The Fort Worth Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists presented a total of seven First Amendment awards to Fort Worth Weekly and the Houston Press last week, the Houston Chronicle reports. The Weekly won a first-place award in the "Student" category for their collaborative effort with students on excessive use of Tasers by law enforcement. In addition, the Weekly won two second-place and one third-place awards, while the Houston Press won two third-place and one second-place award.
Jared Ferrie's September story about the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka has been named a finalist in the Canadian Association of Journalists' annual awards for outstanding investigative journalism. Winners will be announced May 26.
Chet Hardin's topics "are provocative, contemporary and often important," judges for the Association's annual Better Newspaper Contest say. "It is hard to distinguish his hard news stories from features, and that's a great compliment," they write. AAN members were well-represented in the rest of the contest as well. Metroland won one additional first-place and one third-place award; the Ithaca Times received one first-place and one second-place as well as three third-place awards; and Syracuse New Times took home four first-place and two second-place awards.
Patricia Calhoun will be inducted to the Hall of Fame at a Sept. 21 banquet, the Denver Post reports. Calhoun, who served as AAN President in 1999-2000, currently chair's the association's editorial committee.
Pamela Clare's 2006 novel Surrender is a finalist for the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award in the Long Historical Romance category. Clare, better known to AAN members as Pamela White, has published six romance novels since she started writing them three years ago. Surrender is part of a historical trilogy set in pre-Revolutionary Colonial upstate New York during the French and Indian War. Final RITA winners will be announced in July.
The Richmond, Va., alt-weekly took home a total of 10 first-place VPA awards, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Writer Brandon Walters and photographer Scott Elmquist each placed first in three categories; Elmquist and art director Jeffrey Bland shared one first place finish; Melissa Scott Sinclair and Scott Bass each grabbed one award for writing; and one went to the entire staff. Another Virginia AAN member, Port Folio Weekly, won two third-place VPA awards. UPDATE: We've been told that in addition to the 10 first-place awards, Style Weekly also won two Best-in-Show VPA awards, which are elected from all first-place winners in a newspaper's division. Photographer Scott Elmquist also recently took home another first-place award, from the Virginia News Photographers Association.
All the finalists in the "Newspapers: Local Circulation Weeklies" category were AAN members, but Todd Spivak came out on top for "Run Over By Metro." The prestigious awards, given by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year. Judges said Spivak's "compelling and vivid narrative writing gives extraordinary power to the victims' stories and fuels the outrage over the agency's misconduct." The other finalists were Sarah Fenske of Phoenix New Times (for "Cracked Houses"), Dan Frosch of the Santa Fe Reporter (for "The Wexford Files"), and Matthew Fleischer of LA Weekly (for "Navahoax").
Nathan Comp took home a first-place award for Feature Writing in the Club's annual Excellence in Journalism contest, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. The Madison alt-weekly's website received two second-place awards in the contest.
The Cleveland Scene, City Pages, Creative Loafing (Atlanta), New Times Broward-Palm Beach, and Westword secured six nominations in four categories in the 2007 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards, which were announced today. The winners will be unveiled on May 6.