Editor of Vietnamese Paper Honored at Press Club Awards

Yen Do, editor of Nguoi Viet Daily News, which has been published in Orange County for 20 years, won special honors Sunday night from the Orange County Press Club in its 44th annual awards ceremony.

Do, who has been been involved in issues in the Vietnamese community and mentors young journalists, received the Sky Dunlap Award for career excellence and contribution to Orange County.

Staff writers and editors from The Times Orange County edition won 39 awards, including the most prestigious prize. Among the paper’s prizes were 18 first-place honors.

The Orange County Register earned 31 awards, nine of them first-place honors. Other local publications honored were OC Weekly, Orange Coast Magazine and OC Metro.

Times staff writer Tracy Weber won the press club’s top honor, the Watchdog/Investigative Award. Weber found that thousands of children in California’s group and foster homes are routinely given psychiatric drugs, at times simply to keep them docile for their overburdened caretakers.

Times photographer Al Schaben won three first-place awards, including best news photo, best photo essay and best photo portfolio. Former Times graphics illustrator Val B. Mina picked up two first-place awards, one for best illustration and one for best illustration portfolio.

The Times staff swept the breaking news package category, winning top honors for its coverage of a hostage situation at the Orange County Board of Education and the features category, with Scott Martelle winning first prize.

Times editors won the majority of the layout and headline categories, including the best headline portfolio by Glenn Doggrell and best news page layout portfolio by Pete Harrigan. Times graphic artists took five of six prizes, including first place for the best infographics portfolio by Paul Carbo.

Times staff writers picked up first-place awards in other categories. Bill Shaikin won for best sports story, Mimi Ko Cruz for best profile, Mike Boehm for best entertainment review and John Needham for best editorial. Greg Hernandez won for the best magazine story, P.J. Huffstutter for daily beat portfolio, and former staffer Liz Seymour for top daily news story.

Terry Francke of the California First Amendment Coalition was the keynote speaker at the event Sunday at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter handed out the awards.

The Register’s Jeff Miller and Michael Goulding each won two first-place awards. Miller won for best sports feature and best column. Goulding won for best feature photo and best sports photo. Bruce Strong won for best photo portrait, Phil Garlington earned top honors for best business story, Carol Masciola won for best project, series or special section, Kurt Snibbe won for best informational graphic and Helayne Perry won for best feature page layout portfolio.

Kedric Francis of the OC Metro won two first-place awards, one for best weekly feature story and one for weekly beat portfolio. R. Scott Moxley of the OC Weekly won for best weekly news story, Steve Lowery of the OC Weekly won for best weekly business story, Rebecca Schoenkopf of the OC Weekly won for best weekly sports story. David Lansing of Orange Coast Magazine won for best humor story.

The press club also awarded $3,000 in scholarships to six local college students. The winners were selected from students who attended a mock news conference and wrote a news story on deadline.

Kasey DuBois of Orange Coast College won first place and $750 in the two-year college competition, while Kerry Murray of Cal State Fullerton won $750 for four-year colleges.

Kimiko Martinez of Orange Coast College and Nathan Gonzales of Southern California College each won $500 for second place. Kathy Speakman of Irvine Valley College and Katherine Nguyen of Cal State Fullerton each received $250 for third place.

In the public relations category, Sherry Angel of UCI won best news release; Ruth Wardwell and Mark Mattern of Chapman University won for best press kit; Joan Murphine of McEfee Murphine and Peters won for best external publication; and Cathi Douglas of Chapman University won for best internal publication.

Runner-up winners included:

News story (daily): second to Bonnie Weston of the Register and third to Nancy Wride of The Times.

News story (weekly): second to Nick Schou of OC Weekly and third to Kedric Francis of OC Metro.

Feature story (daily): second to Tina Nguyen and third to Bonnie Harris, both of The Times.

Feature story (weekly): second to Bob Emmers and third to Greg Stacy, both of the OC Weekly.

Business story (daily): second to Ronald Campbell of the Register and third to P.J. Huffstutter of The Times.

Business story (weekly): second to Dave Wielenga and David Bacon, both of the OC Weekly.

Sports story (daily): second to Jeff Miller and third to Barbara Kingsley, both of the Register.

Sports story (weekly): second to Kristina Rebelo Anderson of the OC Weekly. No third-place award.

Sports feature: second to Mike DiGiovanna of The Times; third to Danny Evans of Orange Coast Magazine.

Profile: second to Lisa Addison of The Times, third to Will Swaim and Steve Lowery of the OC Weekly.

Entertainment review: second to Joel Beers of the OC Weekly, third to Ben Wener of the Register.

Editorial: second to Steve Burgard of The Times. No third-place award.

Column: second to David Lansing of the Register; third to Nancy Wride of The Times and Jeff Collins of the Register.

Humor story: second to Nathan Callahan of the OC Weekly, third to Bill Rams and Holly Zareei of the Register.

Magazine story: second to Matt Coker of OC Weekly and third to Renee Tawa of The Times and Rich Kane of OC Weekly.

Beat coverage (daily): second to John Gittelsohn of the Register and third to Leslie Earnest of The Times.

Beat coverage (weekly): second to Sandy Bennett of the OC Weekly. No third-place award.

Investigative/Watchdog: second to the Register staff.

Breaking news package: second to the Times staff.

Project (series or special section): second to John Gittelsohn of the Register and third to the Times staff.

News photo: second to Steve Zylius and third to Daniel Anderson, both of the Register.

Feature photo: second to Bruce Chambers and third to Eugene Garcia, both of the Register.

Sports photo: second to Alexander Gallardo of The Times and third to Bruce Chambers of the Register.

Photo essay: second to Bruce Strong and third to Paul Rodriguez, both of the Register.

Portrait: second to Bruce Chambers of the Register and third to Al Schaben of The Times.

Informational graphics: second to Paul Carbo of The Times. No third-place award.

Infographics portfolio: second to Raoul Ranoa of The Times. No third-place award.

Illustration: second to Paul Carbo of The Times. No third-place award.

Illustration portfolio: second to Mary Zisk of the Register. No third-place award.

Headline portfolio: second to Dave Barton and third to Mike Grundmann, both of The Times.

News page layout portfolio: second to Mark Yemma of The Times. No third-place award.

Feature page layout portfolio: second to Mauricio Gutierrez of the Register and third to Kent Zelas of The Times.

News release: second to Andrew Porterfield and third to Karen Morris, both of UCI.

Press kit: second to Karen Morris of UCI and to John Standiford of OCTA. No third-place award.

External publication: second to Terry McEfee of McEfee Murphine and Peters. No third-place award.

Internal publication: second to Susan Menning of UCI. No third-place award.