CNS | Philip Merrill College of Journalism

Program Highlights

[2003 Record | 2002 Record | 2001 Record | 2000 Record | 1990-99 Record]

Sarah Schaffer won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for college reporting in 2003 for her four-part series, "Outside the Fence." Schaffer followed a group of inmates at the Metropolitan Transitional Center in Baltimore for three months of 2003 as they prepared for release, telling the story of their fears and hopes. The RFK journalism award, known among the press as the "poor people's Pulitzers," honors outstanding reporting on problems of the disadvantaged. The series also won first place for daily newspaper feature writing from the Society of Professional Journalists/D.C. professional chapter's 2004 Washington Dateline award for Excellence in Local Journalism.

Capital News Service covered the 2004 presidential nominating conventions, sending a dozen reporters to the Democratic National Convention in Boston and dispatching several more to the Republican National Convention in New York. It followed the successful coverage of the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia by CNS for its clients.

Fall 2000 reporters Sean Mussenden and Mark K. Matthews broke national news when they revealed that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration erroneously reported the number of deaths linked to faulty Firestone tires. Their review of NHTSA documents found that the two Maryland fatalities on the list were actually dead pets, not people. NHTSA admitted its mistake and revised its report, earning Sean and Mark a regional Mark of Excellence first place for spot-news reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Dan Wilcock's dogged reporting of a little-used state database of sewage overflows not only showed that raw sewage spills grew by almost 1,250 percent in 2003, it also uncovered errors in the data collection that the state was forced to fix. Wilcock also pinpointed severe problems in Baltimore City and Prince George's County. His package of stories, "Effluent Escalation," was a finalist in the student category of the national Investigative Reporters and Editors competition for 2003. It finished second for daily newspaper investigative reporting in the 2004 Washington Dateline Awards from D.C. professional chapter of SPJ.

Three Capital News Service stories from spring 2002 were named finalists in IRE's national Investigative Reporting Awards for students. It was the first time that CNS had multiple finalists in the competition. The 2002 finalists were Michelle Krupa, for "Foster Shuffle," on the revolving door of foster care; Hanah Cho's investigative package on "State Salaries"; and Kathleen Johnston Jarboe's look at "Killer Coasters."

Jennifer Dorroh was a finalist in the 2001 IRE student contest for her computer-assisted analysis of state liquor citations, "Bar None." She reported that fewer than 10 percent of Maryland businesses that sold alcohol to minors had their liquor licenses suspended or revoked, with most paying a small fine or less.

Chris Frates was a finalist in the IRE 2000 student awards for his painstaking work with legislative conflict of interest reports. "Poor Disclosure" showed that only 32 of Maryland's 188 state legislators filed conflict-of-interest forms in the year, and the law left ethics officials powerless to do anything about it.

A team of reporters from the spring 2001 Annapolis and Washington bureaus won a 2001 national Mark of Excellence first place for in-depth writing from the Society of Professional Journalists, for their series, "Many Faces, One Maryland." The project combined 2000 Census data with shoe-leather reporting to identify and profile some of the state's most ethnically isolated communities.

SPJ also awarded students in the fall 1999 bureau a national Mark of Excellence first place for in-depth writing for their "Maryland's Century" project. The eight-part series combined 100 years of Census data with original reporting to trace changes in the state over the 20th century, including maps showing shift in the population center.

Maya Jackson’s database reporting showed that smaller counties sent more people to prison, per capita, than much larger counties -- with one midsize county putting more people behind bars, total, than the state's biggest county. Small Time earned Maya first place in the Maryland State Bar Association's 2002 Gavel Awards competition.

Gabriel Baird used database and shoe-leather reporting in spring 2003 to look at Maryland's air pollution problems from several angles in his four-part series, "Choke Points." Baird visited the Ohio town that is home to one of the worst-polluting plants in the nation and flew with the researchers who take pollution samples over Maryland. He also crunched vehicle emissions inspection data to find the worst-polluting cars in Maryland and show that sport-utility vehicles are the biggest polluters.

Kory Dodd broke the news that the federal government would impose an immediate ban the import of live northern snakeheads -- the so-called "frankenfish" -- after the voracious, non-native fish, which can walk short distances on land, were discovered in a Crofton, Md., pond.

Analyzing federal banking records, Sarah Cohen detailed how minorities in the Washington area are far more likely to be turned down for a mortgage than whites with the same economic background. Cohen, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her database work at The Washington Post, won the 1993 J.Y. Bryan Award for her CNS story.