DAILY awards include freedom of information

Printed: April 1, 2003; The Decatur Daily News, online edition

THE DECATUR DAILY's story and editorial on a beachfront meeting by the Hartselle Board of Education won a statewide freedom-of-information award from The Associated Press.

This was one of three first-place awards and five others that THE DAILY won in the annual Alabama Associated Press Managing Editors competition for items published in 2002.

Other first-place awards were for sports reporting and photography.

The Hartselle board met during a convention in Gulf Shores, where board members decided to replace the high school athletics director. The board later backed off that decision.

Staff Writer Deangelo McDaniel wrote the story. In the editorial, News Assistant Karen Middleton wrote, "Few, if any, Hartselle parents could drop what they are doing to make the nearly 350-mile trek to the Gulf to attend a school board meeting. That's not realistic and the board knows it."

Sports Writer Gregg Dewalt won the first-place award for sports non-deadline reporting for a story on dietary supplements such as creatine and rostenedione, exploring whether they are safe.

Staff Photographer Corey Wilson's sports feature photo of former high school teammates T.J. Jackson and Melvin Oliver also won first place. They played against each other at the Auburn-LSU football game.

Second-place awards included one for community service to Staff Writer Eric Fleischauer, Executive Editor Tom Wright and Middleton for stories and editorials about radon, a gas that can cause cancer.

Some radon experts credit THE DAILY for the City Council's decision making Decatur the first city in Alabama to require radon reduction systems in new homes.

Other winners of second-place awards:

• Staff Writers Dawn Kent and Paul Huggins for business news writing about the first launch of a Boeing rocket made in Decatur.
• Dewalt for sports columns about a team bus driver, racism, and questions of drug usage among high school athletes.
• Staff Photographer David Higginbotham for a "humorous moment" photo of police officer George Silvestri nudging a chicken across Beltline Road Southwest.
• Sports Editor Steve Kirk won an honorable mention for his columns on the departure of The University of Alabama football coach, the search for his successor, and a proposed arena.

In his earlier job as a sports writer for The Birmingham News, Kirk was part of a Birmingham News team that won the sports writing sweepstakes award and first place for sports deadline reporting for work on NCAA penalties against The University of Alabama. Kirk also won first place for sports non-deadline reporting with his Birmingham News stories about sports in the Black Belt.

Similarly, DAILY Staff Writer Chris Paschenko and other writers at his former paper, the Opelika-Auburn News, won second place in sports deadline reporting for their coverage of the Alabama-Auburn football game.