How to Find the Most Popular and Latest Stories on InMaricopa

InMaricopa surfaces its most-read and newest Maricopa, AZ stories through three on-site entry points: a Featured block, a Most Popular list ranked by views, and section navigation across News, Community, Business, and Government. If you want to know what other residents are reading right now, start with Most Popular; if you want the freshest reporting, scan Featured and the section fronts, where each story shows its author, date, and view count.

Start with the Featured block

The homepage opens with a Featured area that highlights a small set of current stories rather than everything published. In the captured page, the lead item was "Golf after dark? This new Maricopa business has you covered," with a secondary feature on a mammograms-and-mocktails health event.

Use Featured as a quick read on what the newsroom is prioritizing that day. It mixes topics — business, health, traffic, courts, opinion — so it is not a single-category feed.

Use Most Popular to see what residents are actually reading

The Most Popular module ranks stories by view count and stamps each with a date. From the captured page:

Two things to note before you treat this as a "trending" list:

• It is a snapshot, not a live ranking. The counts and order reflect the page as captured; they will shift as new stories accumulate views.
• Recency and popularity are different signals. A story from September 16 can outrank one from September 21, so check the date column rather than assuming the top item is the newest.

Navigate by section for the latest in a specific beat

Below the featured and popular modules, InMaricopa organizes coverage into labeled sections. The captured page shows these groupings and their recent headlines:

• News — "19 years later, Kids Day is still bringing Maricopa families together," "Maricopa expo offers seniors, families a game plan for preventing falls," "Maricopa's new indoor sports facility opens next month," "More than $11K later, Maricopa bingo keeps giving back"
• Business — "Proposed 500-megawatt battery project near Maricopa hits county setback," "Dignity Health expands Maricopa care with new family medicine clinic," "What do Maricopans order for breakfast? 5 locals share their go-to spots," "Mountainside Fitness taps Maricopa travel agency for company retreat"
• Government — "Marigold Energy Center faces state hearing Monday," "Black Rock Coffee, school building among permits issued in Maricopa," "Maricopa residents push back on Flock cameras in small rally," "65% of Maricopa crashes caused injuries last year"

If you only care about, say, city permits or council-adjacent items, going straight to Government is faster than scrolling the homepage. The same logic applies to Business if you are tracking openings, closings, and development.

Read the byline and date before you rely on a story

Every item carries an author, a date, and (in the popular module) a view count. That metadata is what lets you judge whether a piece is current and how much attention it drew. Bylines in the captured page include Associate Editor Monica D. Spencer, Karen Bartunek, Editorial Intern Kaydence Shipman, and Staff Reports.

A practical check when a headline looks urgent: confirm the date first. A crash or construction item from mid-September may already be resolved by the time you read it, even if it still sits high in the popular list.

A quick routine for staying current

1. Open the homepage and read the Featured block for the day's priorities.
2. Scan Most Popular for what neighbors are reading, checking dates as you go.
3. Jump to the section that matches your interest — News, Community, Business, or Government — for the latest in that beat.
4. Note the byline and date on anything you plan to act on or share.

That sequence takes a couple of minutes and covers both "what's new" and "what's getting attention" without needing to open every story.