What a great week – first the News Service was honored with two first-place SPJ awards, then we learned that Kristen Joy Watts and Collin Orcutt were named to the UWIRE100 list of the top collegiate journalists in the country. Here are some more examples of the kind of fine work that is getting our reporters much-deserved recognition:

• Congratulations to Prof. Trudy Lieberman on the latest edition of the “Talking Health” webcast, which aired live from our TV studio Friday afternoon. The show was produced by Prof. Scotti Williston, with the help of a J-School team that included: Heather Chin, Sophie Cocke, Indrani Datta, Jeanmarie Evelly, Meital Fried, Alex Green IV, Michael Montiel, Rachel Senatore and Lia Wallon.
• Tim Persinko contributed to this front-page Daily News story about the Swine Flu. Sergey Kadinsky shared a byline on this News piece about the proposed tax on plastic bags. Ben Fractenberg reported on a police car accident.
• Jim Flood, working for The Local, went through a rite of passage for any New York reporter: covering a story involving the giant inflated rat. Damiano Beltrami, meanwhile, helped pull together this blog post by a local pastor.
• In our Alumni Corner, Linnea Covington got some major real estate in the Daily News’ Real Estate section with her first-person piece about living in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming!

Tags: Alex Green IV, Ben Fractenberg, Collin Orcutt, Damiano Beltrami, Heather Chin, Indrani Datta, Jeanmarie Evelly, Jim Flood, Kristen Joy Watts, Lia Wallon, Linnea Covington, Meital Fried, Michael Montiel, Rachel Senatore, Scotti Williston, Sergey Kadinsky, Sophie Cocke, Tim Persinko, Trudy Lieberman