Judge: Byron Acohido, business investigative reporter, Seattle Times
Acohido won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting and 10 other journalism awards for his five-part series exploring the business and legal interests that played out as the Boeing Co. dealt with a profound design flaw linked to a string of crashes and near crashes.

First Place
DAWN GILBERTSON
The Arizona Republic
"Option repricing Œunfair for shareholders'"
"The reporter does a comprehensive, balanced, fair job of illuminating a highly suspect practice corporations have been getting away with for some time. The story is well-organized and the tone even-handed, lending credibility. The outrageousness of option pricing ­ and the shaky rationale of its practioners ­ comes across vividly. Great enterprise mining an important story where few others bother to look."

Second Place
JAMES AHLERS
The Tribune
"Workers face job fears"
"A very thorough examination of a discriminatory practice affecting aging baby boomers. Th reporters obviously worked hard at finding interesting subjects to humanize what otherwise might have been a dry numbers piece. Very well organized; clear writing and a complete story with beginning, middle and end. Nice work."

Third Place
TERRY GREENE STERLING
Phoenix New Times
"Straits of Magellen"
"Very thorough reporting job. The reporter obviously did yoeman's work piecing together a complicated story, and contacting many of the characters on both sides. I found the narrative rambled a bit and disjoined in parts, detracting from clarity. Could be tightened."

Honorable Mention
PAUL GIBLIN
The Tribune
"GPEC looks for the write stuff with journalist junkets"
"Cheers for this reporter exploring how our industry can be manipulated."