For the second year in a row, two correspondents from Local News Pasadena were honored with prestigious annual reporting awards presented by the Los Angeles Press Club.

At the sixty-seventh annual Southern California Journalism Awards on Sunday, correspondent Victoria Thomas was recognized with a first-place win for her lifestyle feature titled “Drayke’s Tale.” In addition, Associate Publisher Phil Hopkins was awarded two first-place trophies for his reporting on the Pasadena Police Department with “A Local Police Force Prepares For War: The Question is With Whom?” and “Welcome to Crown City Prison.”

Hopkins received second-place and third-place awards in five additional categories, including Online Journalist of the Year.

Judges, who this year hailed from press organizations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Washington D.C., Texas, Florida and Wisconsin, commented about Thomas’ feature article: “This touching and informative piece seamlessly combines the father-son bond with the added context of autism, celebrity and a shared interest in model trains. Thomas displays a deft touch in providing valuable background on a largely misunderstood condition while framing the story with the joy and humanity of a shared passion.”

“As humans, we tend to silo, and this is detrimental to ourselves and our planet,” said Thomas. “We tend to feel that we’re only safe in our insular, bullet-proof bubbles. But a willingness to break out of the bubble and make potentially ‘dangerous’ or uncomfortable contact with others is the essence of local news-gathering. Humanity is not only all around us — it is within us. Just getting out and talking to people is a daily epiphany for me.”

Regarding Hopkins’ story in the Local Political / Government Reporting, Crime / Corruption category, the judges said: “This article about police militarization is not merely food for thought but a full, troubling, 10-course meal!” About the PPD’s portable surveillance tower article, the judges commented: “Great job highlighting how local police are arming themselves with tools the public should know about – surveillance towers? Who knew? ‘What war are they preparing for?’ indeed.”

Here are the first, second and third place winners in each category where Local News Pasadena received an award:

• LOCAL POLITICAL/GOVERNMENT REPORTING, Crime/Corruption

  • 1st: Phil Hopkins, LocalNewsPasadena.com, “A Local Police Force Prepares For War: The Question is With Whom?”

  • 2nd: Nick Gerda, Jill Replogle, Ted Rohrlich and Yusra Farzan, LAist, “Uncovering the Andrew Do corruption scandal”

  • 3rd: Scott Schwebke, Pasadena Star-News, “Arcadia councilmember under harsh glare over ties to accused Chinese agent”

• LIFESTYLE FEATURE

  • 1st: Victoria Thomas, LocalNewsPasadena.com, “Drayke’s Tale”

  • 2nd: Christina Campodonico, The San Francisco Standard, “The new dating app is a flyer: In SF, people are posting singles ads on telephone poles”

  • 3rd: Steffie Nelson, Truthdig, “Preparing to Meet Your Maker, Plus Cake: The Life of a Death Cafe”

• POLITICAL COMMENTARY, Local

  • 1st: Phil Hopkins, LocalNewsPasadena.com, “Welcome to Crown City Prison”

  • 2nd: Mohammed Zain Shafi Khan, The Guardian, “USC vetoed a Muslim student’s graduation speech for her pro-Palestinian views. Why?”

  • 3rd: Jon Regardie, Los Angeles Magazine, “Mark Ridley-Thomas Begins His Appeal, With an ‘Army’ of Supporters Standing Behind Him”

• ONLINE JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR, Tied to an Organization

  • 1st: Nick Gerda, LAist

  • 2nd: Phil Hopkins, LocalNewsPasadena.com

  • 3rd: James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter

• PERSONALITY PROFILE, Business/Government/Society Personalities

  • 1st: Andrew Lopez, Boyle Heights Beat, “The fall of José Huízar: How an Eastside hero rose to the top and how it all came crashing down”

  • 2nd: Phil Hopkins, LocalNewsPasadena.com, “Rick Cole: Cooling His Heels Without Breaking Stride”

  • 3rd: Hosam Elattar, Voice of OC, “A Gas Station Owner Says City Corruption Cost Him Money, Now He is Suing Anaheim”

• CULTURE NEWS, Events

  • 1st: Steve Appleford, Capital & Main, “Street Artists Say Graffiti on Abandoned L.A. High-Rises Is Disruptive, Divisive Art”

  • 2nd: Hosam Elattar, Voice of OC, “Anaheim’s Little Arabia is Finally Getting its Freeway Signs”

  • 3rd: Phil Hopkins, Local News Pasadena, “Trouble in Tovaangar”

• EDITORIALS

  • 1st: Emily St. Martin, Huffington Post, “Hundreds Of Journalists Just Lost Their Jobs. I’m One Of Them — And I’m Begging You To Pay Attention”

  • 2nd: Jem Aswad, Variety, “Jennifer Lopez’s Canceled Tour, and Society’s Twisted Pleasure in Seeing Strong Women Fail”

  • 3rd: Phil Hopkins, Local News Pasadena, “Goodbye Darkness, Goodbye Quiet”

• POLITICAL COMMENTARY, National

  • 1st: Deanne Stillman, Washington Monthly, “Mothers, Sons, and Guns”

  • 2nd: Jennifer Mercieca, Zócalo Public Square, “What Is 21st-Century Truth?”

