SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN WINS EIGHT AWARDS FROM AP MANAGING EDITORS

LAKE OZARK -- The Southeast Missourian's Marty Mishow and Chuck Miller won first-place awards in annual honors announced by the Associated Press Managing Editors Saturday.

The Kansas City Star won the APME sweepstakes award for reporting excellence for its coverage of Missouri House speaker Bob Griffin. The Star received first-place awards in community affairs-public interest, feature writing, sports feature and spot sports categories for large newspapers.

The Southeast Missourian won a total of eight awards in the contest among medium-sized newspapers (15,000 to 50, 000 circulation). Mishow, the newspaper's sports editor, won four awards alone, including a first place for spot sports for the story "Legion players bask in sweetness of state title."

Mishow's other awards were second and third places for sports feature and a third place for spot sports.

Miller's first-place award was for his spot news coverage of a high-speed chase and shooting involving members of a Laotian gang from Elgin, Ill.

The Southeast Missourian's Bill Heitland won a second place in featuring writing for his story "Fisherman," and a third place in the community affairs-public interest category for "Gangs: Sikeston under siege."

Heitland also shared a third-place spot news award with Cathryn Maya and Mark Bliss. All three Southeast Missourian reporters contributed to a story about the 1994 hazing death at Southeast Missouri State University.

Chris Rimel, a Southeast Missourian reporter who formerly worked for the Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, shared a first-place award in the community affairs-public interest category with DAR reporters Barbara Ann Horton and Chuck Geary. Their series investigated alleged negligent practices at the VA hospital in Poplar Bluff.

The contest drew 172 entries from 20 newspapers. They were judged by AP member newspapers in New Mexico.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.