Columbian reporters honored in regional contest

Staff members at The Columbian have won five awards in the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association’s C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Newspaper Reporting. Awards were announced Wednesday in Seattle.

The awards included a first place honor among papers with circulation under 50,000 for investigative reporting, as well as awards for deadline writing, feature writing, coverage of diversity and consumer reporting.  The contest is open to daily newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Alberta and British Columbia.

Patty Hastings received a first-place award for investigative reporting for her coverage of Clark County’s housing crisis. The stories submitted were “6 takeaways about housing in county: Census estimates show changes since Great Recession,” published on Dec. 4, 2015; “VHA offers incentive to landlords: Agency aims to make low-income renters with vouchers more attractive,” published Sept. 30, 2015; “Rental vacancy lowest in nation: Census data show area ended ’15 with 2.4% units available,” published Feb. 4; “Housing, population out of sync: Clark County’s 176,517 units don’t keep pace with rise in residents; more homes on way,” published May 19, and “Ousted tenants looking for housing: Ghim Village residents find search difficult for affordable place to live,” published Sept. 29, 2015.

The Columbian staff received a second-place award for deadline reporting in its coverage of a tornado that swept through Battle Ground on Dec. 10, 2015. The stories submitted were “Tornado hits Battle Ground; 100 mph-plus winds damage homes, down power lines and trees; no injuries are reported,” “Residents heard roar, saw flying objects, debris,” and “Tornadoes rare in county but not unheard of.” All stories were published on Dec. 11, 2015.

Emily Gillespie took third place for distinguished coverage of diversity for her reporting on the Vancouver Police Department and its relations with minority groups both within and outside the department in a story headlined “Striving for diversity, not animosity: Agency relies on advisory team, recruiting to keep lines of communication open, attract minorities to force,” that published on Aug. 16, 2015.

Marissa Harshman also placed third in the Debby Lowman Contest for Distinguished Reporting of Consumer Affairs. She was honored for the following stories, which ran in The Columbian’s Life/Health section: “Blue light special problem,” which published March 21, 2016; “Align yourself with good sitting posture,” which published Jan. 25, 2016; “10 tips for managing diabetes during the holidays,” which published Dec. 14, 2015; “Baby blues may signal serious health issues,” which published Nov. 9, 2015; and “5 do’s and 5 don’ts to beating Clark County heat wave,” which published June 26, 2015.

Lou Brancaccio took third place for feature writing for a June 27, 2015, column titled “Press Talk: Fear and loathing in Crazytown.”

Writers from daily newspapers that were members of the association were eligible to participate in the competition, which focused on stories published between May 1, 2015, and May 31, 2016.

The Blethen awards were established in 1977 in honor of C.B. Blethen, publisher of The Seattle Times from 1915 to 1941. The Debby Lowman Award for Distinguished Reporting of Consumer Affairs honors Debby Lowman, a Seattle Times consumer reporter who died of cancer in 1978.