Illinois Issues wins national journalism honors

Illinois Issues magazine has won two national awards in the 2009 “Best of Statehouse Reporting” contest sponsored by Capitolbeat, the association of Statehouse reporters and editors.

Columnist Charles N. Wheeler III won first place in the Columns/Commentary/News Analysis category for magazines for his columns that appeared throughout the year.  Dave McKinney won third place in the same category for his analysis, “The two faces of Illinois politics.” His article appeared in the January 2009 edition of Illinois Issues and compared the reputations of newly elected President Barack Obama and then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and removed from office later that month. McKinney is a reporter at the Illinois Capitol for the Chicago Sun-Times.

WUIS/Illinois Public Radio, a sister unit of Illinois Issues in the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Springfield,  won four awards for radio reporting.

WUIS Statehouse Bureau Chief Sean Crawford and reporter Amanda Vinicky won first place in In-Depth Reporting for their report, “The Fall of Governor Rod Blagojevich.” Vinicky also won second place in the Single Report category, and Crawford won third place awards in the Single Report and Beat Reporting categories.

 Other Illinois winners include:

 Newspapers or wire services over 75,000 circulation

• Natasha Korecki and McKinney, first place in Single Report for their Chicago Sun-Times article, “Blago hit up Burris for cash.”
• Chris Fusco, Korecki, McKinney, Tim Novak and Jordan Wilson of the Sun-Times, honorable mention in Beat Reporting.
• John Chase, Jeff Coen, Ray Long and Rick Pearson of the Chicago Tribune, honorable mention in Beat Reporting.
• John O’Connor of the Associated Press, honorable mention in Beat Reporting.

Newspapers or wire services under 75,000 circulation

• Bernard Schoenburg of the Springfield State Journal-Register, second place in Columns/Commentary/News Analysis.

The annual awards were announced August 22 at Capitolbeat’s three-day annual conference in Indianapolis. The organization marked its 10th anniversary this year as the nation’s only professional association devoted to state government journalism.

Illinois Issues, September 2009