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The Waco Bridge won five statewide awards at the Texas Managing Editors conference in El Paso this past weekend.
The local nonprofit news startup, supported by local funders and supported by The Texas Tribune, began publishing online in July 2025.
It competed in Class 1A, the smallest of the three categories in the competition.
Winning entries included:
- Community service, third place: Dominic Villa for “Waco Voices,” a series of multimedia profiles on unsung community heroes;
- Photojournalism, second place: Justin Hamel, for various news and feature photos;
- Specialty reporting, first place, Sam Shaw, for coverage of a proposed data center north of Lacy Lakeview;
- Star reporter of the year, first place: Sam Shaw, various in-depth news stories
- Feature writing: Sam Shaw, for long-form piece exploring the sudden deportation of Sergio Garcia, a well-known restaurateur who catered the press corps at the Crawford White House during the George W. Bush presidency.
Here are some highlights from that coverage.
