Sun wins three awards

Tuesday, March 28, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

The Las Vegas Sun took top honors for public service among Associated Press newspapers of its size in California and Nevada for 1999.

"Story of a Fourth Grade Class," a seven-day series by reporter Benjamin Grove, won the Fairbanks Award for Public Service for medium-size newspapers.

The Sun's team coverage of the July 8 flash flooding in the Las Vegas Valley won second place for spot news. A photo by Ethan Miller of Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield nearly falling out of the ring during their Nov. 13 fight won second place in sports photography.

For his series, Grove spent a year visiting a fourth grade class at Helen Jydstrup Elementary School, chronicling the problems and triumphs of the classroom and examining larger problems from transiency and parental roles to overcrowding and standardized tests.

The Sun and the Reno Gazette-Journal were the only Nevada newspapers honored in the competition. The Gazette-Journal won first place in business writing.

Prizes will be awarded May 4-6 at the annual meeting of the Associated Press Newspaper Executives Council in Los Angeles. The Mark Twain Awards, the best-of-the-best, will be announced at that time.