Sen. Bernie Sanders’ strength in the Democratic presidential primaries has been chosen the top Vermont story of the year for 2016 in a poll of journalists at Associated Press member newspapers and broadcasters. Second place went to something much more tragic: the October deaths of five Harwood Union High School students in a crash caused by a wrong-way driver on Interstate 89. Others on the top 10 list included the alleged “Ponzi-like” scheme to defraud foreign investors in development projects in northern Vermont; Republican Phil Scott’s victory in the gubernatorial race; and the failed effort to legalize marijuana.