J.W. August is the managing editor at KGTV in San Diego, an ABC affiliate.  He has oversight of 10News investigative and special projects teams as well as the assignment desk for daily news coverage.  August is on the board of the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and Californians Aware (CalAware), and serves as vice president of the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, a non-profit active in exposing trafficking of children across international borders.    

August is the 2005 recipient of the National Society of Professional Journalists “Sunshine Award” for his efforts advocating for open government and the First Amendment.  J.W. has also been honored with national, regional and local awards for investigative and community service reporting on a wide range of issues, including the environment, the energy industry, white collar crime and political malfeasance.

August received his bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State in 1981.

CalAware Weekly

SACRAMENTO, February 24 (CalAware) – The governing board of Californians Aware elected J.W. August, a veteran broadcast journalist, as the group’s second president today.

August, managing editor of KGTV 10News in San Diego, succeeds Richard P. McKee, a Pasadena City College chemistry professor with a second career as champion and litigator for open government, who will remain on the board.

Also elected were, as vice president, Kathryn Dresslar, chief of staff for Senator Darryl Steinberg, Sacramento; and as secretary-treasurer, Dennis Winston, a partner with Moskowitz, Brestoff, Winston & Blinderman, Los Angeles.

A founding member of CalAWARE’s board and one of its three journalist directors, August has 10NEWS authority over assignments for daily news coverage plus investigative and special projects. He has worked his way up the TV news ranks from reporter to assignment editor to his current top job.

During his career he has won several awards for outstanding broadcast journalism including the San Diego Press Club’s highest honor, the Harold Keen Award, which he received in 2006. In 2005 he was the recipient of the National Society of Professional Journalists major award for his work advocating for open government and the First Amendment.

August has reported on a wide range of investigative issues including the environment, the energy industry, white collar crimes and political corruption. A San Diego native, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University in 1981.

Last year August coordinated statewide television news participation in CalAware’s audit of public records practices in local law enforcement agencies as well as directing his own station’s part of the project.

McKee, who became CalAware’s first president three years ago after a stint as the first non-journalist president of the California First Amendment Coalition, is an unrivaled advocate for governmental transparency.

While not a lawyer, he has represented himself and in doing so litigated more open government cases enforcing the open government laws than anyone else in the state—winning the last seven out of nine such actions along the way.

Overall, he says, “I have been a party in 19 First Amendment / open government cases that have been completed, plus two more in progress (Orange Unified II and Orange County Board of Supervisors). Three out of five where I partnered with the L.A. Times I would have to say were really a draw. But one of those with the Times was really great, LA Times v. LA County Board of Supervisors (2003) 112 Cal.App.4th 1313. And I lost the first two against the city of Glendora. So I characterize my record as 14-2-3, with 2 pending.”

His most groundbreaking case, McKee v. Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, established that meetings of the board governing a little-known network of local law enforcement agencies, formed for mutual aid in combating drug crime, were open to the public under the Brown Act.

Another signal victory in the Court of Appeal is McKee v. Orange Unified School District (Orange Unified i), which holds that any person—not just residents of a local agency—may file suit to force the agency’s governing board to comply with the open meeting law.

As a sign that his aggressive fostering of open government will continue, McKee just this week filed suit under the Brown Act against the Orange County Board of Supervisor