Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Fauquier Times Entry Title: Dirt wars Entry Credit: Peter Cary Judge Comment: Cary digs deep into a topic that, in less skillful hands, might make for slow going. Along the way, he rakes through the regional- and state-level context, excavates the ??Fauquier County background, and unearths a character in Mike Hawkins that really brings the story to life. The writing is consistently top-notch and Cary does a nice job highlighting the larger implications of the “dirt wars.”
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: The Star-Tribune Entry Title: Blue Ridge Rock Festival Entry Credit: Lanie Davis, Elias Weiss, Kacey Martin, Tom Dixon Judge Comment: The Star-Tribune writers follow every twist and turn as Pittsylvania County hosts its first-ever major music festival and consistently humanizes the story with sources representing the various stakeholders.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: The Cavalier Daily Entry Title: Lawn Room Expression Restrictions Entry Credit: Eva Surovell, Erin Rafferty, Amanda Pallas, Julianne Saunders, Ava MacBlane Judge Comment: The Cavalier Daily staff handles with professionalism a story in which the irony is remarkable: a school founded by Thomas Jefferson — a champion of freedom who was himself an enslaver — imposing limits on speech in response to speech that criticized the history of both Jefferson and the school he founded. I would like to have heard from a wider variety of Lawn resident voices and perhaps independent legal authorities on the issues raised by the situation, but the stories are consistently compelling.
