I always loved reading the newspaper while growing up in Upstate NY to keep 
abreast of all the local happenings. This was, of course, before the internet. Over the past decade I’ve turned from a newspaper junkie into a web junkie.
After giving the newspaper a try again, however, when my husband ordered us a 4 day/week subscription of The Arizona Republic, I’m finding that I’ve been missing a lot of local news by relying on websites to supply me with current information.
For example, here are some interesting things I learned from yesterday’s Republic Valley & State section:
- 330 orphaned children in Maricopa County were adopted by permanent families Saturday as part of the county Court’s participation in National Adoption Day. The event was staffed by 60 judicial officers who volunteered their time for the hearing. In addition, they had informational stations for families interested in adopting in the future. What’s not to love about this?
- The City of Chandler is replacing 340 aging Tasers for their police force at a price of $471,028. Their current models are 8 years old, out of warranty, and are having battery issues. The average life-span of a Taser, according to the company, is only 5 years. It’s interesting to note that the devices are rarely used by officers, and one officer reports only using his four times in his decade of service.
- The new Arizona Senate leader, Steve Pierce, is a Republican, a rancher on long-held family property in Tucson, married 38 years, and sounds like a pretty down-to-earth, hard-working person. “I have lots of new friends,” Pierce told attendees at the Arizona Tax Research Association’s annual conference last week. “They all want to come in and see me. I don’t know most of them,” he admitted.
- Ready Pac salad mixes with a sell by date of Nov 18th have been recalled for E Coli contamination.
- The Arizona International Auto Show is this weekend at the Phoenix Convention Center, and the Republic has coupons for $3 off admission.
- A job with Maricopa County Child Protective Services starts at a meager salary of $33,000, alleges editorial writer Steven Kars of Phoenix. If he’s correct, that is indeed sad. “Why would anyone take a job with CPS?” Kars asks. For the love of children, I hope.
And this is just a small sample of the news printed in the section, which I’d likely not known about otherwise. Some of it may have been on their website, but I’m guilty of headline-skimming online. It’s just a different reading style on paper.
Now, mind you, some of the reasons I was missing out before are my own fault. I’ve lived in several states around the US in my adult life and got used to reading more on a national level. It usually takes me a while to get into the local culture of a community, which a local newspaper usually heavily reflects. The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin is small town and somewhat kitschy, while the Columbus Dispatch definitely reads more like a large city paper, but one studded with college football fever, something which took me some time to understand. I’ve now been in the Phoenix area for over two years. I’m beginning to feel settled and more interested in things outside of my current community and comfort level. I think I’m finally ready to call the area my “home.”
Please note that while I highly advocate the use of local newspapers, local news on the networks is an entirely different thing. I often find the broadcasts to be cheesy and melodramatic, likely going for ratings than any sort of mission to educate or inform the public.
Where do you get your local news? Why?
