Two really good newspaper articles from the Arizona Republic

1. An investigation about traffic light and speed camera citation programs. I support them, but it's still a well-done article, looking at the cost to administer the programs and the net gain or loss to the communities in financial terms--the article doesn't include traffic crash and other statistics.

-- "Traffic cameras not profitable for Arizona cities"

2. While the state of the Grand Canyon isn't an urban issue, the thorough article, with four sub-sections are the key issues: air quality; noise from touring planes; mining; and controlled flooding; is an important example of how local media ought to cover issues important to their region and state.

-- "Grand Canyon's future hinges on critical issues"

I can't think of an equivalent article from the Washington Post about the nature of federal park lands and management in the Washington region, where so much of the parkland is under the control of various government agencies, mostly the National Park Service, but other agencies as well.

(In fact, yesterday we went to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, which I had never done before, which is an NPS unit.)

Both articles show the value of so-called mainstream media in calling attention and discussing important local issues.