Betsy Russell Wins 2010 Max Dalton Open Government Award

Betsy Russell, a Boise reporter for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, won the 2010 Max Dalton Open Government Award from the Idaho Newspaper Foundation. Russell has been president of the Idaho Press Club and chair of the Idahoans for Openness in Government since 2004. She also serves on the Idaho Supreme Court's Media/Courts Committee. Russell has worked to strengthen the state's open meeting and public records laws.

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New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Awards Announced

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government awarded state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones the 2010 William S. Dixon First Amendment Freedom Award for her efforts to force webcasting at the state Legislature. Arnold-Jones won in the category for law and government.

Heath Haussamen of NMPolitics.net nominated Arnold-Jones, writing "it's rare for an elected official to stand up to a broken system in such a courageous manner and start a movement that so dramatically changes things."

Other award winners this year include Norman Becker, president and CEO of New Mexico Mutual; Winston Brooks, superintendent of the Albuquerque Public Schools; attorney Hal Simmons; and Robert B. Trapp, managing editor of the Rio Grande Sun.

For more about the awards, click here.

Detroit Free Press Wins Freedom of Information Award

The Detroit Free Press won the 2009 Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Award for exposing a pattern of abuse by former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that ultimately led to the mayor's resignation and jailing.

The Free Press obtained more than 14,000 text messages sent to and from the city-issued pager of former Detroit chief of staff Christine Beatty. A three-month review of the messages showed that Beatty and Mayor Kilpatrick had lied under oath in a police whistle-blower case that cost taxpayers more than $9 million.

Read more about the award here.

Reed Anfinson Receives Freedom of Information Award

Reed Anfinson received the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information's Freedom of Information Award. Anfinson is the publisher and owner of the Swift County Monitor-News and is the treasurer of the National Newspaper Association. He will become its president in 2011. He is also vice-president of the Minnesota News Council and has co-chaired the Minnesota Newspaper Association's legislative committee for 16 years.

Read more about Anfinson and the award here.

Northern California Society of Professional Journalists Announces James Madison Freedom of Information Awards

The Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists announced the winners of the 25th Annual James Madison Freedom of Information Awards. The winners include:

• Thomas Peele and Daniel Willis for their computer-assisted reporting project in which they created comprehensive databases of more than 194,000 public-employee salaries from 96 government agencies;
• Dan Borenstein for editorial/commentary and his efforts to expose inflated public employee retirement benefits;
• Mary Fricker will receive the Norwin S. Yoffie Award for Career Achievement; and
• G.W. Schulz will receive an award for information obtained through 75 open-records requests to show the investment in improving homeland security since 2001.

For more information, click here.

2009 Polk Award Winners

Long Island University announced its 13 George Polk Awards for 2009. A number of the recipients appear to have used FOIA and state open records laws in their reporting, including:

• The Bloomberg News team of Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry, Alison Fitzgerald and Craig Torres for their work to open the Federal Reserve Board's books on the bailout;
• Raquel Rutledge of The Journal Sentinel for investigating the fraud, waste, and criminal activity tied to the $350 million Wisconsin child-care system;
• George Pawlaczyk and Beth Hundsdorfer of The News-Democrat for an investigative series exposing cruel conditions in an Illinois "supermax" prison;
• A "60 Minutes" team of Steve Kroft and Leslie Cockburn for a segment detailing Wall Street's influence in speculative oil transactions;
• Kathy Chu of USA Today for a series showing how banks and credit-card issuers used unscrupulous practices and fees to gauge billions from customers;
• Charlie Reed, Kevin Baron and Leo Shane III of the independent military newspaper Stars and Strips for exposing the Pentagon's secret use of a PR company to steer reporters to "positive" coverage of the war in Afghanistan;
• David Grann of The New Yorker for an investigative report challenging the evidence against Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 after being convicted of setting a fire that killed his three young daughters;
• Abraham Lustgarten of ProPublica for investigating the potentially carcinogenic effects of hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas drilling process.

For more about the Polk Award winners, click here.

