Boise Weekly Nabs Idaho Journalism Honors

may 5, 2008  01:37 pm
Boise Weekly Nabs Idaho Journalism Honors
Idaho's only alternative newspaper, the independently-owned Boise Weekly, staggered home with some awards loot at the Idaho Press Club's annual awards ceremony.

Here's the rundown of how we fared in the Weekly category:

BW news editor Deanna Darr picked up an armload of plaques. Among her winnings:

First Place, Serious Feature for "Who Holds the Keys," her report about the private prison industry's influence in Idaho.

Darr also picked up first place in the Light Feature category for "Garden City Rising," her story about Boise's red-headed stepchild of a sister city. We have stopped counting the follow-on versions of this story.

Darr nipped a second place for Environment Reporting for her story, "Of Cattle and Fire" about, well, things that go moo and how Western fire policies and grazing policies often collide.

Darr also picked up a second place in the Education Reporting category for "Held back"

BW editor Shea Andersen picked up a first place in the political reporting category for his story about the Idaho Republican Party's infighting. The story, "The Primary Problem," might as well be printed this week.

Andersen also nabbed second place in the Watchdog/Investigative Reporting category for "Pizza For a DUI," his story that pulled back the curtain on a Boise Police Department policy that rewards DUI arrest records with pizza dinners.

Two of BW's contributors did us proud. Nathaniel Hoffman, our Legislative correspondent, also caught judges' eyes, garnering a second place in the Serious Feature category for "In The Shadows," his story about Boise sex offenders trying to get past the stigma of their crimes and move on with life.

BW contributor Peter Wollheim helped us sew up the Environment Reporting category with his first place win for "A Fish Story This Big," about the scary stuff that fish are swimming in these days.

Time to light up those Cuban cigars that Andersen said he had somewhere. "The awards received by Idaho Press Club support our belief and efforts to be the best newspaper in Idaho," said Sally Freeman, the owner and publisher of Boise Weekly.