inewsource collected 13 awards this week from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists as part of its annual contest, including seven first-place plaques.
Leonardo Castañeda received the most first-place awards — four. He earned top honors in two categories for his examination of the opioid epidemic in San Diego County. He used data and first-hand experiences of people on the front lines of the addiction to report the story, “How opioid devastation caught San Diego County communities unaware.”
Leo wrote this story as part of the California Health Journalism Fellowship, a program of the Center for Health Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The story took first-place honors for daily health reporting and for audio news or feature.
He also earned two first-place awards for “Portable classrooms, despite heat and noise, find permanent home in San Diego County.” One was for daily education reporting; the other for audio investigative/enterprise story.
Here’s a list of inewsource’s other awards:
Brad Racino:
- First place, daily investigative/enterprise reporting — single subject, “Long-ignored transparency law would reveal who’s doing billions in business with San Diego”
- First place, daily legal reporting, “Cory Briggs’ conduct ‘unethical and possibly criminal,’ appellate court says”
- Third place, daily real estate reporting, “Four things to watch in San Diego’s new Seaport development.”
Megan Wood:
- First place, daily news or feature series, “Why are San Diegans paying $1.6 million for closed restrooms?”
- Second place, daily education reporting, “Homeless emergency in San Ysidro schools escalates with grant loss.”
Brad and Megan also received a second place in the daily investigative/enterprise reporting — single subject category for “In the shadow of Seaport.”
Cheryl Clark:
- Second place, daily health reporting, “When doctors and the DMV decide it’s time for you to stop driving.”
Roxana Popescu, an inewsource freelance reporter:
- Second place, daily legal reporting, “Escondido man’s immigration case gives glimpse of an alternate legal universe.”
Chris Young and Joe Yerardi, former inewsource reporters,
- Second place, daily business reporting, “A decade later, San Diego’s living wage law quiets critics, offers enforcement lessons.”
For a complete list of the SPJ contest winners, click here.
