Permit me a moment of personal pride:

Our small but mighty Indy team won a passel of awards this weekend at the Nevada Press Association convention, including six (!) first-places. Those were:

• Naoka Foreman for Coverage of Underserved Communities
• Jacob Solis, Sean Golonka and Tabitha Mueller for Best Email Newsletter
• Tabitha Mueller for Health Reporting
• Carly Sauvageau for Profile Reporting
• Howard Stutz and Tabitha Mueller for Best Sports Spot Story
• Tim Lenard and Joey Lovato for Video of the Year

We also took home many other awards:

• Jacob, Naoka and Jannelle Calderon took second for Breaking News Reporting
• Gabby Birenbaum took second for Email Newsletter
• Howard and Jacob took second for Gaming/Tourism Reporting
• David Colborne took second for Local Column
• Jacob and Rocio Hernandez took second for Political-Government Enterprise Reporting
• The Indy took second for General Online Excellence
• Amy Alonzo took third for Environment Spot News Story
• Gabby took third place for Explanatory Journalism
• Gabby took third for Health Reporting
• Gabby took third for Political-Government Enterprise Reporting
• Carly took third for Profile Reporting
• Howard took third for Sports Feature Writing
• Gabby took third for Journalist of Merit
• The staff took third for Video/Audio Journalism

What I love about these awards is they show the range and versatility of The Indy. We won first places for our coverage of the Legislature, for a profile of a tribal leader, for a deep dive into the Windsor Park controversy, for a video on a story no one else covered, for our breaking news on the Oakland Athletics and for a deep piece on medical aid in dying.

Those of us in journalism for the right reasons don’t really care about awards, but no one will deny that it’s nice to get them. I am proud of all of these staffers and former staffers, but I am proud of all The Indy journalists who produce great content. I am so lucky to work with them.

I also want to congratulate the winners at other Nevada news organizations. Great journalism is occurring in this state.

Onward!