Journalism about issues top of mind for San Diegans drove inewsource to nine first-place and 16 total awards in this year’s San Diego Press Club contest.
Cody Dulaney and Zoë Meyer’s coverage of homelessness in San Diego won the sole honor in the contest’s housing insecurity category.
Cody’s reporting raised questions about the city’s strategy for policing homelessness and challenges providing adequate shelter for a growing unhoused population. Zoë’s photojournalism told the story of 12 unhoused San Diegans on their uncertain paths to housing, and her watchdog reporting helped keep a once-unhoused resident in his home.
Other first place awards went to:
Jennifer Bowman, for her reporting on mental health conservatorships.
Jill Castellano, for her coverage of a San Diego neo-Nazi fleeing the U.S. to escape prosecution for hate crimes, her exclusive reporting on racism allegations within the San Diego Police Department and her series reporting with KPBS on police misconduct and transparency.
Dulaney, for a radio feature detailing an investigation into the death of a veteran rehab center resident.
Sofía Mejías-Pascoe, for her reporting on San Diego’s struggle to hire bilingual poll workers and her investigative reporting on the trend of drug cartels targeting U.S. border crossers for use as unknowing carriers, or “blind mule” smugglers; and
Crystal Niebla, for her reporting on inequities in how $1.8 billion in developer impact fees benefit communities.
More honors went to reporting that explored:
- Scathing audits at San Diego Association of Governments
- San Diego Unified’s backlog of students waiting to be assessed for special education services
- A county contractor’s high spending on security at a COVID housing program
- The likely higher than estimated fees residents will pay for curbside garbage pickup
- A San Diego police officer wasn’t disciplined after staging his suicide, soliciting sex on the job and firing a weapon inside his home; and
- How activists were targeted by extremists after visiting a firing range.
inewsource congratulates all the San Diego Press Club winners on their awards.
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Blog: Updates from the newsroom on philanthropy, awards, staff and more.
