Lookout Santa Cruz was honored with 13 awards at the California News Publishers Association’s California Journalism Awards. The awards, recognizing work from media outlets across the state, were presented at a gala Saturday in Universal City.
Photojournalist Kevin Painchaud won four first-place awards for photojournalism, along with feature, news and sports photos. His winning images included photos of pro-Palestine campus protests and community vigils, Santa Cruz Warriors forward Donovan Williams and Sandy Stone, the first transgender woman to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Photo gallery: See the winning images
Police and protesters faced off May 31, 2024, at the base of the UC Santa Cruz campus. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz 
Sandy Stone is most at home in the recording studio, where her top-to-bottom knowledge of the science of recording has made her a top-flight sound engineer. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz 
Residents held a vigil at the downtown Santa Cruz clocktower on the 1-year anniversary of the war in Gaza. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz 
Santa Cruz Warriors forward Donovan Williams. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz 
A competitor in the Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz triathlon. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz 
Sitar master Ashwin Batish and his family have been Santa Cruz mainstays for more than 50 years. His famous father, Bollywood veteran and Indian master musician S.D. Batish, looks on from a photo prominently displayed in the Batish family home. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz
Lookout’s winning work also relied heavily on team collaboration. Max Chun, Hillary Ojeda, Christopher Neely, Kevin Painchaud and Wallace Baine won first place for breaking news for our fast and comprehensive coverage of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf collapse on Dec. 23.
Lookout’s coverage of the November 2024 general election, which involved the entire newsroom, earned second place for election coverage. A team consisting of education correspondent Hillary Ojeda, Max Chun, Christopher Neely, Kevin Painchaud and freelancer Keith A. Spencer, placed second for coverage of youth and education for stories about the pro-Palestine encampment and police raid at UC Santa Cruz last spring.
Max Chun placed second for transportation reporting for his coverage of ongoing debate over the Coastal Rail Trail and a passenger train, including the fate of mobile home park residents whose properties encroach on the rail corridor.
Wallace Baine placed third for column writing for pieces about the region’s housing crisis and the departure of DNA, a pioneer of the local comedy scene.
Christopher Neely was honored for coverage of local government for stories including the City of Santa Cruz’s effort to ban on other communities from sending homeless people to Santa Cruz, changes to cannabis rules and intense community division following the city council’s controversial vote on a Gaza cease-fire resolution. He was also a recognized for music writing for a feature on the Grateful Dead archive at UC Santa Cruz.
Freelancer James Dobbins was recognized for homelessness reporting for a three-part series on the interconnected crises of fentanyl addiction and homelessness in Santa Cruz County.
The entire list of winners can be found here.