The good news out of today's Association of Alternative Newsweeklies awards in Philadelphia is that Jeffrey Anderson won top honors for investigative pieces in the LA Weekly and Andrew Gumbel won for political columns in CityBeat. The bad news is that neither writer has a forum any more in Los Angeles. Anderson, now at the Baltimore City Paper, won first place in investigative reporting for his stories on Cudahy, Bell Gardens and the corruption rampant in the southeast cities of Los Angeles County. Anderson also picked up a second place in the news category and an honorable mention for stories he has done in Baltimore. Gumbel, another of the recent refugees from CityBeat, won the best political column prize for his American Babylon pieces. Others to note:

• LA Weekly's Nikki Finke won first prize in the blog category for Deadline Hollywood Daily and in media reporting/criticism for pieces in the paper.
• Nick Welsh at the Santa Barbara Independent won the media reporting/criticism award for small papers for his gutsy coverage of litigious wacko Wendy McCaw.
• Gustavo Arellano won first place in columns for ¡Ask a Mexican!. He also emceed the awards luncheon.
• Phoenix New Times won first prize in public service and R. Scott Moxley's coverage of OC Sheriff Mike Carona in the OC Weekly won second. Notably, the Bay Guardian's reporting on New Times' MediaNews' business practices in San Francisco won third place in public service.
• LA Weekly's 2007 People won a second in special sections, in spite of me being one of the people.
• AAN made its visual winners viewable on Flickr.

Winners and finalists