Awards Journalism

Times columnist Mike Downey has been voted 1995 sportswriter of the year for California by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Assn. It is the seventh time he has won the award. Vin Scully was the state's top sportscaster. National winners are Bob Costas of NBC-TV and Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. Sportscaster Dick Enberg and writer Dan Jenkins will be inducted into the NSSA's hall of fame April 29.

Leonard Karlin, 81, a longtime director of public relations for Long Island University who helped establish the George Polk Awards for journalism, died Nov. 14 at a hospice in the Bronx, N.Y. He had a brain tumor. When the school established the awards in 1949, Karlin was an assistant to the university's president. Karlin later became director of communications, a position he held for 17 years until he left to work in publishing in 1967.

The Los Angeles Times won six top awards in the annual competition held by Sigma Delta Chi's San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. Times reporters Glenn F. Bunting and Ralph Frammolino won the top community service award for their series on ticket-fixing and favors by police administrators. Photographers Vince Compagnone and Barbara Martin won for best sports photography and best photo essay, respectively, and Times artist Steve Lopez won for an original illustration.

Los Angeles Times writers, editors and photographers picked up 52 Greater Los Angeles Press Club awards, including an award for General Excellence and the top investigative prize, at the club's 40th annual awards ceremony Saturday night. Among the paper's prizes were 29 first-place awards. The Times also won 23 awards of excellence at the ceremony, held at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Valley Edition writers, photographers and a news editor took home 14 prizes.

Leonard Karlin, 81, a longtime director of public relations for Long Island University who helped establish the George Polk Awards for journalism, died Nov. 14 at a hospice in the Bronx, N.Y. He had a brain tumor. When the school established the awards in 1949, Karlin was an assistant to the university's president. Karlin later became director of communications, a position he held for 17 years until he left to work in publishing in 1967.

The Ventura County Edition of the Los Angeles Times has won 40 awards for excellence--including 22 of 30 first prizes for daily newspapers--in the second annual Ventura County Press Club awards contest. Times reporters dominated the awards in the local newswriting and reporting categories, winning prizes for best news story, best story by a team of reporters, best series of articles, best investigative story and best news feature story.

Staffers from The Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition won the Orange County Press Club's most prestigious award, along with 50 other prizes, at the club's 39th annual awards ceremony Saturday night. Among the paper's prizes were 17 first-place honors. Also at the ceremony in the Sheraton Newport Beach Hotel, former Times staffer Bill Billiter was honored with the Press Club's Sky Dunlap Award for career excellence and contribution to the Orange County community.

Sunny Hills High School won three top awards and two honorable mentions to lead all entrants in the fifth annual Times Orange County High School Journalism Awards competition. Sunny Hills' student newspaper, The Accolade, was named the best issue in the division for papers of five or more pages. Orange and Foothill high schools received honorable mentions in the division.

ORANGE COUNTY PRESS CLUB General Excellence Breaking News 1st: Los Angeles Times Staff for "Wind-Fueled Firestorms Tear Through Southern California." Dexter Filkins, Michael Wagner, Rene Lynch, Rene Tawa with contributors Len Hall, Leslie Earnest, Nancy Cleeland, Matt Lait, H.G.

Times staff writer Richard E. Meyer has won the magazine reporting prize in the Society of Professional Journalists' 1995 Sigma Delta Chi journalism awards. Meyer's award, announced Thursday by the society, recognizes his Dec. 17 cover story for the Los Angeles Times Magazine on Julia Tavalaro, a woman paralyzed so severely by a stroke that she is able to communicate only through slight eye and head movements. To tell Tavalaro's story, Meyer spent nearly 450 hours interviewing her.

Staff writers from The Times Orange County edition won 39 Orange County Press Club awards, including the top investigative prize, at the club's 43rd annual awards ceremony Sunday night. Among the paper's prizes were eight first-place awards. The Orange County Register earned 34 awards, 14 of them first-place honors. Other local publications honored were OC Weekly, Orange Coast Magazine and OC Metro. Times staff writer Michael G.

ORANGE COUNTY PRESS CLUB General Excellence Breaking News 1st: Los Angeles Times Staff for "Wind-Fueled Firestorms Tear Through Southern California." Dexter Filkins, Michael Wagner, Rene Lynch, Rene Tawa with contributors Len Hall, Leslie Earnest, Nancy Cleeland, Matt Lait, H.G.

The Los Angeles Times has been awarded three prizes in the Society of Professional Journalists' 1996 competition--including an award to cartoonist Paul Conrad, now a seven-time winner who holds the organization's record for individual winners. Times staff writer John-Thor Dahlburg won a foreign correspondence award for his reporting on Afghanistan, and a Times investigative team won the non-deadline reporting award for "And Justice for Some: Solving Murders in L.A. County."

Times staff writer Richard E. Meyer has won the magazine reporting prize in the Society of Professional Journalists' 1995 Sigma Delta Chi journalism awards. Meyer's award, announced Thursday by the society, recognizes his Dec. 17 cover story for the Los Angeles Times Magazine on Julia Tavalaro, a woman paralyzed so severely by a stroke that she is able to communicate only through slight eye and head movements. To tell Tavalaro's story, Meyer spent nearly 450 hours interviewing her.

High school newspapers in Fullerton and Santa Ana received top honors Wednesday in the 1996 Times Orange County's Journalism Awards, presented to the top young writers, editors, photographers and artists. Capturing first place and a $1,000 prize for the best publication with five or more pages was the Accolade at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton.

High school newspapers in Fullerton and Santa Ana received top honors Wednesday in the 1996 Times Orange County's Journalism Awards, presented to the top young writers, editors, photographers and artists. Capturing first place and a $1,000 prize for the best publication with five or more pages was the Accolade at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton.