STATE BILL COLORADO
Law Week Colorado and its sister news service, State Bill Colorado, were honored Saturday by the Colorado Press Association with awards for public service and news coverage.
The public service award, second place, was for “The Capitol Game.” The two-part series focused, in part, on technological and practical inconveniences at Colorado’s capitol that reduce citizen participation and make it harder for Coloradans to understand the legislative process. A second installment focused on how partisan capitol press offices sought to compensate for a decline in traditional media coverage by creating new outlets for distributing press releases. The series’ reporters were Neela Eyunni, Peter Rossi, David Accommazzo, Caddie Nath and Courtney Sparks. The stories were edited by Don Knox, State Bill and Law Week editor, and Cara DeGette, former Law Week managing editor.
Knox received the news-story award, third place, for his “A License To Conceal? Colorado DMV Takes Squishy Stance On Vulgarities.” The story examined Colorado’s inconsistent application of “personalization standards” on vanity license plates issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The story appeared simultaneously in Law Week Colorado and on State Bill Colorado. The data were obtained by the news organizations through a request made under the Colorado Open Records Act, or CORA.
The stories were judged in the press association’s category for Class II weekly newspapers.