Sun captures service award

Monday, Aug. 27, 2001 | 10:50 a.m.

The Las Vegas Sun won the Nevada Press Association's top award for community service, as well as three other first-place prizes, garnering 27 honors overall in the annual competition, announced Saturday.

The Sun's sister publication, Las Vegas Weekly, dominated its category, with 20 awards, including general excellence among weekly newspapers with 20,000 circulation or more, and journalist of merit, reporter Kate Silver.

Another sister publication, InBusiness Las Vegas, won three awards, including best business coverage in its class.

The Sun's coverage of the move to put the nation's only high-level nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain won it the top spot for community service coverage among the state's large daily newspapers. Environmental reporter Mary Manning, senior investigative reporter Jeff German and Washington bureau reporter Benjamin Grove, as well as other staff reporters, contributed to the coverage.

"Because of your outstanding coverage of the nuclear waste repository, the citizens of Las Vegas have a better understanding of this hot issue," the judges wrote. "Your community and state should be proud of your efforts as their watchdog."

The Sun also won an honorable mention in community service for reporter Steve Kanigher's stories on lack of state regulations that left customers of Cascade Pools with undone work.

Reporter Stacy J. Willis won best feature story for "Overloaded: Las Vegas emergency rooms ill-equipped for flood of patients."

"With graphic detail, the reporter captures the drama of emergency room care at University Medical Center," the judges wrote. "The numbers -- too few staff, too many patients, too few beds -- are seamlessly introduced in an account that leaves us feeling the pain and frustration of all."

The Sun brought home two other honors in the feature story category: Assistant features editor Lisa Ferguson and Accent reporter Jerry Fink won a second place and an honorable mention, respectively.

Photographer Ethan Miller won first place for best spot news for a photo of a police officer rescuing a baby from a house where four men were later arrested, as well as an honorable mention for sports photo. Judges said Miller captured a "rare moment" in the photo of the baby.

The Sun was honored for best editorial page, with the judges noticing, "Clean, very readable presentation. The editorial voice speaks out on a range of local issues, as well national issues with local implications."

Editorial page editor Michael Campbell won a third place for editorial writing.

The Sun took second place for general excellence among the state's large daily newspapers. "Very strong local coverage," the judges wrote. "Nice variety of columnists."

The Sun also brought home second-place awards for page one design; business story, by gaming and business reporter David Strow and political reporter Erin Neff; page design, by Sarah Walters; headline writing, by sports copy editor Jeff Haney; entertainment writing, by Fink; portrait, by photographer Sam Morris, who also received a third place in that category; and illustrated photo by photo editor R. Marsh Starks, who also won a third place in the category.

Third place prizes were won by Sun police reporter Keith Paul for spot news coverage; Strow for business story; Accent columnist Susan Snyder for local column; political columnist Jon Ralston for non-staff column; sports reporter Steve Addy for local sports story; graphics editor Pam Killinsworth for page design; Neff and the Sun staff for investigative series, for her stories on ethics complaints against Las Vegas Councilman Michael McDonald; and the Sun staff for its special section to commemorate the Sun's 50th anniversary.

Las Vegas Weekly made a strong showing in the first year the press association judged alternative weekly newspapers, winning 12 first places, five second places, two thirds and an honorable mention.

Managing Editor Joe Schoenmann received first place prizes for best spot news, best investigative story and best local sports feature, as well as a second place for best business story.

In addition to general excellence and journalist of merit, the Weekly also won top honors for editorial writing, by Chuck Nowlen; overall design; page one design; page design, by Bingo Barnes; special section, a category in which it also won a second place; information graphic; and portrait, by Bill Logan.

It took second place for entertainment writing, by Jeff Inman; portrait, by Wes Isbutt; and illustrated photo, by Bingo Barnes.

Weekly graphic artists Benjamen Purvis and Bingo Barnes won third place and honorable mentions, respectively, for illustrations. Photographer Bryan Harraway won third place for portrait.

InBusiness Las Vegas, which was launched by Greenspun Media Group last year, won three honors among the state's medium-sized weekly newspapers.

In addition to leading business coverage in its category, InBusiness placed best in editorial cartoons, with Paul Nowak; and received an honorable mention for special section.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.