GOOD FOR US Phoenix snags five RIPA awards

The Providence Phoenix won five awards, including a first-place prize in the special section category, during the Rhode Island Press Association’s annual journalism competition. Awards were presented during RIPA’s annual banquet, held May 14 at the Hotel Viking in Newport.

Managing editor Lou Papineau and a bevy of contributors garnered the first-place special section honors for the special 25th anniversary issue, published October 24, 2003, recognizing 25 years of the NewPaper and Providence Phoenix.

In other categories, contributing writer Brian C. Jones snagged an honorable mention in the news series category for four stories: "The kindest cost," published May 23, 2003, about how a hike in the state income tax would have been a relatively harmless way to solve the state budget deficit; "Do state workers have it too good?" published June 13, 2003; "Hooked on sin," published July 11, 2003, about Rhode Island’s heavy reliance on gambling and tobacco revenue; and "Cuts and consequences," published October 17, 2003, about the potential harm caused by short-staffing in some state jobs.

Freelancer Michael Lukas, a 2003 graduate of Brown University, won third place in the educational story category for "The corporate campus," published September 12, 2003, about whether such institutions as Brown University can be trusted to oversee the corporate and government-sponsored research from which they stand to benefit.

Jones, music columnist Bob Gulla, and news editor Ian Donnis won third place in the coverage of the Station fire category for a series of articles published in the weeks after the February 2003 disaster at the West Warwick nightclub.

Donnis also claimed a third-place prize in the feature category for "The last XXX picture show," published January 9, 2003, about Jon Berberian and his preservation of the Columbus Theatre in Providence.