Pulitzer Prizes Awarded

NEW YORK CITY: The bloody aftermath of the Taliban coup in Afghanistan, AIDS and the devastating damage done to world fishing supplies by ecological problems were among the topics that inspired Pulitzer Prize-winning stories this year. The big winner in the 81st annual Pulitzer Prize competition is the Times-Picayune of New Orleans, which won the public service award and the Pulitzer gold medal for its series on threats to the world's fish supply. The Times-Picayunes Walt Handelsman added another award for editorial cartooning. Among other top winners of the awards announced by Columbia University today, the prize for investigative reporting went to Eric Nalder, Deborah Nelson and Alex Tizon of the Seattle Times for their story on rampant corruption in a federal housing program for American Indians. The Wall Street Journal won the national reporting prize for its coverage of AIDS in the scientific and business communities. The international reporting award went to John F. Burns of the New York Times for his coverage of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Having returned home to Ames, Iowa after heading up NBC News, Michael Gartner won the prize for local editorial writing. In photography, The Associated Press hauled in an award for a photo of Boris Yeltsin grooving at a rock concert during his re-election campaign. In the arts category, Wynton Marsalis won the music award for "Blood on the Fields," an epic composition on slavery; Frank McCourt's book "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" took the prize for biography. The book focused on McCourt's youth in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. The prizes are presented by Columbia University every year and include a gold medal for the public service award and a $5000 check for all other Pulitzer Prize winners. Having disqualified some entries this year because they were online news efforts, the Pulitzer Board is appointing a committee to decide whether to establish on online journalism category for next years awards. One member of that committee is Rena Pederson, vice president/editorial page editor of The Dallas Morning News, which recently made headlines by breaking its exclusive story concerning Timothy McVeighs reported admission of guilt to his attorneys on its website before the story was published in its print edition. Gentlemen, start your computers.