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statewide honors Mount Carmel and old St. Pat­rick's .

"REMINDED ME, and probably

News-Herald takes

a lot of readers, of the ir high Paula Evans Neuman Gary Gosselin school days," the judges said. "Strong personal flavor from many former players."

The News-Herald's final first place came in sports coverage. The judges called lhe newspapers' sports section "great looking" with lots of information.

"The layouts and graphics stood out among all entries," the judges said . .

The News-Herald has tradition­ally scored well in sports coverage

. Catherine J(avanaugh Joseph Cabadasin the contest and this is the sec­tion's third win in a row. Members of the sports staff are Minckiewicz, Schulte, Salowich, Scott Held and Ken Welsch. . The second-place winners started in spot news. The News­Herald's entry was its coverage of President Clinton's visit to Taylor in March : keyed by Assistant News Editor Mark Rutkowski.

Others who aided the coverage in the March 6 editions were Kasuba, Senior Staff Writer Cathe­ .Cindy Hopman Dave Chapman Rick Schulte

Mark Rutkowski

Hank Minckiewicz

For the seventh consecutive year, The News-Herald Newspa­pers has ca ptu red the top award in the Michigan Press Associa­tion's Belter Newspaper Contest.

The' News-Herald was named "Mich igan's Best" in its circula­tion category of over 25.000, the largest among weekly newspapers in the state. It earned 1,270 points in the contest, including five first­place awards. seven seconds and six thirds. .

No other newspaper has won the Class A weekly category in Michigan since the inception of the award in 1990.

TH-e-FIVE winning entries were heavily weighted in live coverage and reporting, including firsts in spot or breaking news, local news reporting, sports columns, sports features arid sports coverage.

In the spot-news category, the News-Herald captured first for its coverage of the McLouth Steel failure in March, keyed by the re­porting of Staff Writer Gary Gosselin.

Gosselin was joined in the reo porting by Staff Writers Shawn Lawrence, Chris Wright, Anne Sullivan and "Jim Kasuba. ,"(McLouth's) obvious signifi­

cance to the community was well­presented and interesting to read," according to the judges.

~ IN LOCAL news reporting, Sen­ior Staff Writer Paula Evans Neuman's follow-up story on the problem of overweight waste­hauling trucks, published in Feb­ruary, claimed first place. ,Th~

report came after months 0(: re­search ignited·. by an accident involving an overweigbt waste­hauler and a car driven by an eld­erly Downrive·r·c·ouple. ­

"Well done...• the judges said. "You took ' an ' accident story and' turned it into a story witb some real impact. It obviously required research and patience."

.F or rner News Editor Jeff -Barr captured the . first:place ' award among sports columns with his stOry about the efforts of a young Woodhaven High School pitcher against the backdrop of the Major League baseball strike in June. ' . : "(Jeff ' brought) the situation'

alive," the judge said. "I felt I was at the Woo~haven field that day."

BARR'S , FIRST-PLACE award led",~a ' ul.lique,Ney..s~Herald sweep qrthe category. " . ,

rine Kavanaugh , Karl . Ziomek, Christy Strawser, Larry Caruso, Ed Conley and Dave Chapman.

"(IT WAS A) great local spin on Clinton's visit," the judges said.

Contributing Editor. Cindy Hopman captured second for her feature story, " ... and on that farm," written in April. The fea­ture was about members of the Jim DeSana Jr. family, who sbeep farm in Berlin Township, three miles into Monroe County. .

"(Hopman) took what could have been (an) average (story) and made it stand out ," the judges said. "A nice job."

Photographer Chapman was second in the spot-news category for his work during the accident be'tween the overweight . waste truck and the car driven by tbe elderly couple in December. Chapman spent hours on the scene as paramedics worked to free the man and his wife from the parked car. . .... . ., ,

. • :'Multiple use:of photos tells the , story," the judge said.

',:. ADDJNG " -+'; ~~CO~DS ~ ; 't:!~~..: . 'Mi'nckiewicz in both sports writing

and sports columns. .the newspa-" pers' . lifestyles sectfon" and ' "Outlook '97," a supplement to the

The lifestyles section, another traditional high-scorer in the con­test. was lauded for "lots of good information." In addition to Hopman, it is written and edited by Pat Andrews, 'Evelyn Cairns, Jackie Harrison-Martin, Doris Ludtke and Donna Abramczyk.

"Ou tl ook '97." a supplement fo­cusing on Downriver progress. was edited and designed by Assis­tant Managing Editor Joe Hoshaw.

"This (project) made nice use of color and did an admirable job of covering what appears to be a large number of communities," the judges said.

THE NEWS-HERALD picked up third-place awards in general ex ­cellence, spot news, design, features. editorial writing. and sportscolumns.

The spot-news entry went to the combination of Neuman and Kava­naugh's coverage of, 8-year-old Samantha Cable of Wyandotte and her ,fight back from a closed-head inju\..yafter being 'hit by a ca~, .

Staff . Writer Joseph Cabadas took third for his feature, "Glad to be alive," centering on the paralyzed victim of a stabbing .

newspaper that appeared ' in "F eb ­ ;.., The ..newspaper also captured ruary. honorable mentions in local re­

porting (Cahadas) , feature stories (Gosselin), editorial pages, feature pictures (Caruso), sports picture (Photogra pher J OM Simon) and sports columns (Salo...ich).

This year's contest was judged by members of the Minnesota Press Association. The Michigan's Best award will be presented dur­ing the MPA's Winter Convention in Grand Rapids in January.

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: 'Sports Editor Hank Minckiewicz was" sec<md -with- 'hi's' column 're­membering a young skater who ';;'0."-' r.f' x r rvc cO' ....... ~ ""' lI'" C' .............+to I