  • 3rd: Phil Hopkins, LocalNewsPasadena.com, “We Funded the Central Library Rebuild, But What About THOSE Books?”

The full list of 2024 award winners is available on the Los Angeles Press Club’s Web site.

July, 2024 - Two correspondents for Local News Pasadena were honored with prestigious annual reporting awards presented by the Los Angeles Press Club.

Correspondent Victoria Thomas received an award for her theater / arts feature regarding the production of “The Bluest Eye” by Pasadena’s A Noise Within. Associate Publisher Phil Hopkins was the recipient of two awards, for national political commentary and for editorial writing.

Remarkably, the news organization only began publishing online in May last year.

“We formed Pasadena Media Foundation to help save local news during the pandemic,” said the foundation’s president and founder Sheryl Turner. “But we’ve only been publishing Local News Pasadena since May 2023, and already we feel like the ‘little engine that could’ with five finalist entries, all in different news categories, for seven months of work.”

“It’s remarkable to be up against such talented journalistic colleagues who work for The Hollywood Reporter, LAist, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Billboard, Variety, the Los Angeles Times and many other media outlets,” said Turner. “And to win awards in three of five categories tonight is simply amazing. Thank you to all the category judges and the Los Angeles Press Club for this honor.”

Correspondent Victoria Thomas said, “Receiving kudos on my arts reporting from the Los Angeles Press Club was an honor, especially considering that LNP is so new.”

“My career as a journalist began when I was 16 and somehow wrangled an interview with Keith Richards for our campus newspaper,” said Thomas. “Later, when my husband and I moved to Los Angeles, I did studio PR and wrote about movie people. There was always pressure to get the big story, or to make the story ‘seem’ big. Today I have a very different perspective. I’m much more interested in the backstage versus the front row. Because now I know that just as there are no truly ordinary days in this life, there are no truly small or insignificant stories.”

LNP’s Associate Publisher Phil Hopkins said, “I would like to thank the Pasadena Media Foundation and Sheryl Turner for pulling me out of retirement and back into journalism. There are many provocative stories to tell about the greater Pasadena area that go well beyond what is typically considered ‘local news.’ And being able to present those stories with this exceptional team of journalists is an enticing prospect.”

Here are the first, second and third place winners in each category where Local News Pasadena received an award:

• THEATER, ARTS FEATURE

  • 1st: Esther D. Kustanowitz, LAist, “Transparent Musical’: A Disco Ball Glitter Party Of Intersectional Self-Discovery As The Pfeffermans Take To The Stage”

  • 2nd: Victoria Thomas, Local News Pasadena, “Banned ‘Bluest Eye’ is Anything but Bland at A Noise Within”

  • 3rd: Abbey White, The Hollywood Reporter, “‘Dark Disabled Stories’ Invites Audiences to an Experiment in Unapologetically Accessible Theater”

• POLITICAL COMMENTARY, NATIONAL

  • 1st: Norberto Santana, Jr., Voice of OC, “Santana: Washington Warned Us To Skate Through The National Political Fracas”

  • 2nd: Phil Hopkins, Local News Pasadena, “How the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument Can Get Off Fodor’s Trash Bucket List”

  • 3rd: Chris Hedges, ScheerPost, “They Lied About Afghanistan. They Lied About Iraq. And They Are Lying About Ukraine.”

• EDITORIALS, PRINT/ONLINE – ANY OUTLET

  • 1st: Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times, “Big Oil is exploiting California’s Latinos in its latest climate disinformation push”

  • 2nd: Phil Hopkins, Local News Pasadena, “The Double-Edged Sword of Transit to Trails”

  • 3rd: Carla Hall, Los Angeles Times, “Are L.A. leaders trying to sabotage homeless housing in Venice?”

To avoid conflicts of interest, the Los Angeles Press Club does not judge its own awards competition. According to the organization, “Our awards are decided by volunteer journalists representing press organizations from across the country. In return, our press club judges other organizations’ competitions. The reciprocal judging process ensures fair and impartial judging.”

For the 2023 Southern California Journalism Awards, the contest was judged by journalists from Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Tennessee, along with journalists from Solutions Journalism Network.

The full list of award winners is available on the Los Angeles Press Club’s Web site.