The Star wins honors for stories on fentanyl, police searches, foster child, more
The Star was recently honored by the national Investigative Reporters & Editors organization and also won several awards from the Kansas Press Association.
The series “Deadly Dose,” detailing the Kansas City area’s fentanyl crisis, was named an IRE Awards finalist. The judges wrote, “This package showed how the scourge of fentanyl is claiming dozens of babies and toddlers, and showed how the deaths have gone largely unnoticed.”
The project was conceived, reported and written by Laura Bauer and Judy L. Thomas, with visuals and design by Tammy Ljungblad, Neil Nakahodo and Susan Merriam. Allison Dikanovic coordinated events to educate about and distribute naloxone, which is used to treat overdoses.
Also, The Star won numerous 2024 Awards of Excellence across several categories from the Kansas Press Association. Here are the first-place winners:
▪ Best investigative story for “Across Kansas, police conduct illegal search and seizures ‘all the time,’ upending lives,” by Jonathan Shorman, Katie Bernard and Katie Moore of The Star and Amy Renee Leiker of The Wichita Eagle.
▪ Agricultural story for “Kansas has been running out of water for decades. Why has no one fixed it?” by Daniel Desrochers and Katie Bernard.
▪ Youth story for “’They traumatized her without any reason.’ Kansas girl, 3, sent to live with new family” by Laura Bauer.
▪ Sports feature story for “The town that forged Super Bowl brothers Travis and Jason Kelce: ‘No place like’ it” by Eric Adler.
▪ Sports column writing for “Don’t blame Big 12 for conference realignment. They didn’t create this. They responded” by Sam McDowell.
▪ Environmental story for “Smoke and fires, bad smell and trash: Kansans say state fails to regulate landfill” by Katie Moore and Bill Lukitsch.
▪ Sports photo for “Jalen Wilson” by Nick Wagner.
▪ Photo package for “Special Education” by Nick Wagner.
▪ Online photo series/gallery for “Super Bowl LVII” by Tammy Ljungblad, Nick Wagner and Emily Curiel.
