Herald story about daredevil earns Blethen Award

A feature article by Herald writer Alejandro Dominguez is a winner in the 2012 C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards. The annual awards recognize distinguished newspaper reporting.

Dominguez won for his March 11 article “The Daring, Death-Defying (and quite profitable!) Stunts of Al Faussett.” It’s the tale of a logger-turned-daredevil who in the 1920s rode canoes over 104-foot Sunset Falls on the Skykomish River south of Index, and over other Northwest waterfalls.

The article won second place in the feature writing category for newspapers under 50,000 circulation. Given in memory of the publisher of The Seattle Times from 1915 until 1941, the awards were presented Thursday in Portland, Ore., at a meeting of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association. Daily papers in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, and Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, that are association members compete in the contest.

Dominguez emigrated to El Paso, Texas, from Mexico in 2000. In Texas, he finished high school and graduated in 2006 from the University of Texas at El Paso. A journalist with The Daily Herald Co. since 2006, he worked for the company’s La Raza del Noroeste, a weekly Spanish newspaper, before joining The Daily Herald in 2010.

In 2008, Dominguez and Herald writer Sharon Salyer were selected as University of Southern California National Health Journalism Fellows in minority health reporting.

The winners of the 2012 awards:

Distinguished Coverage of Diversity

Under 50,000 circulation:

First Place, The Chronicle,Centralia, Wash. “Life Without a License,” by Adam Pearson.

Second Place, The Herald and News, Klamath Falls, Ore. “Seven Myths about the Klamath Tribes,” by Shelby King.

Distinguished Coverage of Diversity

Over 50,000 circulation:

First Place, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. “Housing bias in the city of Portland,” by Nikole Hannah-Jones.

Second Place, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. “Cecil’s Story,” by Kathleen Merryman.

Deadline Reporting

Under 50,000 circulation:

First Place, The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash. “Centralia Fire Aftermath: Extraordinary Moments of Heroism, Compassion,” by The Chronicle staff.

Second Place, The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash. “‘Vicious’ Triple-Murderer Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole,” by Eric Schwartz and Adam Pearson.

Over 50,000 circulation:

First Place, The Seattle Times, Seattle. “Café Racer and downtown Seattle shootings,” by The Seattle Times staff.

Second Place, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. “January Storm,” by The News Tribune staff.

Enterprise Reporting

Under 50,000 circulation:

First Place, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.”Vancouver’s former Payette Clinic: A Legacy of Pain,” by Marissa Harshman

Second Place, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash. “Funding basic Ed isn’t so basic,” by Jaques Von Lunen.

Over 50,000 circulation:

First Place, The Seattle Times, Seattle. “The Price of Protection,” by Christine Willmsen.

Second Place, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. “Ten Years at War: When Duty Keeps Calling,” by The News Tribune staff.

Feature Writing

Under 50,000 circulation:

First Place, Idaho State Journal, Pocatello, Idaho. “Sept. 11: Ten Years Later, Serving in Crisis,” by The Idaho State Journal staff.

Second Place, The Daily Herald, Everett, Wash. “The Daring, Death-Defying (and quite profitable!) Stunts of Al Faussett,” by Alejandro Dominguez.

Over 50,000 circulation:

First Place, The Oregonian,Portland, Ore. “The War Bride,” by Anne Saker.

Second Place, The Seattle Times, Seattle. “Elwha: The grand experiment to restore a legendary valley.” by The Seattle Times staff.

Investigative Reporting:

Under 50,000 circulation:

First Place, Herald and News, Klamath Falls, Ore. “The Betty Lou Parks Case,” by Ty Beaver.

Second Place, The Bulletin, Bend, Ore. “Foreclosure Middleman,” by Heidi Hagemeier.

Over 50,000 circulation:

First Place, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. “PERS: Oregon’s retirement system challenges,” by Ted Sickinger and Jeff Mapes.

Second Place, The Seattle Times, Seattle. “Methadone and the politics of pain,” by Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong.

Debby Lowman Award (Combined Divisions):

First Place, The Seattle Times, Seattle, “Feeling the Weight: A Children’s Tale of Temptation, Comfort and Compulsion,” by Maureen O’Hagan.

Second Place, Tri-City Herald,Kennewick, Wash,”Hanford Layoffs: The Ripple Effect,” by The Tri-City Herald staff.

In addition, the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., has won the 2012 Dolly Connelly Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award for an examination of radioactive pollution on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.