Carson Now recognized for award winning stories at 2024 Nevada Press Association ceremony
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Mon, 09/16/2024 - 4:24pm
On Saturday, the Nevada Press Association held its annual conference and award ceremony in Reno, during which the winners of 2024 press awards were announced. Carson Now brought home four wins for the year.
Congratulations to all of our of our journalism colleagues for their wins, both urban and rural.
The full list of wins can be found at the Nevada Press Association website.
Here are Carson Now's award winning pieces from the past year:
First Place: Coverage of Underserved Communities (rural)
It’s been two years since Anna Marie Scott was murdered, and still, law enforcement remains silent
On a chilly February morning in 2022, early morning commuters on I-580 through Washoe Valley were met with a horrific sight: a car in the southbound lanes was fully consumed in fire.
When first responders arrived, the situation became far more grisly after it was discovered that the body of a young woman, later to be identified as 23-year-old Anna Marie Scott, was inside of the trunk.
There were no witnesses to the abandonment of the vehicle, or it being set on fire.
Since the discovery of Scott’s body, information regarding the case has been frustratingly lacking.
Despite Scott’s body being discovered on Feb. 3, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office did not release her identity until Feb. 7, even though numerous social media posts from friends and family had already been posted regarding her death.
Read the rest of the story here.
Second Place: Profile (rural)
‘Real Cowboys’ docudrama series filmed in Dayton, Virginia City, Carson City premieres in October
Dayton resident Temma Hammond has worked in the film industry all her life, having first grown up in film studios courtesy of her Hollywood-adjacent parents. Her father was a silent film star and studio owner, and her mother was a writer, director and acting coach.
It only makes sense that Hammond would follow in their footsteps. After leaving California, Hammond worked for some time in Las Vegas where she designed and built the first sound-proofed studio, before moving to Carson City to work on producing legislative and other local film projects in the early 2000s — including setting up a number of film workshops at Western Nevada College and Truckee Meadows Community College.
Now, Hammond is back, and right out of the gates to work on a docudrama series called Real Cowboys, hosted by Lacy J. Dalton, for her newest endeavor: the Golden Network.
Read the rest of the story here.
Third Place: Community Service (rural)
Critical need for foster parents in Carson City and Quad-County region; without fosters, children sent statewide
Currently, there is a critical shortage of foster parents in Carson City and the surrounding areas both for long-term foster parents and respite care foster parents, who take care of children for as little as a weekend while their foster parents take a trip.
According to the Division of Child and Family Services’ Rural Foster Recruiter Shelby Riley, there are currently only three beds open across Carson City, Dayton and Gardnerville.
Carson City has the most foster homes at ten homes, while Dayton has four homes and Gardnerville has one, all of which are full up.
Within the ten homes in Carson City, three beds are open across the lot, which means that siblings are unable to be placed together.
When asked what the ideal number of homes could be, Riley said there can never be enough homes.
“Even doubling right now wouldn’t be enough,” Riley said. “It really depends because the need for foster care ebbs and flows. The more people we have, the more we can help our community.”
Third Place: Health Reporting (rural)
Carson City Health and Human Services cited by OSHA for potential chemical exposure, lack of necessary training
Since the 1980s, Carson City Health and Human Services has been undertaking mosquito abatement to stem the flow of potential mosquito-borne diseases.
However, it was determined that for many years — and possibly even decades — CCHHS hasn't had a Hazard Communication Plan, which is meant to provide proper training to employees on handling dangerous or toxic chemicals. Without training, this could mean that employees may have been exposed to dangerous chemicals as part of the abatement program.
Thank you to our readers for your continued support of independent, local journalism. Check out the other winners here.
