February Best of the Month Nominations

Congratulations to Rick Green, who was selected Februarys Best Overall in the News and Information Center. Rick was nominated for his reporting from the state Capitol Bureau. In February, he launched the new legislative session with a front-page centerpiece:

Legislative session to begin (with secondary head Bills cover topics including budget, texting, Indian Museum) and a follow-up centerpiece on the governors State of the State address: Fallins speech marks start of legislative session (The goals are straightforward, and the stakes are high). In addition, Rick wrote 12 Page 1 stories in February, including seven plays. Among his play stories were: Lawmakers consider bills to expand school choice; Budget gap may double; and Lawmakers to rework bill targeting AP classes (Author says he supports program). Rick also helped with some editing duties on the Local Desk following Nick Trougakos departure.

Best Beat or Breaking News StoryFrom: Robby Trammell

Nominee: Rick GreenPlay Budget gap may double (2-13-15)

http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/02/13&PageLabelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00109&ViewMode=GIFBest Business Story or Business Feature

From: Don Mecoy

Nominee: Adam Wilmoth

Adam was ahead of his peers nationally in producing a story about the flood of oil into Cushing. As crude prices have fallen, many producers are banking their oil, and millions of barrels are in the tanks and pipelines of Cushing. Adam explained why it's happening, and why it could lead to even lower oil prices in the weeks and months to come. Within a week, I had seen similar stories from AP, Bloomberg and Reuters. But our readers knew about it first.

http://newsok.com/crude-oil-pouring-into-cushing-oklahoma/article/5394908Best Sports Story

From: Mike Sherman

Nominee: Jacob UnruhTyritta Dixon was profiled in a Sports Illustrated series on homeless athletes. Jacob's story goes deeper and tells the tale of what happened after the SI piece, and how her life has changed for the better. Jacob emphasized the coach who stepped into the gap left by parents who were negligent and/or unaware.

http://newsok.com/article/5396514Best Feature StoryFrom: Matt Price

Nominee: Heather Warlick

Great lead and compelling story from Heather about a team of horse rescuers in Jones, OK. Natalee and Shawn Cross, a married couple of 18 years, have for the past 14 years operated Blazes Tribute Equine Rescue in Jones. They bring some of the most neglected and abused horses in the state back to health.

This story was shared 1,943 times on Facebook.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-couple-rescue-thousands-of-neglected-horses-in-need/article/5395315Best specialty Feature

From: Mike Sherman

Nominee: Berry Trammel

Berry's annual "People who will impact the Super Bowl" is a quick, easy and engaging read for NFL majors and minors. This year it was 49 people for Super Bowl 49. There's a lot of research, good thought and writing that goes into this every year. It's a model of how we can offer readers guides to local events and big events of local interest. Please consider it for BOM in this category.

Best Project/Enterprise/In-Depth Story

From: Matt Price

Nominee(s): Carla Hinton/Sarah Phipps

The Salvation Armys new Night Watch Team takes to the streets in cold weather months to offer food, warm gear and shelter to homeless people living on the streets of downtown Oklahoma City. Carla nd Sarah did excellent work telling this important story through words, photo and video. I thought Carla's piece was exceptionally well-written and captured the moment cogently.

Reader comment: Carla Conway, Fox Valley Technical College -- God bless the Salvation Army and these workers! Becky Holmes -- Awesome!!!

http://newsok.com/article/5392696Best Watchdog Story

From: Robby Trammell

Nominee: Nolan Clay

Play DHS failed to investigate call about grandmother who dressed as witch; Woman is accused of girls physical, psychological abuse (2-22-15)

http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/02/22&PageLabelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00100&ViewMode=GIFBest Column/Opinion/First-Person Story

From: Don Mecoy

Nominee: Paul MoniesPaul is upset with Hershey for its strong-armed tactics that are making it nearly impossible for him to obtain the beloved Cadbury chocolate of his childhood and homeland. Paul's article was forceful and wistful, as he expressed his ire at Hershey's denial of the importation of CurlyWurly, Crunchie, Double Decker and Fruit Gums. Paul also supplied photos of the Cadbury products, and of his trash can filled with rejected Hershey sweets. Everything a personal column should be.

