AUSTIN - Two Texas news organizations have won the Spirit of FOI Award for reports exposing the secrecy behind Austin’s city manager selection process and the peculiar lack of information following the resignation of the Bryan Independent School District superintendent.
The Nancy Monson Spirit of FOI Award, presented by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, highlights journalism that upholds First Amendment principles and promotes or uses open government laws such as the Texas Public Information Act.
EDINBURG – Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, who sponsored one of the few open government and public information proposals that became law in the 2017 Texas Legislative session, has been honored as a “Champion of Transparency” by the Texas Press Association.
TPA Executive Vice President Donnis Baggett and Stephan Wingart, publisher of the McAllen Monitor, presented the award during a ceremony Sept. 20 at Edinburg City Hall.
Recent staff changes, additions announced at Texas newspapers.
AUSTIN – First Amendment attorney Joel White, a former president of the Freedom Information Foundation of Texas and longtime champion of open government, died July 21 in Cartagena, Colombia, after becoming ill while on a trip.
Veteran elementary school teacher Evelyn Carleton Singer, 82, of Austin, died Aug. 28 after a long battle with cancer.
She was the wife of longtime University of Texas journalism professor Griff Singer.
In a career that spanned more than three decades, she had an impact on the lives of thousands of young people, their parents and colleagues. Most of her work was in the Austin Independent School District at Walnut Creek and Highland Park elementary schools. She began her teaching career in Blanco and also taught in Lone Star and Buffalo in East Texas.
Ed Todd
MIDLAND – Retired Midland Reporter-Telegram writer James Edwin “Ed” Todd, 80, died Aug. 30 at his home in Midland.
Todd attended Midwestern University in Wichita Falls and earned a master’s degree from East Texas State College in Commerce. He served in the U.S. Army in the mid-late 1950s, stationed in France as a radio technician.
The Texas Press Association recently recognized Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, as a TPA Champion of Transparency for his legislative work to keep government open to the public.
“He went above and beyond to make government better,” said Odessa American Publisher Patrick Canty, TPA board chairman.
In 2017, Landgraf crafted legislation that aims to establish an online, searchable and public database listing protective orders issued by Texas courts as a result of domestic violence.
Recent staff changes, additions announced at Texas newspapers.
Cindye Ginsel, a veteran in marketing and publication design, is the new publisher of the Elgin Courier.
The appointment was announced by Granite Publications Sales Director Jim Beaver, who had been serving as interim publisher.
Lew Allen Vail
ONALASKA – Polk County Enterprise writer Lew Allen Vail, 80, of Onalaska died Aug. 5.
Following a 30-year career as a comptroller with Vivarium Baylor College of Medicine and Intersect. Inc. in Houston, he took disability retirement in 1994 and began a public service career in Onalaska, where he served on many boards and civic groups, including Lions Club, the Chamber of Commerce, library board, volunteer fire department, school board, the county appraisal district and city government, as both an elected council member and as mayor.