Los Cerritos Community News and Hews Media Group captured two top honors at the 58th annual Southern California Media Awards ceremony sponsored by the Los Angeles Press Club this past Sunday night for Best Investigative Series and Best Sports Feature.
There were over 1,000 entries, a record.
This is the third first-place award in the past four years in the prestigious category of Investigative Series for Hews and HMG-CN and a first for longtime Sports Editor Loren Kopff. The newspaper has won eight awards since 2012.
Publisher Brian Hews took home first place in the category of Investigative Series for all print newspapers in the daily or weekly category in Southern California, with the hard hitting investigative article entitled “State Water Board Drought Restrictions Show Political Bias Favoring Governor Brown’s Party.”
Second and third place swent to Rebecca Kimitch, Steve Scauzillo, Jason Henry and Frank Girardot, with the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and their story entitled, “City of Industry Investigation,” and also Hayley Fox, Frances Sharpe, BJ Samuels, Rich Schmitt and Casey Smith with the Palisadian Post, and their story entitled “Lawsuits, Judgments Stack Up Against Prominent Local Biz Denton Jewelers.”
Said the judges of this newspaper’s award: “This is fine enterprise reporting and analysis. It shows a well-documented pattern of discrimination against Republican-led districts in the levying of water use cutbacks and the associated fines. This is the kind of watchdog reporting that we need more of, a lot more.”
The investigation found that the state Water Resources Control Board, an unelected body made up of members appointed by Gov. Brown and by Senate Leader Pro Tem Kevin DeLeon, was stacked heavily with environmentalists and labor leaders. They deliberately assigned higher levels of water conservation to water agencies in districts with seats held by state Senate and Assembly Republican officeholders as opposed to agencies in the districts of Democratic office holders.
Further, the investigation revealed that, as the penalties for non-compliance have increased from 1,786 in May to 29,500 in July, a jump of 21,798, 75 percent of them were issued in Republican Senate and Assembly districts.
The investigation also revealed that, of the highest penalized agencies, 90 percent were in Republican Senate and Assembly districts.
The penalty numbers showed a similar pattern for August and September.
State Water Board Drought Restrictions Show Political Bias Favoring Governor Brown’s Party
Sports editor Kopff took home first place in the Best Sports Feature category for his story entitled, “Cerritos’ Movchan Newest Member Of Small 1,000-Point Club.”
The story chronicled the high school basketball career of Alyssa Movchan eclipsing the 1,000-point barrier for the Cerritos High girls basketball program. Movchan broke the barrier on Dec. 23, 2014, with her team’s first basket against St. Mary’s Academy.
The judges said the story was “well written, and it gave a good sense of the young player’s career so and all that she has accomplished.”