From the release:

Today, the Atlantic Media Company named journalists from Army Times, The Nation, Salt Lake Tribune, and USA Today as the four finalists for this year's installment of the company's Michael Kelly Award. The winner of the $25,000 prize will be announced at a May 8 ceremony in Washington, DC.

The Michael Kelly Award was created by Atlantic Media Company Chairman David G. Bradley after Kelly's death while covering the war in Iraq in 2003. Kelly had been editor of two Atlantic Media publications, The Atlantic and National Journal. The Michael Kelly Award is bestowed annually upon a journalist whose work exemplifies the fearless pursuit and expression of truth that animated Kelly's own career.

The finalists were selected from a total of 52 entries from journalists at U.S.-based newspapers and magazines for work published in 2007.

This year's finalists are:

• Kelly Kennedy, Army Times -- for a series on an infantry regiment in Iraq hit hard by casualties.

• Joshua Kors, The Nation -- for stories on the misdiagnosis of injured soldiers returning from Iraq.

• Blake Morrison, Peter Eisler, and Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today -- for stories on the Pentagon's failure to respond to the problem of roadside bombs in Iraq.

• Loretta Tofani, Salt Lake Tribune -- for a series on unsafe working conditions in China.

  Five judges comprised this year's Michael Kelly Award selection panel: Peter Beinart, senior fellow, the Council on Foreign Relations; Nick Gillespie, editor of reason.tv and reason.com; Charles Green, editor, National Journal; Ruth Marcus, editorial writer and columnist, The Washington Post; and Cullen Murphy, editor-at-large, Vanity Fair.

  Past winners of the award include C.J. Chivers, Esquire; Sharon LaFraniere, The New York Times; Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times; and Anthony Shadid, The Washington Post.