Today was a rather sad day when it came to delivering local news.

WITN News at Six reported on a young Jones County man entering a guilty plea to murdering another young man, the investigation into the death of a Camp Lejeune Marine in Surf City, a fatal hit & run in Jacksonville, a follow-up to a fatal accident Monday night involving a moped rider in Kinston, a dog fighting ring in Halifax County where some of the animals were badly injured, and shootings in Wayne County where a cow was killed and a horse injured.  Whew!!!

Some people tend to think news anchors/reporters have become immune to all of the bad stuff they report.  I'm here to tell you, at least for me and many of my co-workers, that is not the case.  I truly feel for those families impacted in all of the difficult stories we reported on today, especially during the holidays.

But just as there is bad news...there is also good news.  It's uplifting year after year to take part in the Toys for Tots drive and see so many caring people from eastern Carolina take part.  It was exciting to be able to report tonight on West Craven High School, one of many area schools, gearing up for a semi-final high school football game.  And it was encouraging to report on groundbreaking for a first of a kind water storage and recovery system in Greenville today to ensure clean and safe drinking water.

At the end of the day, the stories...both the bad and the good...stick with you and do have an impact.