David Schwartz (Center for Gaming Research) and 10 graduates of the Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies or School of Communications won awards in this year's Nevada Press Association contest. Schwartz's awards came for his work in Vegas Seven magazine. He was recognized in the Best Local Column category for his bi-weekly "Green Felt Journal" and in the Best Feature Story category for "The Book That Tried to End Vegas," a look back on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris' The Green felt Jungle. Among the top honors claimed by the 10 UNLV alums was the Journalist of Merit prize for Urban Weeklies for Mark Adams at Las Vegas Weekly. A first-place winner was feature writer Michael Lyle at the Review-Journal, who also received second- and third-place honors for his writing in the RJ's View section. He is now a reporter for the RJ Living section. Other grads who took honors (some with multiple prizes) include Caitlyn Belcher, Ray Brewer, Glenn Cook, Sean DeFrank, Jack Johnson, Jorge Labrador, Valerie Miller, and PJ Perez. The Boulder City Review won the General Excellence Award for community newspapers in the past year when Arnold Knightly was editor and Jack Johnson was the reporter. Steven Slivka is the reporter there now. The awards were presented at the association's annual ceremony Sept. 20.
