Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher - Better Newspaper Contest
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/96748
Division 5 Best News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure/Category 1 First place Blitz attack on designer drug sales nets 7 arrests Staff, The Star Press (Muncie) Comments: Great teamwork across all platforms makes this a winner. This package has everything. A well-written story and citizen eyewitness sidebar; a Twitter play-by-play of the raid and great video and photos. The ���what are bath salts��� explainer makes this the obvious winner in a competitive category. Second place Mayhem in Monticello Ron Wilkins Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Comments: This is what good breaking-news coverage is all about ��� in all formats. Two great lead-in grafs tightly summarize the day���s chaotic events. An excellent timeline graphic element and reporter Ron Wilkins��� photo helped anchor Wilkins��� solid Page 1 account. Wilkins��� video completed the package that gave Journal & Courier (Lafayette) readers all they needed to understand what happened that day. Third place Black Friday for Boilers Jeff Washburn & Sophia Voravong, Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Comments: Very thorough deadline reporting accomplished without access to the two Boilermaker players involved in the incident. Jeff Washburn���s supporting column adds great perspective. Best News Coverage With No Deadline Pressure/Category 2 First place Recession and the new reality Staff, The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Comments: Great stories from small businesses, workers and expert input. Very strong writing ��� authoritative but approachable thanks in large part to well-crafted ledes that draw readers into the report. Effective graphics educate, not just decorate. Very well-done series. Wish it had been mine. Second place Persistent trustees got their man Mitch Staff, Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Comments: Very thorough and of high interest to the community. Liked the social media pulls and the strong student voices that complemented the high-level reactions. Didn���t leave many questions unanswered. Third place ���There���s been a lot of secrets, a lot of junk��� Andrew Walker, The Star Press (Muncie) Comments: Great personal stories. Very well-written and sourced. Addresses history and solutions plus the controversy over an antidote. Well-done. Best Ongoing News Coverage/Category 3 First place Locked in with a killer Scott Smith, Ken de la Bastide & Maureen Hayden, Kokomo Tribune Comments: The reporter looks at this story up close as it breaks and from a distance and gives readers regular news updates with depth and insight into the greater problem. C coverage takes them all the way to the legislators responsible for examining and fixing the problem. Second place Officer down! Staff, Tribune-Star (Terre Haute) Comments: Moving, well-written stories with lots of storytelling and details about how this incident unfolded. Readers get full view of the officer���s contributions and the community effort to mourn its great loss. Third place Dog-fighting raid Andrew Walker & Douglas Walker, The Star Press (Muncie) Comments: Powerful stories that carry the reader from the discovery by police to the caring work of the man hired to help with the animals��� recovery. Blitz attack on designer drug sales nets 7 arrests Douglas Walker The Star Press (Muncie) In their actions, if not their words, local authorities on Monday declared war on those who sell bath salts in the Muncie area. Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold stood at a podium outside the downtown Justice Center early Monday afternoon and announced seven arrests stemming from ���a nine-month undercover investigation��� of the selling, at local convenience stores, of the designer drugs, concocted to mimic the impact of other illegal substances like LSD and methamphetamine. Behind Arnold stood Muncie Police Chief Steve Stewart, Delaware County Sheriff Mike Scroggins and his chief deputy, Jason Walker. Their departments a few hours earlier had led raids at a half-dozen stores ��� five in Muncie and one in Yorktown ��� and three apartments, in the Orchard Apartments in the 700 block of East Centennial Avenue, along with a residence in Indianapolis. The 10 raids,conducted by teams comprised of six officers, were launched about 9:30 a.m., and all were completed in the span of about one minute, according to Arnold. Customers in the stores and purchasing gas at the time of the raids were allowed to leave before police cordoned off the scenes with crime tape. The sight of the bright yellow tape, and officers standing guard outside the stores, prompted curious stares from those driving past the businesses. A few motorists rolled down their windows to ask if an armed robbery had just taken place. The raids certainly appeared to catch the targets by surprise. Some of those removed from the apartments ��� within sight of the raided BP station ��� were clad only in their underwear. Also at Monday���s press conference was Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn, who is investigating whether the ingestion of bath salts was a ���contributing factor��� in two recent fatal traffic accidents. Hahn said the drug creates ���an altered mental state,��� at times creating ���a strong, paranoid-type reaction.