Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service won 12 awards on Friday as part of the Milwaukee Press Club Awards for Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism, including six first-place gold prizes for stories on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, shuttered power plants, a detained immigrant, police misconduct and a Milwaukee high school barbershop.
In the online reporting category, state reporter Tom Kertscher took home two gold prizes for his profile of former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman and for a story with reporter Paul Kiefer on coal power plants ratepayers continue to pay for years after they stop producing electricity.
Freelance reporter Larry Sandler and data reporter Hongyu Liu won a gold award in the best online explanatory story or series for their three-part series “Supreme Costs,” which examined how Wisconsin became the first state to feature nine-figure spending on a high court election.
Intergenerational reporter Chesnie Wardell earned the gold award in the writing category best short soft feature story for her report about a barbershop at Rufus King International High School.
Pathways to success reporter Natalie Yahr along with Cap Times reporter Erin McGroarty won a gold award in the writing category for their story on Miguel Jerez Robles, a Cuban asylum seeker whom ICE arrested after a routine immigration hearing. Yahr and pathways to success reporter Miranda Dunlap won a bronze award in the online category for best long hard feature story for their report on high schools offering more college courses.
Photojournalist Jonathan Aguilar received silver and bronze awards for his photography in the best photo essay and best feature photo categories. His images captured an urban angler and a Dia de los Muertos celebration. Photojournalist Joe Timmerman won a silver award in the best feature photo category for his portrait of an anonymous transgender teenager.
Former reporter Mario Koran’s work on Milwaukee County’s Brady list, which lists law enforcement officers who have been dishonest, won two awards for best investigative story or series, a silver award in writing and a gold award in video. The project was a collaboration among Wisconsin Watch, TMJ4 and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Former intern Margaret Shreiner won a silver award in the online category for best investigative story or series for her report on a mother who couldn’t get a public defender after 10,000 calls to lawyers. The Press Club hands out awards in both professional and student categories. Shreiner won the award in the professional category while interning as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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