A News Cafe Receives 5 California News Publishers Association Awards

Please indulge me while I share some proud news about A News Cafe’s recent awards from the California News Publishers Association. We were notified some months back that we were finalists, but we received the actual awards in the mail last week with the announcement that all five of the following finalists were winners of the 2023 California Journalism Awards:

Doni Chamberlain/A News Cafe for Home Page Layout & Design

In all fairness, this award actually belongs to son Joseph Domke, who founded the site, and set up this particular, relatively simple and fairly user-friendly (for me) WordPress webpage theme before he departed from A News Cafe and embraced his next life chapter in academia.

Thank you, Joe!

Phil Fountain/‘Phillustrations’: Dum Minions Voting System In Place

The CNPA recognized and awarded Phil Fountain for his cartoon that depicted “the new MAGA-approved voting system” as a winner in the CNPA’s Editorial Cartoon category.

Cartoonist Phil Fountain

Phil Fountain is a pseudonym for ANC’s prodigal cartoonist, Philbert Phountain, who has recently returned from a working hiatus where he served as the lead fact-checker for George Santos.

He lives in Shasta County with his long-suffering wife, Christine, as well as a variety of layabouts and urchins who claim to be his progeny … including three grandchildren.

He busies himself with his crayons and obsessing over the fate of his favorite baseball team while a small dog sleeps under his desk. He’s actually not such a bad guy as evidenced by the fact the dog rarely bites him anymore. Look for his crudely rendered drawings in future posts on A News Café.

Congratulations, Phil!

Mike Chapman: County’s A.C.I.D Canal Causes Troubles for Farmers, Ranchers, Residents

Journalist Mike Chapman

The CNPA recognized Mike Chapman for his excellence in Environment Reporting for two stories that focused on A.C.I.D. Canal issues.

Here are Chapman’s award-winning stories:

Leaking ACID Canal Getting Old for Waterlogged Residents; Health Concerns Arise. 

District Looks to Prevent Another ACID Canal Calamity.

Chapman is a longtime journalist and photographer in the North State. He worked more than 30 years in various editorial positions for the Redding Record Searchlight and also covered Northern California as a newspaper reporter for the Siskiyou Daily News in Yreka and the Times-Standard in Eureka, and as a correspondent for the Sacramento Bee.

Congratulations, Mike!

R.V. Scheide: Shasta County Supervisor Proposes High Plains Shooting Sports Center

Journalist R.V. Scheide

The CNPA recognized journalist R.V. Scheide‘s outstanding work in the category of Investigative Reporting for his series about District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones’ aspirations for a shooting range. Here’s an excerpt of judges’ comments about Scheide’s series:

“A News Cafe’s R.V. Scheide’s Millville Plains shooting range investigation is top-notch. The issues are complex, yet simply explained. This series of stories show well-researched reporting, deep understanding of the issues and stakeholders. The series helped residents opposed to the gun range organize, raise money and hire an attorney.”

Here are Scheide’s award-winning 2023 stories about the Millville Shooting Range series:

A Case of Overshoot: Is Supervisor Patrick Jone’s Gun Range Proposal too Big for Shasta County?

Shasta County Board of Supervisors Greenlights Board Chair’s Shooting Sports Center

Millville Plains Residents Sue Chair Jones …

Bald Eagle Perches on Proposed Gun Range Gate

Congratulations, R.V.!

R.V. Scheide is an award-winning journalist who has covered news, politics, music, arts and culture in Northern California for more than 30 years. His work has appeared in the Tenderloin Times, Sacramento News & Review, Reno News & Review, Chico News & Review, North Bay Bohemian, San Jose Metro, SF Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, Alternet, Boston Phoenix, Creative Loafing and Counterpunch, among many other publications. His honors include winning the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Freedom of Information Act and best columnist awards as well as best commentary from the Society of Professional Journalists, California chapter. 

Doug Craig: Cancer is a Mirror/Lessons from the Cancer Road

This award is both bittersweet and heart-wrenching. The CNPA judges honored beloved contributor Doug Craig with a posthumous recognition for his deeply personal and authentic columns about living with cancer.

Here’s what judges said: “The author of this 1st-person series died last October after writing a brilliant series of stories about his fight against cancer. A riveting and tragic series filled with hope.

Here are Craig’s award-winning columns:

Choosing Love and Life: More Lessons from the Cancer Road
Cancer is a Mirror. 

Therapist Doug Craig

Doug Craig graduated from college in Ohio with a journalism degree and got married during the Carter administration. He graduated from graduate school with a doctorate in Psychology, got divorced, moved to Redding, re-married and started his private practice during the Reagan administration. He had his kids during the first Bush administration. He wrote poetry, survived a motorcycle crash, bought and sold an electric car, raised his kids, and managed to stay married and maintain his practice for more than 35 years. He believed in magic and was a Warriors fan.

He was deeply loved and admired, and is greatly missed. 

Unsung winners: A News Cafe’s supporters

I don’t say it often enough, but without our paid subscribers and tech-savvy advertisers, A News Cafe wouldn’t exist. At A News Cafe, we believe a free press should be free; and to us, that means free of paywalls, free of hoops, free of promotional popups and free of speedbumps.

A News Cafe is supported by a minority of our readers, a group of awesome, conscientious individuals who voluntarily contribute to A News Cafe at whatever level they can afford — starting at between $1.35 to $5 a month, working on up to greater monthly amounts to fit their budgets. Every dime and dollar we receive helps us continue providing independent local news content, day in and day out.

Two of the most difficult things for me to do as the publisher of ANC are self-promotion and asking for financial help. But sometimes difficult conversations are necessary. Not to be so gauche as to air ANC finances, but did you know that it takes approximately five $5-monthly annual subscriptions for A News Cafe to pay for just one story written by a journalist? Another way to say that is that one $60 annual subscription funds one-fifth of one story written by a journalist.

Although today we’re recognizing the CNPA award-winners, everyone on team ANC is a winner. Here’s ANC’s current editorial family.

As you might imagine, the more support we receive, the more fairly and generously we can pay our talented, dedicated staff of reporters, journalists, audio/video reporters, professional photographers, a cartoonist and an admin assistant. None of us are solely supported by our ANC income. All of us require other income sources to survive financially.

That’s why we are especially grateful to those who volunteer their talents to ANC without compensation; our fantastic team of Photo Cafe providers, David Bogener, Joanna Snyder and Jim Dowling. Thank you! Your photos help remind us to stop, breathe, and look beyond news to behold nature’s wonder and beauty.

Finally, special thanks to our spectacular, wonderful, primary advertisers, Shasta College, and Wallner Plumbing. We appreciate you so much, and are honored to be promotional partners with you.

To the entire family of A News Cafe’s staff, readers, subscribers and advertisers, thank you! Here’s looking forward to completing 2024, and seeing what award-winning stories remain to be reported and won in 2025.

I think it’s going to be good.

If you appreciate A News Cafe’s award-winning staff, and if you wish to see this site’s work continue, please consider becoming a subscriber. Thank you!