Wednesday, June 25, 2003 | 11:27 a.m.
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists has recognized Las Vegas Sun columnist Jeff German as one of the best in the nation.
German won second place for general interest columns among newspapers of less than 100,000 circulation. There were 95 entries in German's category.
The contest also recognized the late Washington Post columnist Michael Kelly as Columnist of the Year. Kelly was killed while covering the war in Iraq.
The annual competition also honored CBS' "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney, who also writes a column carried by 200 newspapers, for lifetime achievement.
German was a senior reporter for the Sun for 20 years before his column made its debut on the cover of the Metro section Oct. 2.
The columns that caught the judges' attention included a jailhouse interview with 84-year-old reputed mobster Sam Manarite, a diabetic with a pacemaker. Manarite was charged in a shootout at a local used-car dealership, and German gave Sun readers Manarite's explanation of how the exchange of gunfire was an accident. "With a straight face," German wrote, "Manarite said he found the loaded revolver he used in the shootout in an alley."
Other columns have provided readers with a tour of the secrets that may still lie in the late casino executive Ted Binion's house and have pilloried local officials for votes to pay for a new lighting system at the Fremont Street Experience. "What the casinos want, the casinos get," German wrote of the lights.
First place in the category went to Karin Vingle of the Sunday Gazette-Mail of Charleston, W.Va. Other winners included Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal for general interest column among papers with more than 100,000 circulation, W. Bruce Cameron of the Rocky Mountain News for humor column at papers of more than 100,000 circulation.
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