This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Watchdog investigative reporting.

On-point breaking news coverage.

Reporting with deep context on complicated, oftentimes emotional, issues.

Sports coverage that gets off the field and into the lives of athletes.

Stories that show why Utah is a great place to live.

Indelible photography.

A strong editorial voice.

Those qualities define The Salt Lake Tribune. It's what our reporters, photographers and editors do each day. Readers expect it.

Earlier this month, we were recognized for excelling in those areas by the Utah Press Association.

Robert Gehrke and Tom Harvey have received many accolades for their exhaustive reporting of alleged misdeeds by former Utah Attorneys General John Swallow and Mark Shurtleff. The awards keep coming, including the UPA top investigative award for their continuing coverage of the criminal charges.

Our Justice Desk team, including Jessica Miller, Michael McFall and Harvey, took top honors in spot news with its reporting on the shooting death of an alleged Tongan Crip gang member inside Salt Lake City's new federal court building.

Environment and public lands reporter Brian Maffly took the top award in general news reporting for his Sunday front page story about the fractured relationship between Utah's rural law enforcement and the top cop of the Bureau of Land Management. It is just one of many Maffly stories on the intensifying animosity between rural Utahns and the federal government over public land stewardship.

Sportswriter Kyle Goon and sports columnist Gordon Monson won awards for taking us beyond the competition. Goon profiled University of Utah receiver Kenneth Scott, whose challenges caring for his chronically ill mother shaped the athlete and adult he has become.

Monson, not known for pulling punches, wrote about the need for empathy and restraint in reacting to the misfortunes of former BYU quarterback Max Hall after his arrest in Arizona. "Don't laugh at Hall," Monson advised U. fans still angry over Hall's post-game barrage at them a few years ago. "Feel for him."

Tribune Director of Photography Jeremy Harmon won for best news photo, capturing the historic moment as Mia Love — she and her father in a tearful embrace — became the first black Republican woman to be elected to Congress. Francisco Kjolseth took best feature photo honors with an evocative shot of astronomer Patrick Wiggins, honored by NASA, at his usual nightspot: next to a huge telescope.

Designer Todd Adams won with his front page of another historic moment, this one also full of jubilation, when the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld federal Judge Robert J. Shelby's decision striking down Utah's ban on same-sex marriage.

Our outdoor specialist, Brett Prettyman, took first in feature writing for his Utah Bucket List, a series of stories on the magical places every Utahn should visit at least once.

Deputy Editor Tim Fitzpatrick, who oversees our opinion pages, was singled out for his editorial calling on Gov. Gary Herbert to make religious diversity a priority when nominating the next Utah Supreme Court justice. The governor, by the way, did just that. Judge Deno Himonas, a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, recently joined the high court as its only non-Mormon.

So far in 2015, The Tribune has been honored in national and worldwide contests as well.

Photographer Chris Detrick received a Reynolds Journalism Institute Award of Excellence in its Pictures of the Year International competition. Detrick's winning photo from the Sochi Winter Olympics captured downhill racer Tina Maze of Slovenia at the finish line after she tied for first place.

Our Sports staff traditionally has acquitted itself well in The Associated Press Sports Editors awards. This year is no different as we placed in the top 10 for Sunday sections, website, columns and explanatory reporting. Monson was singled out for his columns, and sportswriters Matthew Piper and Kyle Goon were honored for their series on NCAA reform.

Last week, the American Society of Newspaper Editors announced its awards for 2014. The eight-part series, "The Last Leg," written by Matthew D. LaPlante, was a finalist for the Deborah Howell newswriting award. This is a big honor, with entries from some of the year's most ambitious journalism. LaPlante, who left The Tribune in 2011 to join the journalism faculty at Utah State University, met the subject of the series, Bryant Jacobs, almost 10 years ago when the soldier returned home to Utah after suffering devastating injuries from an improvised explosive device in Iraq. LaPlante was covering national security and the military at the time.

Throughout much of 2014, LaPlante and Tribune photographer Scott Sommerdorf chronicled Jacobs' life as he made the momentous decision to have his mangled leg amputated in a bid to regain a measure of his former life. The series is available at http://bit.ly/1HXRwxz.

Terry Orme is The Tribune's editor and publisher. Reach him at orme@sltrib.com.