Congratulations, 2011 WPA Maggie Winner Greg Beato: Best Regular Column

He knocked Sactown back to Palookaville. He sent Mountain magazine crumbling into the sea. He beat Fit Pregnancy so hard it delivered early. 

In a twilight struggle against these and other competitors, Reason's Greg Beato brought home the Lucite® at the Western Publishing Association's 2011 Maggie awards, winning in the category "Best Regularly Featured Department, Section or Column/Consumer." 

In this year's print columns, Beato has investigated the Department of Agriculture's SNAP plan to put as many Americans as possible on food stamps; multibillion-dollar federal education payouts for cyberlaundries, tanning booths and 53-student Jacuzzis at America's colleges; and the Postal Service's transformation into a nostalgia item.

At the Maggies banquet, the WPA selected Beato's May 2010 survey of one-time vice-presidential candidate John Edwards' fledgling porn career for display on the Jumbotron.

Beato's complete print and online catalogue is here. 

Reason was nominated in seven categories this year, including a Best Cover nod for the November 2010 3-D issue (which lost to a scratch-n-sniff cover).