• Jim Nintzel asking the hard questions

The Arizona Newspaper Association had the annual meeting last night, handing out the Better Newspaper Awards for excellence in state-wide journalism. A solid showing for the Weekly, highlighted by Jim Nintzel's deserving win for Journalist of the the Year in the non-daily category. In our non-daily circulation greater than 10,000 category, Mari Herreras racked up a bunch of honors with two wins for Best News Story (1st for "Solitary Justice,", 3rd for "Seeking Justice") plus a 2nd place for Best Investigative Reporting ("Fighting for Mom") and a shared 2nd place for Best News Feature Story with Chelo Grubb ("Drag Power"). Margaret Regan also took home a well-deserved 1st place honor for Best Column, Feature or Criticism for her arts coverage.

Other honors for the Weekly staff (past and present):

General Excellence, 1st place

Editorial Page Excellence, 1st place

Page Design Excellence, 1st place

Newspaper Online Site/Webpage, 1st place

Community Service/Journalistic Achievement, 1st place

Special Section, Newspaper Supplement or Magazine, 1st place

Reporting and Newswriting Excellence, 2nd place

Best News Story (Todd Miller, "Border Patrolled Youth"), 2nd place

Best Sports Column, 3rd place

Wins for our Tucson Local Media colleagues:

The Explorer, Newspaper Online Site/Webpage, 2nd place

The Explorer, General Excellence, 2nd place

The Explorer, Special Section, Newspaper Supplement or Magazine, 3rd place

The Explorer, Editorial Page Excellence, 3rd place

The Explorer, Best Use of Photography, 3rd place

The Explorer, JD Fitzgerald, Best News Photograph, 2nd place

The Explorer, Randy Metcalf, Best Sports Photograph, 3rd place

The Explorer, Randy Metcalf, Best Feature Photograph, 3rd place

The Explorer, JD Fitzgerald, Best Feature Photo Layout, 1st place

The Explorer, Randy Metcalf, Best Feature Photo Layout, 2nd place

Inside Tucson Business, Hillary Davis, Enterprise Reporting, 2nd place

Congrats, everyone.

We've had a record number of votes this year for our annual Best of Tucson poll, so hey, Tucson, pat yourself on the back. However, as the number of votes is still a number fewer than the total number of Tucsonans, there are clearly some hold-outs. 



So, here is your one-week-left warning for Best of Tucson, since you have until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, July 30 to submit your ballot. You don't have to be interested in all of the categories, but you will need to pick a favorite in at least 35 categories for your votes to be counted (but if you can't find 35 categories to vote in, you might need to get out more). Every vote makes the results more accurate, so be sure to set some time aside to pick your favorite Southern Arizona people, places and things.



Vote now! Go! Do it!

• Jim Nintzel, Tucson's source of political info

Next month in Nashville, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia will meet for its annual convention and at the very end of the information and frivolity, the annual AAN Awards will be given out. These things aren't easy to win...there are a bunch of papers out there doing really great work, so while I sit here seething that we didn't do better, it's quite an accomplishment to be a finalist at all.

So, congratulations to Jim Nintzel, who's among the four finalists for political column of the year in the circulation under 50,000 category, for his always informative and entertaining Skinny.

Best of luck, Jim. You're our only hope.

Did you know, there's an online map showing you the location of every mailbox in Tucson?

You're welcome.

• New Tucson Weekly online editor Henry Barajas, on the right, I think

EXCITING NEWS, EVERYONE! Henry Barajas joins the Tucson Weekly team today as our new online editor, taking over for David Mendez, who went back to school but will continue to be around writing stuff.

Henry, who we stole away from the Star, will be the new face of The Range, our social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Friendster, and be involved in a bunch of other stuff around here as well. I'm personally excited to see what he comes up with, but I probably should be, since I hired him.

Feel free to welcome him in whatever manner you'd like, which for some of you, would likely be criticizing his grammar when he first posts something. If you'd like to tip him off to something Range-worthy, feel free to email him at [email protected].

Welcome aboard, Henry.

It's not all that often that we have a job opening around here, but we're currently hiring for a new position here at the the Weekly: Online editor.

So, here's most of what the gig entails:

• Creating and managing content for our website, including The Range (this is harder than it seems, believe me...writing six posts a day or so)
• Work with writers, editors, photographers and designers to develop Web-exclusive content
• All the social media stuff, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and whatever else pops up
• Developing new features and such, including evaluating vendors, determining new forms of revenue
• Tracking analytics, metrics, developing plans to get more people to look at our website and for longer
• Apps or whatever
• The other stuff that seems to come up each week
• Being awesome and brilliant and whatever

Consideration will go only to those who have writing and reporting experience in addition to the necessary technical skills. (We're serious about this. It's a fun job, but you need to know what you're doing.) The ideal candidate will have a wide variety of experience doing Web development; have a knowledge of basic HTML; be familiar with various website and social-networking platforms; and be ready for the Tucson Weekly work environment. It's a complicated job with a lot of moving parts, so if you're the sort of person who likes to focus on one task at a time, uninterrupted, you will be unhappy and we will be unhappy.

This is a full-time position, with benefits. Please send a cover letter, a resume and links to work samples to [email protected] NO LATER THAN 3 P.M., TUESDAY, AUG. 6 (we're in a hurry). Thanks!

Tucson, it's May 31 — a date of significance for a number of reasons.

Some of you got paid today. Many of you have rent due tomorrow. Oh, and apparently Big Ben began operating back in 1859. It's a big day.

But for us, today matters for one reason, and one alone: it is the final day to submit your ballots for the Best of Tucson® 2013.

You don't have to submit your ballot to show how much you care about Tucson's many spectacular, home-grown restaurants, stores, musicians, artists, personalities and attractions — but if you don't submit a ballot, don't come complaining to us when your favorite place to eat Sonoran hot dogs is snubbed, if your favorite comic book shop is ignored, or your favorite hiking spot is overlooked.

You have 'til midnight tonight, folks.

Click here to vote!

So, let's rap.

Today is Friday, May 24.

Next Friday, one week from today, is the last day of the month, May 31.

On that day, we're closing voting for this year's Best of Tucson®.

Therefore, you have ONE WEEK to get your ballots in regarding the absolute best that Tucson has to offer — like whether or not Brooklyn Pizza will retain their Best Pizza; if Club Congress is still the best place for you to dance the night away; if Jon Justice is the absolute best at...uh...whatever it is that he does.

One week.

Make it count.