Times wins 2 first-place Blethen Awards

The Seattle Times won two first places in the annual C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards presented Thursday in Portland.

In the enterprise category, reporters Sandi Doughton and Kristi Heim won top honors for a series of three stories on the Gates Foundation's effort to treat malaria in Africa.

In investigative reporting, The Times took home a first place for its "Miracle Machines" series, written by reporters Michael Berens and Christine Willmsen.

The awards were presented to writers from 10 regional daily newspapers. They were established in 1977 in honor of C.B. Blethen, publisher of The Times for 26 years.

Entries are accepted from newspaper reporters in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Alaska and western Canadian provinces in two circulation divisions, over 50,000 and under 50,000. Awards are given in five categories, plus the Debby Lowman Award for distinguished reporting of consumer affairs, named for a Times reporter who died of cancer in 1978.

The awards were for stories written between March 1, 2007 and Feb. 29, 2008.

The Times also won four second-place awards:

• The diversity award for a body of work by various reporters.

• The deadline-reporting award for a series of stories following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed Seattle Public Schools' use of a student's race when assigning students to schools

• The investigative-reporting award for a series on University of Washington football

• The Lowman Award for The Seattle Times Climate Challenge, a monthlong series aimed at increasing awareness about the simple solutions to global warming by asking readers to reduce their personal carbon footprints by 15 percent.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer won two first-place awards, one for reporter Carol Smith in the feature-writing category for her story, "Doctor, climber, patriot, spy," and one for reporter Andrew Schneider for stories about diacetyl, synthetic butter associated with debilitating lung disease.

In addition, Times reporters Hal Bernton and David Heath won the Ted Natt First Amendment Award for their "Favor Factories" series, an investigation into members of Congress who give billions of dollars to contractors through earmarks that are tacked on to spending bills.

The Natt Award honors a newspaper or reporter for distinguished service to the cause of the First Amendment guarantee of a free press and is open to newspapers in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Utah.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com