Staff report |Brian Kemp's narrow win over Stacey Abrams in the Georgia gubernatorial race is the Bell Ringer's top story in 2018.Georgia voters gave Secretary of State Kemp (a Republican) approximately 50 percent of the overall vote, compared to 49 percent for Abrams (a Democrat). Libertarian Ted Metz received 1 percent of the vote. Abrams won in Richmond County, much of the Atlanta area, Savannah, Macon, Columbus and portions of southwest Georgia, while Kemp won the rest of the state and had 50.2 percent of the vote to secure the victory.In other significant news in 2018, Augusta University had its largest-ever freshman class and overall enrollment pushed past the 9,000 mark, according to the university. There were 1,014 freshmen enrolled when school opened in August, compared to 874 the previous year. Total enrollment reached 9,072, compared to 8,821 in 2017.Another major story was the opening of the Georgia Cyber Center at AU. The $100 million center is the home of the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences. It is located on Eleventh Street in downtown Augusta.AU President Brooks Keel revealed that the university had been the victim of several cyber attacks. The attacks occurred in September 2017 and July of this year. An unauthorized user gained access to AU email accounts, perhaps putting that person in touch with the personal and protected health information of approximately 417,000 individuals.In June, Reality L. Winner was sentenced to more than five years in prison for leaking government documents to the public under the Espionage Act.In February, AU employee Jazna O. Timmons was murdered in the parking lot of the Georgia Veterans Nursing Home. Timmons’ husband, Richard Lyle Timmons Jr., was indicted for homicide and possession of a firearm.The Maxwell Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary, which included a look back at some of the top films of 1968, such as Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey."English and Foreign Languages Assistant Professor Jim Minick won the 2017 Appalachian Book of the Year from the Mountain Heritage Literacy Festival for his novel "Fire Is Your Water."Hurricane Michael went over Augusta on Oct. 11, but damage was minimal.Several other major pieces of news came from sports. Former Augusta State University student Patrick Reed won the Masters in April, and AU graduate student Broc Everett won the NCAA Division I individual golf championship in May. Also, the Jaguar men's basketball team upset Division I South Carolina in an exhibition in October in Columbia, S.C.