Texas Watchdog was honored with the Online Project award at the First Amendment Awards and Scholarship Dinner put on Friday in Arlington by the Fort Worth Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles and Steve Miller won the award for their work in pushing the 2009 Houston mayoral runoff candidates to make public their financial and business interests by releasing their income tax returns.

Texas Watchdog called on runoff candidates Annise Parker and Gene Locke to release their returns, as well as those of their partner and wife, respectively. Parker complied within days, while the Locke campaign waited weeks before releasing the well-connected attorney's tax returns.

Texas Watchdog then compiled financial and business information gleaned from the tax returns, as well as other public records, and created and published an interactive graphic centering on each candidate's interests going back three years. Voters now had an easy-to-use picture of the financial, social and political connections of each candidate.

See the interactive graphic on Annise Parker here.

See the interactive graphic on Gene Locke here.
 
Texas Watchdog's efforts also helped bloggers, citizen-journalists and many local journalists report on potential conflicts of interest.

Parker ultimately won the election -- the most transparent election in Houston history because of the work of Peebles and Miller.

Texas Watchdog also congratulates Emily Ramshaw of the Texas Tribune for winning an Online Project award from SPJ-Fort Worth for her work looking at mental health staffing problems in Texas immigration facilities. See part one of the series here.

We've listed a sample of Houston-based First Amendment award finalists and first-place winners below. (If we've missed anyone, give us a call. For a full list of award-winners contact SPJ-Fort Worth.)

Opening the Books category
1st place to Craig Malisow, Houston Press, for "Credit Repairs"
Finalist: Craig Malisow, Houston Press, for "Cover Me"

General News category
Finalist: Craig Malisow, Houston Press, "BARC Sucks"

Defending the Disadvantaged category
1st Place: Chris Vogel, Houston Press, "For Their Own Good"
Finalist: Mike Giglio, Houston Press, "You Want a Piece of Me?"
Finalist: Brian Sasser, Amy Davis, Jon Hill, KPRC-TV, "Adopted Animals Dying"

Reporting on Open Government category
Finalist: Amy Davis, John Barone, KPRC-TV, "Stall Tactics"

Investigative Reporting category
1st Place: Brian Sasser, Robert Arnold, Stephen Dean, KPRC-TV, "FEMA Frustrations"
Finalist: Amy Davis, Brian Sasser, Tom Barone, Jon Hill, KPRC-TV, "Corner Crusaders"

Green News category
1st Place: Chris Vogel, Houston Press, "A Quiet Hell"