The Times wins 10 "Best of West" awards

The Seattle Times has picked up 10 awards in the annual Best of the West journalism contest sponsored by an Arizona nonprofit corporation.

The paper was awarded first place for business reporting, general-interest column writing and online enterprise reporting.

Reporters Dominic Gates, Alicia Mundy and Luke Timmerman won for their story "Boeing faces CEO dilemma" about the ousting of Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher. Columnist Danny Westneat won for his regular columns and reporters David Heath, Sharon Pian Chan, Tracy Cutchlow and Todd Coglon won the online prize for "Dot-con Job," a series of stories about how InfoSpace deceived investors.

Seattle Times reporters also received high marks for their work in environmental reporting, explanatory reporting, feature writing long form, sports reporting, online enterprise reporting and editing and design.

The contest is hosted by First Amendment Funding Inc. Best of the West began in 1988 and draws more than 2,000 entries each year from journalists in 13 states. Proceeds from the contest are used to help finance media hotlines that provide journalists with free, on-the-spot legal advice on issues related to public records and open meetings, according to the contest Web site.

Best of the West has awarded nearly $200,000 in grants to organizations in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the Web site said.