Looking back one more time

Since it has been sitting on the Arizona Republic's Mesa section homepage for awhile, we thought we would weigh in on Mesa's 5 most viewed stories of last year. We covered each of these stories, and for the most part, the theme seems to be bad news.

For a year that started off with a record setting stint without a homicide, two of the top five stories viewed had to do with murders. A third story had to do with the tragic loss of the baby that was hurt by the family dog. The other two dealt with the economy - protesting Obama, and our local grocery shutting their doors.

It looks like the old phrase "if it bleeds, it leads" still has a place in local news. We can't change what people decide to look at over the year, but we can encourage our community leaders to make sure there is as much good news as possible to share with others so hopefully, the bad news can be far outweighed by the good.