The Inland Press Association has announced the winners of its 2010 newsroom contest. The association contests are co-sponsored and judged by association members from university journalism faculty. The winners in the division for newspapers of less than 10,000 circulation included four in the West.
Investigative Reporting, first place, Havre Daily News in Montana, for "Online Payday Loans." Indian tribes had begun making payday loans through the Internet and the Montana attorney general had to determine what jurisdiction governed the business. A complaint had been made for withdrawing more money from a bank account than had been agreed upon in a loan, and the newspaper quoted many consumers who had had similar problems with the company. The legislature tried to regulate the payday industry, but the bills died in committee. However, in this month's election, 73 percent of Montana voters approved caps on payday-loan interest rates, reports the Great Falls Tribune.
Second place in investigative reporting wenty to the Lahontan Valley News, of Fallon, Nev., for "Money Grabbers," a story about a law that requires counties to return revenue to the Department of the Interior from geothermal production rather than keeping the money in county government coffers.
The Lahontan Valley News won third place in the Explanatory Reporting category for "A stopping point for wild horses," a series about the Bureau of Land Mangement building a pen to contain wild horses the agency captured. The story continues with BLM explaining its authority to round up horses. The series continued with a story about the treatment of the horses. In May, the county sheriff began investigating the treatment of the horses and complaints about the holding pen; a visit by the sheriff and the district attorney was described in a follow-up story.
First place in Explanatory Reporting went to Steamboat Pilot & Today of Steamboat Springs, Colo., for "House of Cards," a five-part series investigating the real-estate market and its collapse in the area. From part one: "The rising tide of affluent baby boomers was supposed to lift Steamboat Springs' vacation home market for years to come. And it did just that for the better part of a decade. But the bubble has burst, and the future of the real estate development market in Steamboat and ski towns like it might never be the same." The second part reported on the failed mortgage market; part three investigated the employment fallout; part four reported on deed-restricted mortgages and the government's role in the market; and part five profiled area residents who were able to buy into the market.
Second place in the category also went to a Colorado paper, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent, for "Drug Court: Second Chances and Last Chances," a series profiling area residents who had been in the court. The first story explained a mother's experience. A family's struggle with methamphetamine was profiled, and the last story was about a meth addict and dealer.
Inland, which was called the Inland Daily Press Association until 20 years ago, has its first president from a weekly newspaper: Kathleen Ballanfant, publisher of Village News and Southwest News, in Bellaire, Texas, in metropolitan Houston. (Read more)
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