Winners!!!!

By the way, we learned on July 6 that Maria and I and our friend Lauri, among others, are winners in the 2007 National Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest and the Better Newspaper Advertising Contest.
Here's the list of awards won by Maria's paper:
Best Breaking News Photo, Daily Division, circulation less than 16,000 1st place Parking lot scuffle ends in arrest 1/12/06 Kris Fassa
Best Feature Series, Daily Division, circulation less than 16,000 2nd place Hispanic series 1/13-14/06,1/15/06,1/16/06,1/17/06,1/18/06,1/19/06 Doug Hunt & Wade Coggeshall
Best Investigative or In-Depth Story or Series, Daily Division, circulation less than 16,000 Honorable Mention Semper Fi 1/5/06 John M. Flora & Doug Hunt
Best Photo Essay, Daily Division Honorable Mention Quinceanera 5/11/06 John & Maria Flora
Best Small-Page Ad, Daily Division 1st place Spiders! - Arab Termite & Pest Control 8/15/06 Shaylan Owen
Best Small-Page Ad, Daily Division 2nd place Arab - Beetles 8/22/06 Shaylan Owen
Best Single Ad Idea - Color, Daily Division 2nd place Shlootberry festival 6/8/06 Shaylan Owen
Best Sales Promotion Section or Edition, Daily Division 2nd place Montgomery County directory 4/30/06
Best Sales Promotion Section or Edition, Daily Division 3rd place Candid 9/29/06
Best Single Ad Idea - Color, Daily Division Honorable Mention Athena $4 for the fourth 7/24/06 Lauri Shillings
General Excellence, Daily Division, circulation less than 16,000 6/10-11/06,6/12/06,11/13/06 Congratulations! Your newspaper has won an award in General Excellence! Place awarded will be announced at the "Toast to the Winners" awards ceremony Sept. 28, 2007

Here's Maria (front left) and the other top award winners at last year's NNA convention in Oklahoma City.
Maria observed this evening that I've won more NNA and Hoosier State Press Association awards in retirement, freelancing with her paper, than I did in the 34 years I worked for The Indianapolis News and The Indianapolis Star. I guess that's because I don't have a bunch of room temperature I.Q. management types holding me back.