It might sound like déjà vu, but it’s not.
This weekend we won more awards for our journalism—this time taking home three first-place awards and two second-place awards at the New Mexico Press Women Communications Contest.
The awards, which are open to members of press throughout the state, recognized our work in environmental, investigative, feature reporting and more.
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Senior Reporter Joey Peters won first place for “Continuing coverage or unfolding news” for his coverage of the New Mexico Human Services Department SNAP scandal (for which he wrote nearly three-dozen stories last year) and a second-place award in investigative reporting for “City gave ranch million-dollar water discount, documents show.”
The judge said the NM Political Report coverage of the SNAP story was “a fantastic job of covering, reporting [and] digging.”
Reporter Andy Lyman won first place in the News Story-Online Publication category for “State medical pot investigations leave a lot to the imagination” and a second-place award in the “Personality profile—more than 500 words” category for “How Gary Johnson went from ‘Governor No’ to third party icon.”
On the medical marijuana investigation, the judge lauded Lyman’s use of open records requests and interviews for the reports. On the profile of New Mexico’s former governor, it noted how timely it was because of Johnson’s role in the 2016 presidential race.
Environment reporter Laura Paskus won first place in the Green/Environmental category for two stories: “Trump appointments, policies will have long-term impacts on NM” and “Standing Rock resonates in New Mexico.”
The judge said the stories “inform with substantial evidence and draw meaningful conclusions” also noting they bring attention to national issues that will impact New Mexico.
Last week, NM Political Report brought home three awards in the regional Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies awards, including one first-place award.