 40 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol.

The plant employs 34 workers and provides a market for locally grown corn.

The Australian investment firm Babcock & Brown Ltd. bought the plant in mid-2007, adding to its portfolio of three ethanol plants, one in Minnesota and two under construction in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Four Winds Casino Resorts opens

Pokagon Band leaders unveiled a $400 million Four Winds Casino Resort, providing a look at the first land-based and tribally operated competitor in the Northwest Indiana gaming market.

The sprawling casino on 50 acres outside of New Buffalo, Mich., houses a 145,000-square-foot casino designed to look like a north woods lodge, with 130,000 square feet for slot machines, table games and poker.

Four Winds' opening sent business into a tailspin for nearby competitor Blue Chip casino in Michigan City. By November, Blue Chip had seen revenues decline by 32 percent from the previous year, and the casino laid off about 75 workers.

Ameristar closes deal on Resorts East Chicago

Las Vegas-based Ameristar Casino closed a deal to buy Resorts East Chicago casino from Resorts International Holdings LLC for $675 million, plus about $10 million in transaction costs.

The company said it plans to spend up to $25 million to improve the casino before rebranding it as an Ameristar property.

Ameristar is the latest in a string of four owners in 10 years for the East Chicago riverboat, which began life in 1997 as Showboat Mardi Gras.

The Harrah's casino company bought it in 1999 and opened an adjoining hotel but by early 2005 had sold the East Chicago casino to Resorts International Holdings, an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC.

Homes sales continue to fall in Northwest Indiana

Northwest Indiana home sales fell for the seventh straight month in October, as a slump in the U.S. housing market continued to deepen.

The good news was that the median selling price of a Northwest Indiana home held fairly steady, bucking a nationwide trend.

The 6.7 percent drop posted in October for U.S. home prices was the largest monthly drop since 1991.

Some homeowners in Northwest Indiana were among those across the U.S. struggling to make mortgage payments, as properties in some stage of foreclosure more than doubled nationwide from a year earlier.

Vale Shopping Center comes to Porter

The September opening of a J.C. Penny store marked the official debut of Porter's Vale Shopping Center.

The 750,000-square-foot shopping and entertainment complex is being developed on 100 acres at Ind. 49 and Ind. 2.

A Cinemark movie theater is expected to open in early 2008 at the shopping center.

-- Sue Erler