Press Club Confers 3 Awards On Times

The Seattle Times has won three awards in the prestigious National Press Club competition in Washington, D.C.

James V. Grimaldi, a reporter in The Times' Washington bureau, won two of the awards for coverage of Microsoft's antitrust case and other stories. The third award went to Times staff members Eric Nalder, Deborah Nelson, Jim Simon and Danny Westneat for the series "Trading Away the West," which documented how the public was being ill-served by federal lands programs.

In winning the press club's Washington Correspondence award, Grimaldi was cited for his coverage of the Microsoft case.

"Whether being first to report the government's next move or writing explanatory pieces that detailed Microsoft various defenses . . . Grimaldi used clear, compelling writing to bring home an important story," the judges said.

Grimaldi's other award, the Robin Goldstein Award for Washington Regional Reporting, is for coverage of Washington, D.C., for a hometown newspaper. Grimaldi's entry included Microsoft coverage, as well as features and news stories of local interest on events in Washington, D.C.

The investigative "Trading Away the West" series won the press club's Robert L. Kozik Award for Environmental Reporting, with judges calling it "a shocking and beautifully written account of federal land-trading policies."

The series has won two other national awards, including the Edward J. Meeman Award in Environmental Journalism and the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism.

Last year, Times reporter Duff Wilson won the Kozik award for "Fear in the Fields," a series on how toxic wastes are sold as agricultural fertilizers.

Grimaldi, Nalder, Nelson, Simon, Westneat and other award winners will be recognized at a dinner July 22 at the National Press Club in Washington.

"When people ask me about the state of the media in America," said Larry Lipman, president of the National Press Club, "I point to these awards, and these award winners, and I say the media is in very good shape."