Olivera Perkins, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and a business reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has won the 2009 NABJ-Knowledge@Wharton Award. The awards provide journalists with a scholarship to attend the prestigious Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Perkins is a 2008 Nieman Fellow. Read more
Seattle Times reporter Ken Armstrong has won a major national award for his more than 20-year reporting career. Armstrong, the recipient of the 2009 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, was selected for the depth and impact of his coverage of the criminal-justice system over his career. Armstrong is a 2001 Nieman Fellow. Read more
Reporter Alfredo Corchado, the Mexico Bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News, received the 2009 Gold Nugget Award from the University of Texas at El Paso's College of Liberal Arts. Corchado is a 2009 Nieman Fellow. Read more
Newspaper editor Lorie Hearn converts her investigative team into a nonprofit—with her former paper, San Diego Union-Tribune, as partner and chief benefactor. Hearn is a 1995 Nieman Fellow. Read more
The Nieman Foundation will present the 2009 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence to Jon Alpert. An investigative reporter, producer and documentary filmmaker whose career has spanned more than 35 years, Alpert has reported on diverse topics ranging from homelessness and health care to post-war Vietnam and criminals in New Jersey. Read more
D.P. Kumar, former Resident Editor of The Statesman and former Political Editor for Newstime, died Sunday, Aug. 9. He was a 1966 Nieman Fellow. Read more
Chris Cousins, a 2007 Nieman Fellow, is joining the staff of the Bangor (Maine) Daily News as a reporter. “Working for such a top-notch news organization was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, and one that I’ve been seeking for several years,” Cousins said. Read more
Former television reporter Roberta Baskin, a 2002 Nieman Fellow, will join the Department of Health and Human Service's office of inspector general as a senior communications adviser. She will join the office for one year to help drum up media attention for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, an HHS-Justice Department task force aimed at combating Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Read more
Sam Fulwood, a 1994 Nieman Fellow and Nieman Foundation Advisory Board member, is now a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he analyzes the influence of national politics and domestic policies on communities of color across the United States. The Center for American Progress is a think tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through ideas and action. Read more
David Hawpe, an unrepentant liberal who spent much of his professional life railing against what he considered to be the coal industry's excesses and as an advocate for the underprivileged, especially in his beloved Appalachia, is retiring after 40 years with The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal. He is a 1975 Nieman Fellow. Read more
