Chicago Headline Club Honors City's Best Journalism in Peter Lisagor Awards

The Chicago Headline Club chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has named the winners of its annual Peter Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism.

The Chicago Tribune received 29 honors, including awards to its Sunday magazine, Web site and video production unit. The Chicago Sun-Times was presented 19 awards; Chicago Public Radio, 15; Associated Press, 9; Crain's Chicago Business, 10; Daily Southtown, 7; and Daily Herald and Chicago magazine, 6 each.

These are the Chicago Headline Club's 29th annual awards to area journalists. The competition's categories range from in-depth reporting and photography to business, commentary and feature reporting.

Miami Herald syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. was the featured speaker in the April 21 awards banquet at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza.

The awards are named for Peter Lisagor, late Washington bureau chief of the Chicago Daily News. Reporters and editors from SPJ chapters in Indianapolis, Miami and Seattle reviewed more than 800 entries published or broadcast in 2005. Plaques were presented for 60 reports, chosen for such attributes as enterprise, accuracy, scope, style and impact.

Judges' comments on all finalists in the contest will be posted at http://www.headlineclub.org . Here are the Lisagor Award winners:

In-depth reporting
-- Associated Press, "Cleaning Contracts," John O'Connor
-- Chicago Reporter, "No Sure Thing," Sarah Karp, Robert VerBruggen and
Rupa Shenoy
-- Chicago Tribune, "Pipeline to Peril," Cam Simpson
-- Chicago Tribune, "The New Street Hustle," David Jackson
-- Chicago Tribune, "The Oreo, Obesity and Us," Jeremy Manier, Patricia
Callahan and Delroy Alexander
-- Chicago Tribune Magazine, "America's Best Prosecutor? Jury Still Out on
U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald," Kirsten Scharnberg
-- Crain's Chicago Business, "The Billionaire Next Door," Steven R.
Strahler and Steve Daniels
-- Daily Southtown, "The Iron Fist of Education," Linda Lutton and Kati
Phillips
-- South Shore Community News, "Sex Offenders in the City," Jeff Kelly
Lowenstein
-- WBBM Radio, "Chicago's Vanishing Neighborhood Bar," Steve Miller
-- WBEZ, "Banking the Unbanked," Lex Gillespie
-- WTTW, "Paper Trail: 100 Years of the Chicago Defender," Barbara E.
Allen, Chris Benson, Patricia Lofthouse and Paul Buckner with
contributors Gail F. Baker, Ph.D., Joe "Jody" Williams, April Wilson,
Evan Allen-Gessesse and Brandon Blu
-- WMAQ, "The Voices and Faces Project," Carol Marin, Don Moseley and Mark

       Ringo