TCB at Ten: 10 awards that TCB has won

This story is part of our 10-year-anniversary issue. To find all of the stories in the issue, go here.

We don’t do it for the awards or the money, but it sure is nice when we get recognized for our work. We’ve won more than 10 awards over the years but here are some of our favorites.

2016 Altweekly Award, Second Place Best Political Column — Citizen Green by Jordan Green (also Second Place, 2018, and Third Place, 2019)

Jordan Green’s weekly column was always insightful, often deeply reported and usually cut against the grain of the conventional wisdom. It vacillated between nuanced takes on the news, items of cultural significance and personal anecdotes. That it was so frequently recognized for excellence was no surprise to our little newsroom, where we’d often have to temper our admiration when we lopped off a couple hundred words to fit the space.

2019 Altweekly Award, First Place Best Political Column (also Third Place, 2022) — TCB Editorial by Brian Clarey

We felt it was important to have a house editorial in every issue, taking a stand on the topics of the day. It gives us a spot to opine on the things we couldn’t report on for our news section — often state government, frequently local, always newsy — and it gives our publisher a chance to do some writing every week.

2020 Altweekly Award, Third place Investigative Reporting — United Youth Care Services and Medicaid Fraud by Jordan Green

In June 2019, Jordan Green was able to uncover a multi-tiered scam perpetrated by United Youth Care Services, among others. UYCS would seek out folks desperate for housing and offer it to them, free, along with mental healthcare, substance-abuse counseling and childcare, provided they could fail a drug test, whether they were users or not. Medicaid would foot the bill. UYCS principal Donald Booker, who also owned the drug-testing facility United Diagnostic Laboratories, was convicted in January 2023 of defrauding NC Medicaid of more than $11 million and sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison.

2020 Altweekly Award, Third Place Right-Wing Extremism Coverage — “Guns Up, Safety Off: First responders and public safety personnel joined militia Facebook group” by Jordan Green

Through extensive searching through right-wing chatrooms and social media spaces, Jordan Green was able to identify dozens of first responders, detention officers, police and enlisted military personnel who had joined the III% Security Force, a Facebook group set up by a notorious militia leader where administrators and members shared content promoting violence against Muslims, undocumented immigrants and other groups.

2022 Altweekly Award, Second Place Special Vaccine Coverage — “Why I Changed My Mind” by Sayaka Matsuoka

At the height of the pandemic, when new rifts were forming between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, this piece aimed to bridge the gap by asking people who were vaccine-hesitant why they didn’t want to get the shot. The answers surprised and enlightened us and showed readers how leading with empathy, rather than vitriol, can open up conversations.

2020-21 NC Press Award, Second Place Lighter Columns — Editor’s Notebook by Brian Clarey

When he was still managing editor, Brian Clarey created the Editor’s Notebook column as a short piece — just 350 words or so — to talk about trends in media, counterintuitive takes on the media or, sometimes, personal stuff that was weighing on his mind. In 2023 he handed the column off to new ME Sayaka Matsuoka.

2022 NC Press Award, Second Place Arts & Entertainment Reporting — “UNCSA’s Secret Temple of Film” by James Douglas

This piece by TCB’s food columnist took readers behind the scenes into one of the most treasured film archives in the country. While alluding to several masterpieces that are housed within the collection, Douglas’ piece also touched on how secretive the whole archive is. 

2022 NC Press Award, Second Place Lighter Columns — In the Weeds by James Douglas

In his monthly columns, food writer James Douglas shares the ups and downs, the ins and outs, the front and back of working in a restaurant or bar. With humor and impeccable insight he shares his own and other industry workers’ experiences of waiting on customers, drinking with regulars and kicking out the bad guys.

2022 NC Press Award, Third Place General Excellence for Websites — Sam LeBlanc

In 2021, after almost seven years of churning out stories, TCB unveiled a brand new website, designed by Sam LeBlanc, TCB’s webmaster and Managing Editor Sayaka Matsuoka’s husband. The new site, which is fast, responsive and color coordinated, took LeBlanc almost a year to create. And for that, we’re forever grateful.

2023 Altweekly Award, Second Place LGBTQ+ Coverage — “Finding wholeness: What trans-affirming care looks like in the Triad” by Autumn Karen

As the social, political and emotional landscape for trans people became more and more dangerous for people in the United States, this piece by Autumn Karen took a close-up look at what accessing trans-affirming care in the Triad looked like. In a state that once passed HB2, the anti-trans bathroom bill, TCB centered the experiences of families who were fighting to make sure their loved ones had the care they needed.