Boy, the Uptown paper of record really wants to win something. E&P reports that Observer editor Rick Thames has been on the warpath to make sure the Uptown paper gets credit or notice or something for its stories on the Floyd Brown case in March 2007.

Stories on roughly the same topic from July 2007 by The Denver Post are evidently among the finalists for a Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting. The dispute between the Post and the Observer is now “resolved” according to a very cryptic E&P update from yesterday.

Post editor Greg Moore is keeping whatever he did to placate Thames close to the vest:

Moore, who is on the Pulitzer board, declined to reveal the letter he sent Thames or the letter he wrote to the Pulitzer board. “Those are private responses,” he said.

Such is life in the high-powered world of prize-winning journalism. Wonder if Thames will release Moore’s letters. It is sunshine week here in North Carolina.

Bonus Observation: Rick may have relished the chance to get away from hearing complaints about his reporters not returning phone calls or emails. Evidently I’m not alone in that regard, although some scribes are much, much better than others.