San Antonio, Utopia students win Lone Stars

DALLAS — Texas Press Association and the Interscholastic League Press Conference announced winners in the Lone Star Journalism Writing Contest on Jan. 21 at TPA’s 59th Midwinter Conference & Trade Show.

The large school (4A-5A) winners were first place Kelsey Whipple, Clark High School, published in San Antonio Express-News; second place Katie McGee, Lake Travis High School, published in Lake Travis View; and third place Albert Santoya, Miller High School (Corpus Christi), published in the Caller-Times.

The small school (1A-3A) winners were  first place Jordan Foster, Utopia High School, published in Bandera County Courier; second place Whitney Laas, Royal High School, published in The Times Tribune (Brookshire); and no third place.

The annual contest is sponsored jointly by TPA and ILPC to encourage student participation in journalism and to show newspapers as a viable career option. Students write stories and have them published in their local newspapers and then compete statewide for cash prizes.

Fritch weekly returns to former owners

FRITCH — Debra and Derrol Wells returned as owners of The Eagle Press Jan. 1 after a six-month period under new owners fell through.

In the transition, the Panhandle weekly also changed from a tabloid to broadsheet.

The newspaper was founded in 1988 by Cherry Kay Hamilton. Debra Wells took over in 1995 and sold it in June 2005 to Linda Brockman.

Waco weekly’s rack tube causes bomb scare

WACO — The theft of the money tube off The Waco Citizen news rack at Hillcrest Hospital stirred publisher Bill Foster’s ire but the theft caused much more strife for the hospital security officers.

The rack was wood and had a white tube made out of PVC pipe. The vandals took the small amount of change in the tube, and threw it on top of an air conditioner outside, Foster said.

Hillcrest security, not knowing what it was, called out the bomb squad.

“Of course there was no danger and we don’t know how they connected it with our news rack,” Foster said.

Foster said the hospital security told him they may remove all news racks from the hospital.

Another Citizen rack money tube also was taken from a local fast-food restaurant recently, Foster said.

San Antonio daily asks tough questions on growth

SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Express-News wondered why more and more fragile Hill Country land is vanishing under dense housing develop

So reporter John Tedesco set out last year to answer the questions.

His four-part series “Losing Ground” showed the city had grandfathered projects spread over thousands of acres of pristine habitat, thus applying far more lenient standards at the same time it was passing tougher development codes intended to protect the fast-vanishing Hill Country.

Readers responded with an outpouring of e-mails and online comments, questioning how the protections failed and demanding a crackdown on irresponsible development. Mayor Phil Hardberger has publicly condemned the clearcutting and city hall officials actually denied grandfather status to two pending projects.

“That was big news in this city,” editor Robert Rivard said.