We're Honored

Longtime SF Weekly staff writer George Cothran has been honored as the best newspaper columnist in the Bay Area by the Peninsula Press Club, besting columnists from all of the region's daily newspapers.

Cothran's award was one of seven won by SF Weekly in the press club's competition among major Bay Area newspapers, including the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury News. The winners were announced at the Press Club's annual banquet on April 23.

In addition to the first-place award for column-writing, Cothran received first-place honors for sports feature-writing for his stories on the life and death of Al "A-1" Wright, a former San Francisco Seals second baseman.

Cothran and David Pasztor received an honorable mention for team reporting for "Project Employment," and "Crime and Patronage," a pair of stories detailing how major drug dealers and convicted felons had been given high-paying jobs by the San Francisco Housing Authority, even as a special task force is investigating drug dealing at the city's housing projects.

Lisa Davis received the first-place award in the serious feature category for her story "The Fairfield Wives," examining the bizarre practices of a Fairfield physician who wound up losing his medical license and facing lawsuits for his alleged sexual improprieties with female patients.

Jack Boulware received a second-place award for specialty writing for his story "How to Stalk, Kill, and Cook a California Wild Pig."

Peter Byrne received an honorable mention in the business reporting category for "Downtown's Fairy Godmother," an investigation of problems in the San Francisco Assessor's Office.

Michael Sragow received the first-place award for entertainment reviewing with his critique of the film A Bug's Life.

The Peninsula Press Club awards is the area's only major journalism contest in which the rules permit SF Weekly to compete directly with daily newspapers. SF Weekly received more awards than any other non-daily newspaper in the competition.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian won four awards in the major newspapers competition, and four more in a special category that generally attracts smaller, non-daily publications.