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Common Denominator wins regional honors

(Published February 14, 2000)

The Common Denominator has won four awards – including first-place honors for investigative reporting – in the annual Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association competition.

"The District’s Power Behind the Scenes: Washington Post-connected business group wields influence over city’s legislative agenda," published Dec. 13 in The Common Denominator, won first place for investigative reporting. Artist Rashid Jelani won first place for editorial cartooning for his strip, "The Capital Zoo."

The Common Denominator’s associate editor, Oscar Abeyta, won two second-place awards for sports writing. Abeyta won in the sports reporting category for his story "The Sorrow and the glory: Anacostia girls play their hearts out in memory of lost teammate," published March 8, following the death of Anacostia High School basketball starter Kelli Bradford. He also won in the sports features category for "They look like butterflies, but sting like bees: Women have started discovering the joys of boxing at Finley’s Boxing Gym," published April 5.

"We are honored to have won four awards the first time we were eligible to enter a contest judged by our newspaper peers," said editor and publisher Kathryn Sinzinger, who wrote the award-winning investigative reporting story.

Contest entries were judged by journalists from outside the region, and newspapers were grouped by circulation category. The Common Denominator competed among non-daily newspapers with circulation over 20,000.

Other D.C. newspapers honored were the Washington Post, Washington Times, Washington Business Journal, Catholic Standard and Legal Times.

The Common Denominator was the only first-place winner in the investigative reporting category among Washington papers of any size.

The awards will be presented at a luncheon Feb. 25 at the Renaissance Washington Hotel.

The MDDC Press Association is a nonprofit organization of 145 newspapers. Its membership consists of all the daily newspapers and most of the non-daily papers in Maryland, Delaware and the District.

The Common Denominator’s winning entries may be viewed online at www.thecommondenominator.com.

Copyright 2000, The Common Denominator