timeless columns
Another admirable ‘Illegal alien’ — The Arizona Daily Star, September 1982
Poor people line up for free cheese — The Arizona Daily Star, January 1983
The cruelty and vanity of ‘harvesting’ bobcats — The Arizona Daily Star, January 1983
Jimmy James Caballero, the quiet one — The Arizona Daily Star, April 1983
An admirable homeless man — The Arizona Daily Star, August 1983
An admirable homeless man, part 2 — The Arizona Daily Star, September 1983
Another murdered girl found in the desert — The Arizona Daily Star, April 1985
Trying not to trip over my own feet — The Arizona Daily Star, 1985
Eccentric New Yorkers dance in the desert — New Times (Phoenix), September 1986
Zane Grey, the allegedly great author, was a jerk — New Times (Phoenix), November 1987
Now I’m a wandering buffalo — Bozeman Daily Chronicle, March 2000
journalism awards
* Investigative Reporters & Editors (Distinguished Investigative Reporting Scroll) in 1982 for an undercover investigation of Arizona’s prison system. As part of a team project by The Arizona Daily Star, Ray posed as a convict for 10 days in maximum security and was roughed up by the Aryan Brotherhood gang. The prison investigation was also honored by an American Bar Association Gavel Award, and the Arizona Press Club’s Don Bolles award for investigative journalism.
* Arizona Journalist of the Year in 1984, awarded by the Arizona Press Club, for “Taming the Forests,” a detailed analysis of 80 years of mismanagement of national forests in Arizona, published in The Arizona Daily Star.
* National awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists in three years — 2003, 2004 and 2005 — each year, a third place in a category (either beat reporting or explanatory journalism) that included large national news operations such as The New York Times and National Geographic. These awards recognized 10 High Country News story packages Ray wrote on topics around the West and nationwide — including the politics of trying to manage wild wolves, and the environmental movement’s longtime preference for saving nature while giving less attention to people suffering impacts of pollution.
* George Polk Award for political reporting in 2006, for “Taking Liberties,” an investigation of a stealthy libertarian campaign pushing anti-regulation ballot measures in six Western states. The investigation, published in High Country News, was instrumental in the defeat — in elections or courtrooms — of most of the ballot measures.
* Sidney Hillman Foundation Award for social justice journalism in 2008, for “Death in the Energy Fields,” a 2007 investigation of worker safety and fatalities in the oil and gas industry in seven Western states, published in High Country News. The investigative project had a different headline on the magazine’s website: “Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields.”
* Mental Health America national journalism award in 2009, for “My Crazy Brother,” Ray’s 2008 remembrance of his older brother’s struggle with schizophrenia and ultimate suicide, published in High Country News. Ray made a brief YouTube video about the essay, and the video was played at the award ceremony.
magazine stories
“Wolf at the door: Now that the West’s top predator has reached civilization’s back porch, managers face some agonizing decision” — High Country News 2002
“How conservation works south of the border”– High Country News 2012
“Ecosystems 101: Hard lessons from the mighty salmon runs of Alaska’s Bristol Bay” — High Country News 2013
“Border out of control: National security runs roughshod over the Arizona wild” — High Country News 2014
Copyright @ 2023, Raymond H. Ring, all rights reserved.