​In an interesting reporting exercise, four VVM publications have similar--but not identical--stories this week about NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal's surreal war with a Miami cybergeek. Miami New Times, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, OC Weekly and Phoenix New Times all have the story, which was written by Gus Garcia-Roberts in Florida and Paul Rubin in Phoenix. Garcia-Roberts and Rubin cover much of the same material. But the Miami/Broward version puts a special focus on how O'Neal's salacious personal emails are being used against him by a convicted con man he hired in Miami as an IT consultant, while the Phoenix version details the bizarre relationship that developed between O'Neal and starstruck Arizona law enforcement agencies, who were only too eager to give the randy sports celeb a badge. We recommend that you sample both renditions of an exquisitely odd set of events.

​VVM writers, editors, designers and illustrators took home 11 first-place awards in the recently announced AltWeekly Awards, including top finishes in Multimedia, Group Blog, Music Blog, Investigative Reporting, Public Service and both Long-Form and Short-Form News Story. The awards were handed out at AAN's annual convention in New Orleans. Leading the way for VVM were Miami New Times and the Village Voice, each of which took home three awards, including first in Investigative Reporting for New York's Graham Rayman and firsts in Feature Story and Political Column for Miami's Gus Garcia-Roberts and his editor, Chuck Strouse. In all, VVM received 52 honors, including at least one for each of our thirteen publications, and swept the field in Cover Design, Public Service and Long-Form News Story.

​The Village Voice has received eight nominations in this year's AltWeekly Awards, more than any other publication. Miami New Times, LA Weekly and the Riverfront Times each received five nominations, while the Dallas Observer, the Houston Press, Phoenix New Times and SF Weekly will each take home four awards. Winners will be announced later this month at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' annual convention in New Orleans. All VVM publications compete in the "large circulation" category, and this year swept the Public Service, Long-Form News Story and Cover Design categories.

Tim Elfrink: six times charmed.

​Staff writer Tim Elfrink of Miami New Times has been named a finalist in six different categories of the Green Eyeshade Awards. The Green Eyeshades, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, are the most prominent journalism awards for reporting in the American Southeast; they cover work from publications in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. New Times competes in the non-daily category, and this year racked up eleven finalist nominations--Elfrink's half-dozen, along with nods to staff writers Francisco Alvarado, Gus Garcia-Roberts, Lee Klein and Michael Miller, and editor-in-chief Chuck Strouse. Winners will be announced June 24 at the Green Eyeshades banquet in Atlanta, and the chances of Elfrink coming home without a first-place trophy seem slim; his story "Disorderly Conduct," about overtime gouging and corruption on the Miami Beach police force, is nominated in three categories.

Louis Maxwell

​Two of VVM's lead editors are winners in this year's Sigma Delta Chi awards for excellence in journalism. The SDX contest, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, honors reporters in print, radio, TV and online categories. Patricia Calhoun of Westword won the feature reporting prize for non-daily publications with "Spreading Her Wings," the riveting tale of Kristen Stillman and her twin brother Will, who were taken hostage at the age of eight and subjected to a decade of horrific abuses that only came to light via Calhoun's reporting. Miami New Times editor Chuck Strouse took first-place in general column writing for non-daily publications; the judges lauded Strouse for columns on the murder of war hero Louis Maxwell and Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. There were more than 1,400 entries in this year's SDX competition; winners will be feted at an awards banquet September 24 in New Orleans.

The freaking-man's candidate...

​The Miami Herald finally took note of the most dynamic mayoral candidate in Miami this past weekend, devoting a feature story to Miami New Times columnist (and rap impresario) Luther R. Campbell. Better known as "Uncle Luke," Campbell writes the weekly "Luke's Gospel" column for MNT, a journalistic endeavor that the Herald accurately described as "pugnacious and bawdy."  In the Herald story, Campbell admits he's likely to face questions about his controversial rap career, which culminated with the epic hit "Me So Horny" and in many respects paved the way for a new generation of "Dirty South" rappers. But as New Times editor Chuck Strouse told the Herald, Campbell's bootylicious musical career is no reason not to take him seriously as a candidate. "Luke would make a better mayor than any of those stiffs out there," said Strouse.

​Five writers from publications within the Village Voice family were recognized by the Association of Food Journalists at its annual convention earlier this month. Gus Garcia-Roberts of Miami New Times took first place in Newspaper Food Feature (under 200,000 circulation) for "Pork Pirates, a story that detailed the thriving--and highly illegal--market for black-market pork in South Florida. Garcia-Roberts's New Times colleague Lee Klein took second-place for Newspaper Restaurant Criticism--beat out only by Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle--while another second-place prize in Best Food Blog went to LA Weekly for its "Squid Ink" food blog. The Weekly's cross-country rivals at the Village Voice took third-place in Best Newspaper Food Coverage, while Miami New Times picked up a third award when contributing writer Jackie Sayet won third-place in Best Newspaper Food News Story for "Bogus Beef," about how restaurants were passing off inferior cuts of meat as Kobe steaks.

Luther Campbell, gentleman scholar.

​UPDATE: The Senate has confirmed Kagan. 

Louis Maxwell died heroically in Afghanistan.

​Much attention has been paid in recent days to secret documents released via WikiLeaks and published in the New York Times that detail America's crumbling military adventure in Afghanistan. But it's been clear for some time that the Afghan government couldn't be trusted as a partner in war. Chuck Strouse, the editor of Miami New Times, has been writing about the case of Miami Gardens native Louis Maxwell, a homegrown hero who died while serving as a bodyguard for United Nations monitors who had deemed the election of Afghan President Hamid Karzai a fraud. Strouse's three-part series (Part I, Part II) wraps up this week with a grim conclusion: The most likely explanation for Maxwell's death is that he was the victim of an attack approved by the Karzai administration. As our Featured Story of the Week, we recommend, "Louis Maxwell's Forgotten Murder."

​We've got an inside line to the winners of the 2010 AltWeekly Awards, mainly because our very own Gustavo Arellano of OC Weekly was the emcee of the just-concluded ceremony in Toronto. According to  Mr. A., VVM writers brought home sixteen first-place prizes in 24 categories, including three out of four in the design realm, and a clean sweep of all the music awards. The Village Voice, edited by Tony Ortega, was the big winner, with five top finishes: Arts Criticism, Political Column, Music Reporting, Staff Blog, and Music Blog. "Ortega killed, and I told him off in public for it, because (Voice news-blog) Runnin' Scared beat (OC Weekly news-blog) Navel Gazing," Arellano reports. Phoenix New Times took three top prizes (Illustration, Column, Health Reporting), while Denver Westword (Feature Story, Cover Design) and LA Weekly (Arts Feature, Food Writing) both snagged a pair. Miami New Times (Editorial Layout), New Times Broward-Palm Beach, (Media Reporting/Criticism), the Houston Press (Public Service) and Seattle Weekly (Long Form News Story) also received first-place honors. We'll post a link to the entire list of winners once the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies makes it available. For now, here's a look at the finalists.