http://newsok.com/article/5390446Best Blog/Social Media Effort

From: Robb HibbardNominee: Richard Hall

Richard wrote a series of blogs for Black History Month that did very well in a number of ways: connected with the community, gave a voice to those who might feel voiceless, educated readers, highlighted important parts of Oklahoma's history and helped raise NewsOK's page views for the month. http://newsok.com/5-things-about-oklahomas-civil-rights-movement-you-should-know/article/5390198http://newsok.com/6-notable-black-oklahomans-you-should-know-about/article/5392318http://newsok.com/5-reasons-the-tulsa-race-riot-should-always-be-remembered/article/5394763http://newsok.com/5-little-known-facts-about-oklahomas-black-history/article/5396740Best Photo

From: Doug Hoke

Nominee: Nate Billings

Dennis Speck makes a phone call while he waits for firefighters to arrive as his car burns in the background on Interstate 235 south near 36th St. during rush hour after a winter storm in Oklahoma City, Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. Speck said he stopped on the highway when his clutch failed and got out of the car when he saw smoke coming from the hood of his car. Spot news is all about being in the right spot at the right time, and Nate was. While cruising looking for snow art he happened upon a car on fire with the owner calling 9-1-1.

Best Design/Illustration

From: Matt Price

Nominee: Ebony Dallas

Ebony crafted a fine-looking LOOK@OKC issue around a Steve Lackmeyer story on Coney Island Hot Dogs. From Nathan Poppe: Id nominate Ebony Dallas for her design work on LOOKatOKC in Feb. On the most recent cover, she went as far as going to Coney Island, borrowing art from the walls, scanning it and improving the design of the story. http://issuu.com/opubco/docs/2-25_look-lores/1?e=0Best VideoFrom: Mike Sherman

Nominee: Bryan Terry

Bryan Terry's video on Tyritta Dixon, the Northwest Classen senior who went from homeless to hope, is a great example of what a talented multimedia journalist can do with time and a good story. In print we can take you there with good writing and reporting. With Bryan's photos and videos, readers actually met Tyritta and felt her pain and hope. A strong, collaborative effort between Bryan and Jacob, photo and sports.

http://newsok.com/high-school-basketball-tyritta-dixon-has-nothing-to-hide-anymore/article/5396514Best Headline(s)

From: Pat Gilliland

Nominee: Pat Gilliland

'Camelot' production is royal disappointmentSpecial Effort to Improve Accuracy

Tom Maupin, for the following catches, especially No. 3:No. 1 -- History mistake in year. Slotting a cutline for Feb. 6, Tom saw: Wendell Gray holds the certificate of homestead issued to his grandmother, Maggie (Gossin) Gray, and dated May 20, 1862. It was signed by President William McKinley. Tom knew that Lincoln was president in 1862, not McKinley. A closer look at the document photo showed the date was May 1897, which was correct for McKinley.

No. 2 -- Bad headlines caught

Slotting Feb. 19 copy, Tom saw this headline: Edmond School Board changes boundaries. That was wrong because the school board had received the proposed changes and had scheduled a meeting so parents could learn about the proposal. Tom changed the headline to: Edmond district plans meeting on boundaries.

Another bad headline caught. Slotting the first read of a Feb. 19 story about Ash Wednesday, Tom saw this headline: Christians mark Ash Wednesday in Oklahoma City. That headline would have been embarrassing because the first church mentioned was St. Joseph Catholic Church in Norman. Tom changed the headline to: Christians mark Ash Wednesday in Oklahoma City area. When the page was designed, Tom and the layout person made this the headline: Oklahoma Christians mark Ash Wednesday.

No. 3 -- Wrong title in headline. Slotting a business brief for Feb. 20, Tom saw this headline: Devon CFO to give keynote. But the story said the man is Devons chief operating officer, not chief financial officer. Tom changed the headline.

No. 4 -- Count was wrong. A Feb. 26 business story said the Oklahoma-made KiZE energy bars come in four flavors Cocoa, Peanut Butter, Vanilla Almond and Pumpkin Seed. Tom was slot and saw the photo showed five flavors. Tom changed the storys flavor count to five and added Cinnamon Raisin to the list. The business editor was called and OKd the change.