Ex-BJ staffer named Indiana Journalist of Year

John Russell with stack of documents used to document case

The Society of Professional Journalists has named John Russell, a former Beacon Journal business reporter, as the Indiana Journalist of the Year.

Russell, who worked at the Beacon Journal in 1997-2005, is now at the Indianapolis Star where he was able to identify an all-too-cozy relationship between Duke Energy officials engaged in a multi-billion dollar coal gasification plant in Edwardsport and the state officials charged with oversight of the project.

The story began when an editor received a Citizens Action Coalition news release decrying Duke's hiring of Scott Storms, an administrative law judge and general counsel at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. The editor told Russell, whose regular beat had nothing to do with utilities, that the story merited a little digging.

Twenty-three open-records requests later, with enough damning email to make even the most jaded and duplicitous executive blush, The Star was able to print what Russell calls "my favorite headline in 26 years of journalism — 'Scandal Topples Duke Executive.' "

The probe resulted in other firings and reassignments at Duke and within state government.

The story's not over yet. The Edwardsport project continues and Duke would like to bill consumers for its more than $1 billion in cost overruns. Russell is still on the case.