Axios Northwest Arkansas lands prizes at state awards

Your friendly neighborhood Axios reporters each placed first at Arkansas Press Association over the weekend.

The verdict: Worth Sparkman 's story on Arkansas' lithium mining industry won first place for business story in the online media category. Alex Golden 's story on how school choice policies would work in the state won first place for education story in the online media category.

Zoom out: Golden also took home the second place in the education writing section for her explainer on the LEARNS Act . Sparkman's story on the 2023 Heartland Summit bringing big names like Boris Johnson and Matthew McConaughey to the region took second place for business story.

• Sparkman also got honorable mention in general interest column for his write-up on Spudnuts as part of the "What we're eating" series and third place in single feature photo for "Woody" as seen above.
• Golden won second place in health and medical for how Arkansas is dealing with the fentanyl crisis .
• Axios Northwest Arkansas took third place for general excellence for online media.

The bottom line: Arkansas is home to journalists doing excellent work all over the state. Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to the Arkansas Press Association.