The local papers stopped doing serious coverage of local events (including major car crashes and criminal activity) a long time ago, happy to simply repackage AP feeds, print syndicated comics and maybe add some sports scores from the high school teams.
Our local paper has continued to decline in quality. They used to have some pretty fair reporters (especially the guy who covered the University), but their either left or were layed off. They replaced them with kids right out of college, who were no doubt cheaper. While they try, they still can’t write an engaging (or sometimes even coherent) story. Past the front page, a lot of the paper is AP feeds and (yes) the editorials are very liberal.
As of now, we only get the Sunday edition.
Not in my experience. The local weekly where I currently live in Washington state is almost totally local news, as is the weekly from my home town down in Louisiana, which I still subscribe to (and which I think they send here by strapping said paper to the back of a turtle and having it swim round Cape Horn). VERY little AP byline stuff, and almost no comics.
Maybe local DAILY papers are different. I've never lived in a locale where there was a "small" daily local paper.