UA professor, FOI advocate honored

Congratulations to David Cuillier, assistant professor at The University of Arizona School of Journalism and chairman of the national Freedom of Information committee for SPJ. Cuillier won AEJMC's "Promising Professor" award and was recently named a research fellow for 2009-2010 by the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the UA.

An assistant professor in The University of Arizona School of Journalism took first place in the national "Promising Professor" faculty competition. The award is given by the Mass Communication Society division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, known as AEJMC.

David Cuillier, who teaches courses on public affairs reporting and computer-assisted reporting, will be honored as one of the nation's best and brightest teachers at AEJMC's national conference Aug. 5-8 in Boston. The competition was open to faculty who have taught no more than five years full-time. Cuillier also won the graduate student category of the competition in 2004 while a doctoral student at Washington State University.

At the conference, Cuillier will give a presentation about his teaching and present two research papers: one based on a study that shows skepticism is closely tied to support for freedom of information, and the other about teaching methods in journalism education. He also was invited to speak on a panel about press access to law enforcement information.

More here.

Romanoff honored for televising of House sessions

Andrew Romanoff, former Colorado House speaker, will receive the Sue O'Brien Award for Public Service from the Colorado FOI Council for his efforts to facilitate live coverage of House proceedings, the Examiner reported.

Former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is being honored for putting House sessions on television.

Romanoff, a Denver Democrat, will be given the Sue O'Brien Award for Public Service by the Colorado Freedom of Information Council on Thursday.

Romanoff led a campaign to establish a nonprofit broadcasting organization to provide live, streaming video coverage of proceedings on the House floor.

More here.

Congrats to Indiana Coalition for Open Government

The Indiana Coalition for Open Government received the Frank O'Bannon Sunshine Award for its efforts, which have included publishing guidebooks, sponsoring conferences and studying the effectiveness of the state's public access counselor's office.

A citizen group that advocates for open government was honored Thursday for its efforts by Indiana's largest newspaper industry group.

The Indiana Coalition for Open Government received the Frank O'Bannon Sunshine Award during the Hoosier State Press Association's annual meeting and government conference.

Bill Nangle, executive editor of The Times of Munster, lauded ICOG's efforts for the public's right to know when nominating the nonprofit organization for the honor.

More here.

Arkansas Reporter Wins Award for FOI Work

Helena Daily World reporter Michele Page has achieved a personal zenith in her three years of journalism as recipient of the Arkansas Press Association’s Freedom of Information Award.
Page was honored at the APA’s Super Convention Friday night at the Wyndam Riverfront in North Little Rock.

On accepting the award Page said, “It’s such an honor to be recognized along those that have dedicated 50 years to journalism. They forged the way for today’s journalists and I’m very pleased to meet and be included with leaders of our industry.

“The FOIA opens government to the public and makes sure it stays there,” Page continued. “I’ll continue to fight for the people’s right to know.”

Working under the supervision of Managing Editor Randy Hogan, Page was able to get the Helena-West Helena Police Department to correct years of departmental policy where citizens and businesses were overcharged for incident reports, and pressed to see that the FOIA was upheld after the HWHPD failed to fully comply to a records request, netting a rare arrest for alleged FOIA violation.

Hogan said of the honor: “The Freedom of Information Act is a precious right and freedom that we enjoy as Arkansans and Americans. Michele has worked diligently to ensure that the residents of Helena-West Helena and Phillips County have access to all of the records they are allowed under the law. She has done an excellent job of defending the FOIA. We at the Daily World are proud of her accomplishments and congratulate her on this prestigious award.”

More here.

Virginia Coalition Announces Awards

Two people will be honored with awards from the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, the group announced.

Leigh Purdum of Madison County will receive the group’s Laurence E. Richardson award for individual citizen contributions to open government after winning a court case against the Madison County Sheriff, according to a release from the group.

Lawrence Hammack of The Roanoke Times will receive the group’s media award for a series of stories he wrote on a former city councilman’s spending.

More here.