'Topeka Capital-Journal' Reporter Carpenter Wins Highest Morris Publishing Honor

By: E&P Staff Tim Carpenter, special projects and legislative reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal, is this year's winner of the highest honor awarded by Morris Publishing Group, the newspaper announced late Tuesday.

Morris named Carpenter the winner of the William S. Morris III Dedication Award. According to the unbylined account in the Capital-Journal, the award "goes to the publishing group's newspaper employee who contributes the most to the journalism, directly or indirectly, above and beyond his or her specific job responsibilities."

"This is an extraordinary honor for Carp -- the granddaddy of them all for Morris Communications journalists," Publisher Mark Nusbaum said in the paper. "From the distinguished judges who reviewed Tim's body of work over the past five years, to the fact that the award is named after our company chairman, that's how big this is."

The competition was judged by a panel of journalists outside the chain consisting of Gloria Brown Anderson, vice president for international and editorial development for the New York Times News Services; Richard R. Cole, professor and dean emeritus of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Ron Martin, retired editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Carpenter joined the newspaper in 2004 after working as a reporter for 17 years for the Lawrence Journal-World and two years for United Press International.

The account said: "In nominating Carpenter, The Capital-Journal noted he has broken numerous exclusive stories, including investigative articles:

- Last year that chronicled corruption in the state corrections department.

- In 2008 that examined shortcomings of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, where the top two administrators subsequently resigned.

- In 2007 exposing a sexual affair involving then-Attorney General Paul Morrison, who resigned soon afterward.

- In 2004 revealing profound problems in the city of Topeka's Municipal Court, where Administrative Judge Elsbeth Schafer and part-time Judge Matt Works were then forced to resign."