I'm happy to announce that Reason Senior Editor Damon Root took home the first-ever R.C. Hoiles Prize, a $10,000 award administered by the International Policy Network to honor journalism about "regional US issues whose writing best reflects the Freedom Philosophy developed by R. C. Hoiles," the founder of what became the Orange County Register (the only large daily paper on the West Coast that editorialized against interning U.S. citizens of Japanese descent during World War II). Damon won for a July 11, 2011 article on "The Great Basketball Swindle," which looked at eminent-domain abuse in the building of a new stadium complex for the NBA Nets in Brooklyn, New York.
Former Reason editor Virginia Postrel was named as co-winner of the Bastiat Prize for Journalism, named for the pioneering 19th century French journalist and advocate of free markets. Now a columnist at Bloomberg, Virginia was cited for her June 10, 2011 piece about light bulb bans and how they embody a green-tinged form of crony capitalism. She split the $50,000 award with Tom Easton of The Economist. For more info on the winners, go here.
Over at TBD.com, editors have compiled a list of "The 51 DC Journalists with the Most Klout" (Klout is a ranking system of the reach and influence of Twitter users). With a Klout score of 62 (out of 100), Reason Associate Mike Riggs clocks in at 28th on the list, garnering this write-up:
Associate editor at Reason Magazine, and contributor to City Paper and the Awl. Also a "pacifist, white trash aficionado, hater of occupational licensing." Sample tweet: "GOP operative texts to say Romney will ask Perry if he thinks government has power to mandate egg washes for more lustrous hair." Followers: 3,044
