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Jelani, Devorah win top honors for work
(Published March 8, 2004)

Two staff members of The Common Denominator have won top honors for their work from the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association.

Cartoonist Rashid Jelani and staff writer/photographer Carrie Devorah will be among journalists honored March 12 during the regional press association’s annual editorial awards luncheon. This year’s ceremony will be held in Columbia, Md.

Jelani, who draws The Capital Zoo comic strip and editorial cartoons for The Common Denominator, was awarded first place in the cartoons category of the press association’s competition for editorial work published during 2003.

Jelani’s winning editorial carton, originally published on July 28, 2003, poked fun at congressional efforts to impose school vouchers on the District and recent efforts by some residents to overturn the District’s ban on handgun ownership.

This is Jelani’s second first-place award from the regional press association. He was previously honored for producing The Capital Zoo in 1999.

Devorah was awarded first place in the sports feature category for her coverage of last year’s Washington International Horse Show, which was published in The Common Denominator on Nov. 3, 2003. Entitled "Horse is where the heart is," Devorah’s article was lauded ny the contest judges for allowing the reader to see the story "through a child’s eyes." Devorah’s story described the experience of a 4-year-old boy she observed and photographed, who had never before touched a real horse.

Newspapers compete in the annual contest according to their circulation class. The Common Denominator’s awards for 2003 were presented in the category for newspapers with circulation of 10,000 and under. The contest is judged each year by another region’s press association.

The Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association is a nonprofit membership organization representing all daily and most non-daily newspapers in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Delaware.