MISSOURIAN HONORED FOR REPORTING

The Southeast Missourian picked up five awards in this year's Missouri Associated Press Managing Editors News Writing Contest.

The paper claimed three second-place and two third-place awards, which were announced Saturday at the APME conference in St. Charles.

The awards came in the five different categories for the Missourian's division, which featured competition from newspapers in Missouri in cities with populations of 15,000 to 50,000.

Missourian reporter Chuck Miller won second place in the spot news category for a story about a convicted killer released from a life prison term. The man had been accused in another death. Mark Bliss claimed third in the category for a story about the crash of the Southeast Missouri Hospital emergency helicopter.

Sports writer Marty Mishow took second place in spot sports for an article about a freshman basketball player at Southeast Missouri State University declared academically ineligible by the NCAA.

An article about alleged misuse of a Cape Girardeau School District credit card by a school official netted reporter Peggy Scott and managing editor Joni Adams a second place in community affairs/public interest reporting.

Third place in feature writing went to Sam Blackwell for a story about life as a carnival worker.

The Joplin Globe took first-place awards in the division in four categories -- spot news, feature writing, sports feature and community affairs/public interest. The Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, which is owned by Rust Communications, owner of the Southeast Missourian, took first in the final category, spot sports.

The Kansas City Star won the APME sweepstakes award for reporting excellence for its coverage of the troubled heart transplant program at the University of Kansas Medical Center.