‘Boulder Weekly’ wins 30 awards from Society of Professional Journalists

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Boulder Weekly won 11 first place awards and 19 other honors for stories written in 2014 in the annual multi-state Top of the Rockies contest held by the Society of Professional Journalists. Results for the competition, which takes entries from news media in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, were announced May 15. Boulder Weekly competed with publications with a circulation of 30,000 to 75,000 this year for the first time.

First place awards went to Managing Editor Elizabeth Miller in science reporting for “A river running” on the Colorado River’s pulse flow, in arts and entertainment criticism for “No time like the present” on the Denver Art Museum’s Modern Masters exhibition, arts enterprise reporting for “Alone on the moon” on one man’s encounters with The Beatles during their 1964 U.S. tour and in a single story in arts and entertainment for “What the world needs now is words” profiling the National Student Poets.

Senior Editor Matt Cortina took first place in environment: general reporting for “Think before you drink” on potentially carcinogenic chromium-6 in Boulder’s drinking water.

Special Editions Editor Caitlin Rockett took first place in business: enterprise reporting for “Market share chemical warfare” on the growing use — and spread by drift to unintended farms — of herbicides, and in science: enterprise reporting for “Muzzled by Monsanto” on efforts to silence research into the potential harmful effects of GMO crops.

Publisher Stewart Sallo took first place in sports: general reporting for “A unifying field of dreams” on his trip to play baseball with prison inmates.

Art Director Susan France took first in front page design for “Oil boom.”

First place for health enterprise reporting went to former intern Cassie Moore for her story “Deported to death” on medical repatriation — sending critically ill patients from other countries back to their home countries.

Freelancer Tom Winter took first place in sports: general reporting for “Gonzo swimming” on a Boulder lawyer’s plans to swim the alligator-infested Lake Ponchartrain to raise awareness on the lake.

Boulder Weekly also received 12 second place awards and seven third place awards. The remaining award winners were:

Second Place 

Joel Dyer, Matt Cortina and Elizabeth Miller for political enterprise reporting for “Who killed the vote on fracking?” 

Editor Joel Dyer for news column for “DyerTimes.”

Former Managing Editor Jefferson Dodge for breaking news story for “Boulder group has funds frozen by Russia in Olympic environmental flap.”

Elizabeth Miller in sports: enterprise reporting for “Summit seekers” on a ski mountaineering trip to Denali, in sports: general reporting for “No man overboard” on the Warriors on Cataract program to take veterans whitewater rafting together and in arts criticism for “Same language, new story,” on contemporary Romanian art.

Matt Cortina in environment: general reporting for “Oil boom” on the transport of volatile oil by trains and in education: general reporting for “Helping hands” on teen suicides and in health: general reporting for “Ebola anxiety” on the potential spread of the outbreak to the U.S. and in business: general reporting for “Boulder report tells us what we already know” on Boulder’s shrinking affordable housing market.

Freelancer Kendall Brunette in legal reporting for “Bullets or bongs?” 

Former Arts and Entertainment Editor Josh Gross in general reporting for “The new moral crusade” on Boulder’s liquor board.

Third Place 

Joel Dyer and Jefferson Dodge in environment: enterprise reporting for “America’s dirtiest secret” and for investigative/enterprise reporting for the “Eracism” series on the history of Hispanic communities in Boulder County.

Elizabeth Miller in news feature for “The boy and the buffalo.”

Caitlin Rockett in agriculture: general reporting for “All’s fair in love and war (and industrial agriculture)” and in politics: general reporting for “An inside job” and in health: general reporting for “Boulder County AIDS project three times as effective at stopping HIV.”

Freelancer Christi Turner in science: general reporting for “A darker shade of snow.”