��� In a request for a search warrant, Jeffrey Stanley, an investigator with the county sheriff���s department, wrote that authorities had received ���numerous calls from the public��� reporting bath salts For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org Click on ���Contests.��� Recession and the new reality Abby Tonsing The Herald-Times (Bloomington) In 10 minutes it was over. Twelve foreclosed Monroe County properties were sold back to banks and mortgage lenders during April���s sheriff���s sale at the Charlotte T. Zietlow Justice Center. According to Tressia Martin, who coordinates such sales in the county, a sheriff���s sale can represent the end of a long, sad and stressful road for homeowners faced with foreclosure. ���There are a lot of people who are so glad to be out of the burden of their own home,��� she said after a recent sale. In many cases, the properties have been vacant for some time. In others, people have lived in their homes for years without making a single payment. From 2005 to 2011, 945 properties have been sold in Monroe County sheriff���s sales; since 2001, 1,638 properties. Even with the recent recession, sheriff���s sales of properties are not a new phenomenon, Martin said, and she called Monroe County���s figures ���isolated��� compared with other counties and cities. More than 20 people gathered in courtroom 205 of the Justice Center the Friday morning of April 20, perusing a two-page list of foreclosed properties. Half of the properties on the list, 14 of them, were not on the auction block. Those sales had already been canceled. Bankruptcy always cancels a property listed in a sheriff���s sale, Martin explained. Or homeowners may have paid off their loans, or made arrangements with their lenders. Or paperwork may have been incorrect. Cindy L. Edmiston, a client development manager of sheriff���s sales for SRI Inc., stood before the group at the start of the auction. SRI is an Indianapolis-based company that handles foreclosure auctions for Monroe and a third of Indiana���s counties, including Lawrence, Greene and Brown. Edmiston knows the drill and rattles off the rules: It���s a ���buyer beware��� sale. All sales are final. These sales are subject to all liens, encumbrances and easements of records. Proof of purchase and sales disclosure forms must be completed before buyers leave the auction site. Buyers are responsible for all current real estate property taxes. The total purchase price is due two hours after the auction, by noon. Payments are made to the clerk���s office by cashier���s check, and the receipt should be delivered to the sheriff���s department immediately following payment in full. For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org Click on ���Contests.��� Locked in with a killer Scott Smith Kokomo Tribune Convicted murderer Joseph W. Brown���s record of behavior in prison befits someone serving life without parole. As he has moved from one maximum security facility to another, Brown has committed multiple acts of assault, trafficking, threatening behavior and destruction of property, punctuated by refusals to follow orders and possession of contraband, Indiana Department of Correction officials confirmed Thursday. It all culminated June 19, when Indiana State Police said Brown strangled his cell mate, former Howard County resident Charles Miller, at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill. According to detectives, Brown may simply have wanted yet another change of scenery ��� this time possibly Indiana���s death row. Miller, an offender considered a minimal security risk, paid the ultimate price for his offenses when Indiana prison officials decided to make him Brown���s cell mate. Now, IDOC officials are defending their decision to put Brown into the general population at Miami Correctional, seemingly in spite of his long history of violence. Evolving problem The decision to place Brown with Miller highlights larger problems within the state���s burgeoning prison population, which has increased by 40 percent over the past decade, and is still rising, even as the state���s crime rate continues to drop. State prison officials admit they���re placing more and more maximum-security offenders at Miami Correctional because they���ve simply run out of space at the state���s other maximumsecurity facilities. For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org Click on ���Contests.��� Page 49