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Fresnoland and Bakersfield’s SJV Water website took apical honors connected April 23 successful the 36th yearly George F. Gruner Awards journalism contention for quality publications successful the cardinal San Joaquin Valley.
Honors went to respective newspapers arsenic good arsenic integer quality sources, which became eligible for Gruner designation conscionable this year. Winning entries crossed categories included light-hearted feature stories, melodramatic photography and incisive investigative enactment from passim the Valley.
Sharing the grant for nationalist service, the apical prize successful the ample newspapers/digital-only class was Fresnoland’s Omar Shaikh Rashad for his sum of the Fresno City Council’s fund committee. Fresno is reportedly the lone ample metropolis successful California to assertion that its fund committee tin barroom the nationalist from viewing its proceedings.
Fresnoland is simply a nonprofit quality website whose enactment appears periodically successful The Fresno Bee and elsewhere. Rashad’s reporting sparked litigation regarding the state’s unfastened meetings laws.
The different apical honoree, Lois Henry, utilized her website, SJV Water, to item however the J.G. Boswell Farming Co. of Corcoran imperiled country towns and different farmers by its handling of the extensive flooding successful outpouring 2023. Judge James Risen commented that Henry’s “masterful coverage of the secretive J.G. Boswell Farming Company and its earthy powerfulness implicit flood power and h2o authorities successful the Tulare Lake country reminded maine of Chinatown, 1 of my favourite movies.”
Earning honorable notation successful the aforesaid class was seasoned newsman Doug Hoagland of the Munro Review, for his exhaustive enactment connected behind-the-scenes machinations related to Measure P, the Fresno metropolis arts and parkland taxation that is raising millions of dollars annually.
The nationalist work grant successful the tiny and play paper contention went to Darren Fraser of the Mid-Valley Times for breaking and continuing sum connected what became a nationalist story: operation of an amerciable and unsafe biolab successful the tiny assemblage of Reedley.
More than 800 biologic materials and chemicals and 900 mice were yet recovered astatine the lab, drafting an alphabet crockery radical of local, authorities and nationalist agencies into the resulting investigation. “It’s not the benignant of communicative that tiny quality organizations usually get,” a justice said. “But The Mid Valley Times handled it well.”
A nationalist work honorable notation went to Edward Smith of the Business Journal for his heavy dive into the slippery concern practices of a mobile location parkland owner. As 1 justice enactment it, helium “dissected however susceptible working-class radical tin beryllium forced into homelessness.”
The Gruner Awards grant George F. Gruner, who retired arsenic enforcement exertion successful 1988 aft 33 years astatine The Fresno Bee. The McClatchy Co., steadfast of The Bee, established the awards successful 1989. The Department of Media, Communications and Journalism astatine Fresno State independently administers the awards. Entries are judged by nonrecreational journalists from extracurricular the contention area. The results were announced astatine an April 23 reception astatine Fresno State.
Here’s a rundown of the different awards.
Best quality story
First place, ample dailies/digital only
Gregory Weaver, Fresnoland, for uncovering flaws successful the state’s biology reappraisal of a large concern parkland task projected successful Fresno. Judges praised Weaver for heavy reporting “rich with voices — from environmentalists, neighbors, adjacent a whistleblower — and demonstrates however the task could negatively interaction a assemblage already facing the worst contamination successful the country.”
Honorable mention
Tim Sheehan, The Fresno Bee, for his enactment connected the illness of Bitwise Industries, the Fresno-based enactment present mired successful bankruptcy and national prosecution.
First place, tiny dailies/weeklies
Parker Bowman, Hanford Sentinel, for his sweeping portion connected the devastating flooding successful the South Valley past year.
Honorable mention
Danielle Gutierrez, Mid Valley Times/Sun Gazette successful Tulare County, for a portion astir the overwhelming fig of stray and abandoned pets aft the pandemic and the impacts, including connected the intelligence wellness of structure workers.
Best column
Large dailies/digital: Garth Stapley, Modesto Bee, for his utile views connected the horrific decease of a stateless pistillate who was tally implicit and dragged by mowing instrumentality successful a nationalist park.
Honorable mention: David Taub, GVWire successful Fresno. A justice praised Taub’s ”deep reporting” and “compact and flawless” penning astir the near-abandonment of a sculpture by a nationally known Fresno creator and the resulting efforts to prevention it.
Small papers/weeklies: Parker Bowman, Hanford Sentinel, who tested the authenticity of artificial quality by interviewing Chat GPT astir the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV Show.
Honorable mention, Jon Hammond, Tehachapi News, for a colorful retelling of the first-ever formation implicit the Tehachapis, accomplished by a 24-year-old aviator successful 1914.
Editorial writing
Large papers/digital: Tad Weber, Fresno Bee.
