REGION: North County Times takes home Press Club awards

By North County Times | Tuesday, October 21, 2008 9:25 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- North County Times staffers collected 24 awards for outstanding journalism Tuesday night at the 35th annual San Diego Press Club awards dinner.

All told, the newspaper's staffers earned eight first-place awards, seven seconds and nine thirds. Jack Williams, longtime obituary writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, received the Howard Keen Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. Publicist Larry Thomas earned the Andy Mace Award for Outstanding Contribution Relations.

North County Times staff writer Gary Warth earned first-place honors for his series on the ravages of methamphetamine addiction. Former NCT reporter Noelle Ibrahim earned a top honor for her account of a Palomar College professor wrongly accused of sexual harassment.

Staffer Jim Trageser's layout for the "Zap Mamma" Preview cover won top honors for feature layout design. Warth and Trageser also took second- and third-place awards respectively for their columns.

Columnist Irv Erdos collected second- and third-place awards in the humor category.

Times photographers earned three first-place awards. Waldo Nilo's coverage of last October's fires called "Infernos Surge Toward the Coast," took first place in the breaking news category. Don Boomer's "A Mother's Kiss" topped the news category, and Jamie Scott Lytle topped the ticket in the sports category with his "Chargers Leap Over the Titans" photo.

NCT shooters swept the sports category. Boomer took second for "Knockdown," and Hayne Palmour IV placed third for his photograph of Tiger Woods celebrating a shot during the U.S. Open.

Illustrator Lucas Turnbloom collected five awards, including three for work published by the North County Times.

NCT staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster earned four awards for reporting in the arts, gardening, features, and in the multicultural category for her story called Sounds of Islam.

Staff writer Barbara Henry, who covers Carlsbad, earned a second place in the science and technology category for her story on the geologic history of Mount Calavera and Morro Hill.

Video reporter Philip K. Ireland placed third in the integration of media category for his coverage of the shark attack that killed a Solana Beach swimmer.

The San Diego Union-Tribune earned 15 first-place awards, 12 seconds and three thirds. SignOnSanDiego.com, the Union-Tribune's Web site, won top honors for its overall news coverage.

The hundreds of submissions in print, radio, television and the Web were judged by press clubs in Houston, New Orleans, Syracuse, Tulsa, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Milwaukee.