California woman is top religion reporter

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The Religion Newswriters Association has named Sandi Dolbee of The San Diego Union-Tribune as the 2007 Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year.

Eric Gorski was named Supple Religion Writer of the Year for his work with The Denver Post, in a Sept. 29 awards ceremony at the RNA annual meeting in Texas. Gorski is now a national religion writer with The Associated Press.

The Religion Newswriters Association is a nonprofit created in 1949 to advance professional standards of religion writing in the secular press and create a support network for religion reporters. It currently has 570 members and subscribers.

Among the other awards presented The Mobile Press Register and The Salt Lake Tribune won awards for their religion sections.

Also: • David O'Reilly of the Philadelphia Inquirer won the Templeton Story of the Year prize for a three-part series on the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

• Larissa Theodore-Dudkiewicz of the Beaver County (Pa.) Times received the Cassels Religion Reporter of the Year honor for newspapers with circulation of 50,000 or less.

• G. Jeffrey McDonald of The Christian Science Monitor received the Cornell Award for top religion writing at a mid-sized newspaper.

• Tina Shah of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism was named best student religion reporter.

• Maria Arita of CBS II in Dallas/Fort Worth won for her TV segment "Orbs of Light," and the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer was honored for a segment reflecting on the Sept. 11 attacks.

• Rachael Martin of National Public Radio was honored for a report on Latina women converting to Islam.