APME Public Service Awards Given

By: (AP) Stories examining how state lawmakers bankroll friends and party bosses from public funds, showing little interest in reforms, earned the Gannett New Jersey papers the 34th annual Associated Press Managing Editors Award for Public Service.

The association of newspaper and online editors also announced Monday that The Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat won the award for newspapers under 50,000 circulation for uncovering mismanagement in the office of the county public administrator, created to manage and conserve finances of people who cannot take care of themselves.

The investigation by the Asbury Park Press of Neptune, N.J., and six other Gannett New Jersey newspapers found that outright corruption had given way to another form of abuse by which legislators systematically changed and exploited rules to ensure that they and their friends would benefit under the guise of elected office. The series, "Profiting from Public Service," suggested that legislators had little interest in discussing ethics or good-government reforms as it would mean they no longer would be able to hire relatives, pad their pensions or hand out millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to employers, friends and political cronies.

Also participating in the project were the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, the Daily Record of Parsippany, the Courier News of Bridgewater, the Ocean County Observer of Toms River and The Daily Journal of Vineland.

The winners were selected from among entries from 77 newspapers of above 50,000 circulation and 26 under 50,000 circulation. Submitted work was published between July 1, 2003, and May 31.

The awards, recognizing "outstanding service to the community, state or nation," will be presented during the annual APME conference Oct. 13-16 in Louisville, Ky.

"The quality of submitted work this year was truly outstanding," said APME President Stuart Wilk, who chaired the judging prior to the summer meeting of the association's board of directors. Wilk, vice president and associate editor of The Dallas Morning News, added: "It is heartening to see so many newspapers committed to looking at their communities and striving to serve the public interest."

The reaction was quick and fierce to the New Jersey investigation. Reporters and newspapers were threatened with lawsuits simply for asking questions about particular financial dealings, and in one case a reporter became the target of a political party's attack on his family. But hundreds of readers praised the reporting, and talk of ethics reform, once taboo at the Statehouse, has become a major issue in the state.

In its probe of the Pettis County public administrator's office, the Sedalia newspaper reported that administrator Margaret Scmidt had mismanaged the estates of several people by making extravagant expenses on food, transportation and clothing. It also found the administrator used a handful of estates to pay her close friends thousands of dollars for questionable work.

Following publication of the six-part series, "Broken Trust," a criminal inquiry was launched and Scmidt resigned her elected position. Prosecutors later cleared her of any wrongdoing.

Judges nominated these entries as finalists in the above 50,000 circulation category:

* The Washington Post, for revealing an underground of criminals and others who have subverted the nation's pharmaceutical distribution system for life-saving medications.

* The Dallas Morning News, for a months-long project looking at Dallas' many problems and suggesting a road map for renewal.

* The Miami Herald, for an examination of how convicted criminals manage to escape with little or no prison time and remain free to strike again.

* The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, for bringing to light secret war crimes committed 37 years ago by elite Army fighting unit in the Vietnam War, Tiger Force.

* The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, for stories raising questions about who had done and paid for renovations at the summer cottage of then-Gov. John G. Rowland.

* The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., for documenting problems experienced by homeowners in the Habitat for Humanity program.

* The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, for a well-documented investigation into the quality of homes hurriedly built during central Florida's rapid growth.

* Los Angeles Times, for reporting how scientists at the National Institutes of Health, once dedicated to serving the public, quietly have found a second employer: the pharmaceutical industry.

In the under 50,000 circulation category:

* Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa., for stories reporting on a massive environmental problem unearthed during a $700 million highway construction project.

* The Post Star, Glen Falls, N.Y., for an extensive look at the problem of underage drinking and fatal accidents.

* Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, for uncovering a growing problem with gangs in the northeastern Georgia city of 101,000 population.

* Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, for reporting widespread mismanagement and waste in the state's automobile fleet.

* Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, for an investigation into water pollution problems in the county.

* Virgin Islands Daily News, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, for finding not only an alarming use of deadly force by the Virgin Islands police department but failure by the department and the attorney general's office to investigate the cases effectively or diligently.

In addition to Wilk, public service judges were: Ed Jones, immediate past APME president and editor of The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.; Caesar Andrews, a past APME president and editor of Gannett News Service, McLean, Va.; David Hawpe, a former APME president and vice president-editorial director of The Courier Journal in Louisville, Ky.; and Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive editor of The Associated Press, New York. Editors refrained from discussing or voting on entries from their own newspapers.

APME is an organization of editors, managing editors and online editors of the more than 1,700 newspapers served by the AP in the United States and Canadian Press in Canada.