Motorists have long grumbled about Pennsylvania's notoriously potholed highway system, but rarely has state government come in for more criticism over infrastructure than it did in 2007.

Between PennDOT's botched response to a freak Valentine's Day snowstorm that stranded hundreds of motorists and lawmakers' highly unpopular plan to toll Interstate 80, transportation issues helped drive the news in Pennsylvania this year. And state officials found themselves dealing with one blown tire after another.

What else got the Keystone State talking in 2007?

It was one heck of a traffic jam, and it was largely avoidable.

Hundreds of motorists spent a frigid night in their vehicles last Feb. 14 and 15 as snow, ice and freezing rain blocked 150 miles of interstate highway in eastern Pennsylvania. Transportation and emergency officials conceded they failed to prepare for the storm, then did not respond quickly enough as the situation deteriorated. The state said it has addressed many of the communications and logistical problems that contributed to the backlog.

In July, the Legislature voted to introduce tolls on Interstate 80, with the aim of raising $116 billion over 50 years for highway and bridge projects. The plan, which awaits federal approval, drew fierce opposition from business owners, residents, truckers and public officials in northern Pennsylvania. One furious resident said lawmakers viewed the rural population that lives near I-80 like "ignorant hicks" who wouldn't put up a fight.

Powerful state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo battled federal charges that he defrauded taxpayers and a local nonprofit he controlled out of more than $2 million. Among the juiciest allegations: that the Philadelphia Democrat used Senate staff to spy on his ex-wife. "I know in my heart that I have not done anything illegal," said Fumo, who has beaten two other federal raps in a 30-year Senate career.

Fumo wasn't the only state official under a cloud. A senator from Western Pennsylvania; a Superior Court judge; and a former representative also faced criminal charges in 2007. Meanwhile, state Attorney General Tom Corbett began an investigation into whether legislative leaders illegally paid staffers nearly $4 million for performing election work on state time. Results of that probe are still to come.

In Pittsburgh, 27-year-old incumbent Luke Ravenstahl defeated a Republican challenger to remain the youngest chief executive of a major U.S. city.

One of the year's biggest stories — the Virginia Tech massacre — sadly touched Pennsylvania. Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, was among the victims of a suicidal student, Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.

In July, one of the most bizarre and puzzling crimes in recent Pennsylvania history was evidently solved. Authorities arrested a man and woman on charges they planned the elaborate bank heist that ended in the death of a pizza deliveryman in 2003. The deliveryman, Brian Wells, 46, told police he had been forced at gunpoint to rob a bank near Erie while wearing a bomb locked around his neck. As police waited for a bomb squad to arrive, the device exploded, killing him.

It was a difficult year for a trio of market-leading Pennsylvania companies.

Hershey, the nation's largest candymaker, cut 1,500 jobs and closed plants in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Toll Brothers, the nation's largest builder of luxury homes, recorded its first quarterly loss in 21 years, and its chairman and chief executive called 2007 the "most challenging" fiscal year in company history.

Shares of Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, tumbled to a 20-month low on news of slowing revenue growth.

Call it the $100 million mystery: A donor, known to the public only as "Anonymous Friend," gave that staggering sum to charity over the summer.