Carmage Walls Commentary Prize

Carmage Walls Nominations: "under 50,000" circulation (group 1)

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This annual award, to be presented during the joint SNPA-Inland Annual Convention, Oct. 6-8 in Chicago, Ill., recognizes outstanding commentary on local issues. It encourages thoughtful, courageous and constructive editorial page leadership on issues specifically relevant to each newspaper's primary readership.

The prize was named for the late Benjamin Carmage Walls whose newspaper career spanned seven decades. Walls primarily owned community newspapers and advocated strong, courageous and positive editorial page leadership.

Following are 12 entries submitted in the "Under 50,000" circulation bracket.  Judges in this category should narrow the entries to the top 4.  Those four entries, together with the top four from two other sets of entries, then will be evaluated to detemine the winners in this bracket. 

After your panel has narrowed the entries to the top four, you are invited to participate in the judging of the final "best of the best" bracket, if you would like to do so.  If you are willing to read the top entries from the other two brackets and take part in the call to determine overall winners, please email cindy@snpa.org.

Thank you for your help in judging this year's contest!

Click on the links below to access entry materials:

Entry #1: Klark Byrd - The Paris News, Paris, Texas

  • view entry
    • Don't let the sun set on Texas
    • Texans deserve access to info
    • Time to fight for your rights

Entry #2: Mike Clark - The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.

  • view entry
    • City should fund study on infant mortality

Entry #3: Eric Fleischauer - The Decatur Daily, Decatur, Ala.

Entry #4: Franklin Harris - The Decatur Daily, Decatur, Ala.

  • view entry
    • Incarceration doesn't come cheap
    • Alabama must address its prisons
    • State receives ultimatum on prisons
    • Prison reform must go further

Entry #5: Franklin Harris - The Decatur Daily, Decatur, Ala.

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    • Politicians should listen to voters about legalizing marijuana
    • Medical marijuana bill is past due

Entry #6: Jeff Pownall - The Lufkin Daily News, Lufkin, Texas

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    • A reason to celebrate
    • Slowly but surely
    • Welcome to Lufkin
    • Good news
    • Raise a toast
    • First-class

Entry #7: Jon K. Rust - Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

  • view entry
    • Is it racist to vote against school bond issue? No, but it would be short-sighted
    • Here are some of the questions about school bond issue, but in the end it's rather simple: Yes vote is good for Cape

Entry #8: Joseph Spear - The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.

  • view entry
    • Override MnDOT's Highway 14 delay
    • Pass critical Highway 14 bill
    • Bipartisan effort delivered needed road funding
    • More highways are getting worse
    • Legislature, governor need political will

Entry #9: Ken Stickney - The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas

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    • Legg murder: Police need everyone's aid
    • A lonely end for another human being
    • Honor the dead by stepping forth
    • From a fire's embers, we should seek hope
    • Warding off social decline, close to home
    • Violent death points to a scourge in Texas

Entry #10: Gerry Tritz - Jefferson City News Tribune, Jefferson City, Mo.

Entry #11: Richard Whiting - Index-Journal, Greenwood, S.C.

  • view entry
    • Greenwood's scourge belongs to all of Greenwood
    • It takes a community to solve community problems

Entry #12: Dwayne Yancey - The Roanoke Times, Roanoke, Va.

  • view entry
    • Our outdated schools
    • Stanley's school plan
    • The spirit of 1949
    • Virginia's oldest schools
    • Why the silence?
    • Time to name names
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