Honorable mention: Christine Peterson, Bakersfield Californian.
Both pieces were astir the failings of Bakersfield’s Kevin McCarthy, erstwhile talker of the House and the interaction connected authorities and politics. Weber’s portion should person made McCarthy squirm, 1 justice said, and different called it “a beardown editorial that’s a pleasance to read.”
Small papers/weeklies: Greg Little and Nicole Little of the Mariposa Gazette, for “The Hospital Madness Must Stop.”
Feature story
Large dailies/digital: John Donegan, Bakersfield Californian, for a delicate portion astir the barriers to asylum faced by African immigrants.
Honorable mention: Juliana Morano, Fresnoland, for humanizing a communicative astir nationalist backing for the arts, focusing connected the experiences and enactment of 3 artists.
Small papers/weeklies: Greg Little, Mariposa Gazette, for his communicative of a pistillate who gave commencement connected a upland roadworthy successful the backmost of a Subaru. Her archetypal kid arrived connected a infirmary level and her 2nd successful a infirmary elevator.
Honorable mention: Juan Esparza Loera, Vida en el Valle, for his look into the changing satellite of Mexican folkloric dancing, highlighting a San Jose-based radical shaking things up with its LGBTQ+-friendly performances.
Best quality photo
Large dailies/digital: Craig Kohlruss, The Fresno Bee, for his drone photograph of a lonely operation marooned successful Tulare Lake amid 2023’s historical flooding. One justice said it “capitalizes on its starkness to the fullest extent.”
Honorable mention: Andy Alfaro, Modesto Bee, for his memorial to the stateless pistillate tragically killed by a landscaping crew.
Small dailies/weeklies: Ron Holman, Visalia Times-Delta, for a striking changeable of Lemoore Naval Air Station sailors returning from a astir seven-month deployment. “Great images request nary captions,” wrote 1 of the judges.
Honorable mention: María G. Ortiz-Briones, Vida en el Valle, for a vibrant representation illustrating her story connected a Fresno household that raises marigolds for Day of the Dead celebrations.
Sports photo
Large dailies/digital only: Craig Kohlruss, The Fresno Bee, for a precocious schoolhouse shot enactment shot. “You tin astir perceive the crunching arsenic bodies hit,” said a judge.
Honorable mention: John Donegan, Bakersfield Californian, for his representation of a motorcyclist successful midair during an enactment sports show.
Small dailies/weeklies
Ron Holman, Visalia Times-Delta, captured the delighted astonishment of a rod vaulter clearing a bar. The spacious harvest and day airy treated readers to a cinematic image, said 1 judge.
Honorable mention: Juan Esparza Loera, Vida en el Valle, for his representation from a transverse state meet. “You tin consciousness the runners moving,” said a judge.
Sports story
Large papers/digital only: Ron Stapp, Bakersfield Californian, for his look astatine the captious shortage of sports officials for precocious schoolhouse football. Judges said helium explained wherefore less radical privation to referee — including a deficiency of respect.
Honorable mention: Quinton Hamilton, Modesto Bee, for a portion astir the instauration of emblem football for girls successful Stanislaus County precocious schools.
Small papers/weeklies: A necktie betwixt Shawn Jansen of the Merced Sun-Star and Vongni Yang of the Visalia Times-Delta.
Jansen wrote astir a precocious schoolhouse shot subordinate who changed his jersey fig to grant his father, who died successful a postulation mishap conscionable earlier the season. Yang besides wrote astir an jock dealing with loss, a young pistillate who recovered enactment successful softball aft her stepfather, a constabulary officer, killed himself.
Best writing
Large dailies/digital only: Gregory Weaver, Fresnoland, for chronicling a bitter powerfulness conflict among immoderate of the region’s wealthiest, astir influential farmers. “The communicative has truthful galore elements — pistachio farming techniques and contrasting household histories, for lawsuit — it could easy person go a muddle. Instead, Weaver keeps the communicative moving and intelligibly outlines wherefore each broadside thinks they’re the righteous ones who person been wronged,” 1 justice wrote.
Honorable mention: John Donegan, Bakersfield Californian, for “Medicine successful the Field,” detailing efforts to bring aesculapian attraction to Kern County’s agrarian homeless.
Small papers/weeklies: Lauren Jennings, Visalia Times-Delta, for her portion connected the historical flooding. A justice said her communicative provided an intimate consciousness of the flood’s powerfulness and the disruption and loss.
Honorable mention: Frank Lopez, Business Journal, for an relationship of 8 workers astatine a proviso warehouse who had been unneurotic for 27 years since the institution opened, “an uplifting, good reported feature.”
(Story by Jim Boren, manager of the Institute for Media and Public Trust astatine Fresno State)
