Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher - Better Newspaper Contest
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/96748
Division 5 Best General Commentary/Category 4 First place Michael Davis, Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Comments: Great use of pace and word choice to make punchy and pithy commentary. Excellent description of subjects. An easy pick for No. 1. Second place Dave Bangert, Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Comments: Empathy and outrage can���t be faked, and when it���s done well, as here, it���s a pleasure to read. Third place Mark Bennett, Tribune-Star (Terre Haute) Comments: Nice touch on some sensitive topics. Best Editorial Writer/Category 5 First place Jeff Ward, The Star Press (Muncie) Comments: Bold, clear and direct. Nice work. Second place Jeff Kovaleski, Kokomo Tribune Comments: Strong stances. Third place Michael Davis, Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Comments: Editorials with a bit of a twist to them; useful for living. Best Business/Economic News Coverage/ Category 6 First place B-Line Rebecca Troyer, Bill Strother & Stewart Moon, The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Comments: Thorough reporting from various sources shows economic impact of a bike/pedestrian trail. Good use of property-value data and expert sources ��� both local and national. This community learns why the trail matters for more than pleasure. Second place Reel Estate Jon Blau, The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Comments: Excellent storytelling that uses deep sourcing to explain what���s behind common scams. Third place Poor city or poor data? Bill Strother, The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Comments: Digging into methodology helps readers see what���s behind troubling data. This kind of explanatory journalism gives readers a more sophisticated understanding of their community. For the love of Johnna, a calendar girl Michael Davis Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Comes a day when man bites dog, when something completely unexpected and counterintuitive rolls past our eyes and causes us to ponder the forces that influence events in the ever-expanding Einsteinian universe. So it was on a Saturday last year when Tippecanoe County 911 operator Johnna Parker answered her home phone, welcomed in some friends and set into motion a series of lifealtering events. She tells the story in her own words on Page A4 today, simply, beautifully and inspirationally. Parker���s essay is among those in an October series written by Greater Lafayette residents who have been touched, in one way or another, by breast cancer. The final installments are in today���s paper and at jconline.com. With that, our campaign to make breast cancer awareness part of conversational currency during October will end for 2011. The way it usually works in life is that people call a 911 operator to ask for help. It���s the rare day when people call a 911 operator to offer it. That���s Parker���s story in miniature. emerging in Greater Lafayette to assist ill and injured public safety employees at their greatest hour of financial need. The fundraising organiza�� tion���s name honors its first recipient, a 911 operator who moonlights as a delivery person for Williams Florist. ���On my Facebook page I will post my status as ���Delivering Smiles��� because since almost everyone smiles when I hand them flowers,��� Parker wrote in her essay. Diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2010, Parker had her first chemotherapy treatment on her 49th birthday. ���At first I only told my family and a few close friends,��� she said Thursday, as the skies cleared after a cold morning rain. The super-size version is this: A nonprofit organization called Delivering Smiles is For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org. Click on ���Contests.��� Parker came to our attention via Carrie North, a marketing and public relations specialist for Indiana University Health Arnett. The more we learned about Parker, the more we realized that hers was a story that could be appreciated two ways: Not only can one person make a difference in this world, a group of caring individuals can make a world of difference for one person. Potential disaster in making at jail Jeff Ward The Star Press (Muncie) Supervising inmates at a prison or jail is a dangerous, unglamorous and vital job. Jail staff are charged with keeping inmates from harming citizens, themselves and other jail workers. Thus, it���s with alarm we view the staffing levels at the Henry County jail, where two inmate disturbances in less than the span of a week have created unnecessary risk to workers and inmates. In both instances, the lone officer left the jail block, shut and locked the door behind him and had to call for backup from the New Castle police and Henry County Sheriff���s Department. By the way, that���s what the corrections officer is trained to do. Funding constraints and the impending loss of a federal grant at the end of this month are contributing to this dangerous situation. Henry County Sheriff Butch Baker told The Star Press budget restrictions have led to just one corrections officer per shift being responsible for overseeing the jail���s inmates. There are just 23 full-time corrections officers for a jail that often houses more than 175 inmates a night. Baker said he���s short from nine to 12 correctional officers based on minimum state standards. That���s unacceptable. County officials ��� the county council and commissioners ��� absolutely must do a better job of funding the jail, or help manage existing resources more efficiently. Besides the safety of jail staff and the inmates, adequate staffing could lower the risk of a lawsuit being filed because of dangerous conditions at the jail. The likelihood of that happening is great, considering how easily government is dragged into the courts over jail conditions. The loss of Department of Correction inmates, who were removed from the jail over staffing and safety concerns, will aggravate the funding issue. At $35 a day, the nine inmates the DOC pulled from the jail generated $315 a day, or $2,205 a week. That���s not insignificant. The solution? Henry County officials must make staffing the jail a priority, and not rely on tempting and temporary federal grants to do it. A plan must be For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org. Click on ���Contests.��� B-Line vision bearing fruit Rebecca Troyer & Bill Strother The Herald-Times (Bloomington) For more than a century and a half, freight trains chugged along the north south Monon railroad line through Bloomington, dropping off supplies and equipment and picking up furniture, limestone, lumber and televisions. Passenger trains also did lively business, carrying people between Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville and stopping at the downtown Bloomington depot on Morton Street. By 1979, with an elaborate interstate highway system in place, America had become an automobile-focused nation. That year, passenger trains stopped coming to Bloomington. Page 50 But freight trains operated by CSX, successor to L&N, continued to serve Monroe County industry along the Monon until 2004, when the last train pulled out of the 157-year-old McDoel Switchyard south of Grimes Lane. During the years CSX was forming its plan to pull out of its railroad corridor through Bloomington, city officials, including Mayor Tomi Allison, began to discuss converting the line into an alternative greenway. In 2001, Mayor John Fernandez obtained a $5.4 million state grant to purchase the rail property and plan the first phase of what would become the B-Line Trail, a multipurpose amenity that is now a pivotal element of the city���s cultural and economic development plans. Phase 1 through downtown opened in 2009; on Thursday, the city will celebrate the grand opening of Phase 2, which extends the trail south of Second Street and northwest of Rogers Street. The bicycle and pedestrian trail beginning at North Adams Street and continuing south to Country Club Drive will include 3.1 miles of a 12-footwide paved pathway that passes through a beautifully lush section of woods and residential neighborhoods at the west end; bustling shops, restaurants and businesses at the downtown core; and a rural park-like For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org. Click on ���Contests.���