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MT staff receives 12 news awards By ROBERT GALVIN The Mail Tribune received 12 awards Saturday - including a first-place honor for reporter Bill Kettler - as the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists announced the winners of its annual competition. Photo Editor Bob Pennell received four awards in three separate categories, including one in which newspapers are judged against each other regardless of circulation class. Kettler, who reports on health issues and outdoor recreation for the Mail Tribune, took top honors in Social Issues for his series, "A Death in the Family." The two-part report, which ran in June 2000, dealt with the physician-assisted suicide of Joan Lucas, a Medford woman who was suffering from amytrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal nerve disorder known commonly as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. Lucas died on Feb. 3, 2000, and Kettler's stories framed her last act in the context of the ongoing debate over assisted suicide across the state, the nation and in Congress. Kettler also won a third-place award in the category of Business Features for "El Miagro," a farming cooperative in the Applegate. The Mail Tribune took honors in 10 different categories for newspapers in the 25,000-50,000 circulation category. In addition, Pennell received a third-place honor in the all-circulation class for Photo Illustrations. Pennell's other awards were a second place in Portrait Photography and second and third places in Feature Photography. Other reporting winners for the Mail Tribune were: > JoNel Aleccia, second place in the Food, Fashion and Home category for "A Blow for Freedom," a story about the status of hair dryers, and an honorable mention in Health Reporting. > Bill Varble, second place for Arts Coverage for a report on the relationship between economics and the arts; > Dani Dodge, third place in Investigative Reporting for a story on a scam involving advertisements for lost pets; > Melissa Martin, an honorable mention in Government Reporting; > Aleccia also received an honorable mention in Health Reporting. In addition, copy editor Mark Dodge Medlin took second place for Feature Page Design. In competition among newspapers with circulations fewer than 25,000, the Grants Pass Daily Courier received 10 awards. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.