(37 entries)

Judge: Craig Lincoln, computer-assisted reporter, Duluth (Minn.) News-Tribune
Lincoln was a finalist for a 1998 IRE award for "Death Beds," a package of stories that contrasted the reaction to the deaths of enderly people who strangled in nursing home siderails to the federal government's efforts to recall and redesign baby cribs after infant deaths were reported. He also won the Atlantic City Press Club's1999 National Headliner Award for smaller newspapers and the 1998 Premack Public Affairs Journalism Award from University of Minnesota.

First Place
JODIE SNYDER and SUSIE STECKNER
The Arizona Republic
"Local care lacking for rape victims"
"Thorough and effective. The reporters picked one piece of a system that isn't working and explained why it's not working, who's responsible and who's solving the problem. It's clearly targeted at exposing a problem and getting results. It fulfilled a classic role of the press. After reading this story, you will feel outrage over how rape victims are treated in the city's emergency rooms. Yet you still can have empathy for the doctors who rearrange their schedules for days to wait to testify in a disorganized court system. But more than anything, Anna Flores made this entry a winner. The reporters found a woman who was willing to talk on the record about her story of being raped, then ignored by the system. The rest of the story also relied on real people and real trauma and real names. By avoiding anonymous sources, the reporters made this a more powerful, a more believable story and the winner."

Second Place
TERRY GREENE STERLING
Phoenix New Times
"Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon?"
"OK. Riding around in unsafe hot-air balloons may not be a pressing social problem. But the New Times put together a story that had doses of pathos, trauma, danger, bodily injury, a touch of dry humor and enough bureaucratic bungling to keep the reader skeptical of the folks who are supposed to be watching over our safety. This is a no-holds-barred look at a professional balloonist who endangered a lot of people who were looking for a fun diversion from a convention. It also was a look at problems with an industry and a federal bureaucracy that let Jeffrey Sherman keep flying balloons. By explaining how this one runaway balloon illustrated a bigger problem, the writer made this more than an action story. The writer found an overlooked problem and kept on track while pursuing the causes. In addition, the story was made fairer by getting a good interview with Sherman and keeping his defense in one section of the story."

Third Place
KARINA BLAND
The Arizona Republic
"They love us, all of us. Mesa couple open hearts, home to 10 siblings"
"This story didn't dive into lots of background or develop the underlying social problems that led to Shirley and Van Hughes adopting10 foster children. But the writing was graceful enough that all the members of this huge family were easy to remember and to get to know. This is clear story about a family that solved a problem that is a small one on the scale of what we're facing today: Just 10 kids among millions are living in poverty and with alcoholic parents. By finding such a telling tale and bringing it into the homes of its readers, The Arizona Republic made this big problem accessible to the reader."

Honorable Mention
DENNIS WAGNER
The Arizona Republic
"Sammy the Bull living fearlessly in the sunshine"
"As later events proved, he perhaps is living too fearlessly. But the enterprise and boldness necessary to find and write about this former underboss led to a well-written story about a former mobster living in sunny Arizona. Mobsters may not necessarily be unusual in Arizona, but this guy is unusual by anyone's definition. Graceful writing brought out the details and tone of his interview and seamlessly weaved enough background material into the tale to make the reader realize that this guy could easily not be the most truthful person in the world."