A laurel and a hardy handshake. To us, that is. In the recent Nevada Press Association contest, the Weekly picked up 12 awards, four of them first-places in key categories: feature writing (Stacy J. Willis, for her piece on a homeless woman fixated on Barry Manilow); news feature (former staff writer Joshua Longobardy, for a cover story about Henderson cops); explanatory journalism (Willis, again, for her story about the Hoover Dam bypass); and cover design. Other Weekly winners: Willis, third place, Best News Feature; Richard Abowitz, second place, Best Feature; freelancer Tovin Lapan, third place, Best Business Feature; freelancer Jerry Miller, second and third place, Best Illustration; Josh Bell, honorable mention, Best Critical Writing. The Weekly also placed second in General Excellence, behind our sister publication, the Henderson Home News.

Elsewhere in Category 5, the contest stratum in which the Weekly competes, props to our crosstown rivals, CityLife, for pulling in 34 awards (including Best Black-and-White Ad and Best Spot-Color Ad), and to the Reno News & Review, which got 28. Full results can be found at nevadapress.com.