On Saturday, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the Medill School of Journalism announced the winners of the 13th annual Altweekly Awards at the association\’92s convention in Philadelphia. Birmingham Weekly\’92s \’91War on Dumb\’92 took first place for best political column in the 55,000-and-under circulation division.
\

\
The weekly column by staff writer Kyle Whitmire examines political culture in Birmingham and Alabama.
\

\
Birmingham Weekly last received a first place award in 1999 for media criticism by then-staff writer Tom Spencer. In recent years, Birmingham Weekly writers have been runners up for commentary, political commentary and arts criticism.
\

\
You can find the rest of the 2008 Altweekly Award winners here at www.aan.org.
\

\
The winning submission included three columns from 2007 \’97 two about Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford and one about Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney\’92s Alabama PAC scheme to sidestep federal campaign finance laws.
\

\
You can read the winning columns by following the links below.
\

\
Letter of our laws
\

\
Leapin\’92 Larry goes Back to the Future
\

\
The sticky, sticky truth