I am as pleased as Tom Harkin on an ethanol bender to announce that the 2007 staff of this here magazine and multimedia juggernaut hauled in a stunning 16 nominations from the Greater Southern California Press Club Awards (covering San Diego to Santa Barbara), with the winners to be announced June 21.

reason dominated the magazine category, earning 10 of the 20 finalist spots, including:

NEWS/INVESTIGATIVE
Who Owns Your Body Parts? Everyone's making money in the market for body tissue -- except the donors, by Kerry Howley.
CSI Mississippi: A case study in expert testimony gone horribly wrong, by Radley Balko.
The Trouble with Troubled Teen Programs: How the "boot camp" industry tortures and kills kids, by Maia Szalavitz.

FEATURE/COMMENTARY
Thank Deng Xiaoping for Little Girls: The tyrannical roots of China's international adoption program, by Jacob Sullum.
Bums: Why there are no "happy hobos," by Peter Bagge.
Be Afraid of President McCain: The frightening mind of an authoritarian maverick, by Matt Welch.

ENTERTAINMENT REVIEWS/CRITICISM/COLUMN
The Politics of Pants: It was consumers, not marketers, that made jeans a symbol of youthful revolt, by Charles Paul Freund.
Say You Love Santa: Pop culture's war on secularists, by Greg Beato.
Florida's Forgotten Rebels: Rediscovering the most successful slave revolt in American history, by Amy Sturgis.

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS OR FEATURE
Robert Heinlein at 100: How the science fiction master created the template for our looser, hipper, more pluralist world, by Brian Doherty.

In the Online Column/Commentary/Criticism category, there were these two:
America's No. 1 Endangered Species: Is the middle class losing "its place at the table?", by Nick Gillespie.
The Secrets of Intangible Wealth: For once the World Bank says something smart about the real causes of prosperity, by Ronald Bailey.

In addition, the blog you are reading is up for Best Group Blog, and the website it's on is nominated for Best News Organization Website and Best Design and Layout. And last but not least, let's all smell the freedom of a man who probably didn't imagine himself being nominated for journalism awards a few years back: Drew Carey is up for Best Multimedia Package:

Let the betting commence! Vote for your favorite pieces in the comments! Even better yet, subscribe to this fantabulous magazine for less than $20 a year!