The Bonner County Daily Bee won a total of 18 awards in the Utah Idaho Spokane Associated Press Association’s annual news contest, including third place in the general excellence category.

Daily Bee staff won first-place honors for feature photo, Eric Plummer; general news photo, Eric Plummer; picture story/photo essay, Caroline Lobsinger; sports column, Eric Plummer; spot news photo, Keith Kinnaird; spot news story, Keith Kinnaird; and feature story, David Gunter. In addition, the staff received a number of second- and third-place awards in various categories.

Publisher Jim McKiernan praised the newspaper’s staff and congratulated them for the awards.

“I’m really proud of what our small staff does at this daily newspaper,” he said. “They genuinely care about the community and it shows in everything they write or shoot. I am confident the community feels lucky to have these folks telling their stories.”

Winning top honors in the general excellence division were The Salt Lake Tribune, The Lewiston Tribune in Lewiston, and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News in Moscow. Barbara Christiansen and of the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah, won the William H. Cowles III Memorial Award for public service reporting for her examination of suicide in Utah County, a project that the judges called comprehensive, powerful and informative.

Top investigative honors went to Nate Carlisle of the Salt Lake Tribune for an examination of a cement company with ties to a polygamous group.

Newspapers competed in three size divisions: for newspapers under 100,000 circulation; papers of 100,000 to 299,999 circulation; and papers over 300,000 circulation.

Here is a complete list of winners in the 2016 contest for Division 1 (Circulation Under 100,000)

GENERAL EXCELLENCE

1st — Staff, Moscow-Pullman Daily News

2nd — Staff, The Herald Journal

3rd — Bonner County Daily Bee

BEAT REPORTING

1st — Samantha Malott, Moscow-Pullman Daily News

2nd — Keith Kinnaird, Bonner County Daily Bee

3rd — Keith Kinnaird, Bonner County Daily Bee

EDITORIALS

1st —Lee Rozen, Moscow-Pullman Daily News

2nd — Devin Rokyta, Moscow-Pullman Daily News

FEATURE PHOTO

1st —Eric Plummer, Bonner County Daily Bee,” If You Saw A Heat Wave, Would You Wave Back? “

2nd —Geoff Crimmins, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, “Soccer Jump”

3rd — Eli Lucero, The Herald Journal, “Barbie Crash”

FEATURE STORY

1st —David Gunter, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Documentary chronicles treks to honor fallen soldiers”

2nd — Jeffery DeMoss, The Herald Journal, “ Graffiti and Art: A glimmer of hope “

3rd —David Gunter, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Former POW returning to Japan”

GENERAL NEWS PHOTO

1st — Eric Plummer, Bonner County Daily Bee, “ Fly me to the moon”

2nd — John Zsiray, The Herald Journal, “ Hackathon Fuel”

3rd —Caroline Lobsinger, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Ride of Silence”

GENERAL REPORTING

1st — Amy Macavinta, The Herald Journal, “Beauty and Grace: Spirited girl inspires others after dog attack “

2nd — Caroline Lobsinger, Bonner County Daily Bee, “All Aboard”

3rd —Keith Kinnaird, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Special Delivery”

GRAPHIC ARTIST — No winners.

HEADLINE WRITING — No winners.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING — No winners.

ONLINE: BREAKING NEWS — No winners.

ONLINE: GENERAL EXCELLENCE — No winners.

ONLINE: SPECIAL PACKAGE

1st — University BYU, Donovan Baltich

2nd —University BYU, Lucy Schouten

PERSONAL COLUMN

1st — Charles McCollum, The Herald Journal

2nd —Samantha Malott, Moscow-Pullman Daily News

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION ­ — No winners.

PICTURE STORY/PHOTO ESSAY

1st —Caroline Lobsinger, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Happy Birthday, America”

PORTFOLIO

1st — Geoff Crimmins, Moscow-Pullman Daily News

2nd —Eli, Lucero, The Herald Journal

PORTRAIT

1st —John Zsiray, The Herald Journal, “Frosty Sheriff”

REVIEWS ­ — No winners.

SERIES OR SPECIAL PROJECTS

1st —Staff, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, “Too Young”

2nd — Eric Plummer, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Weight Room Confidential”

3rd —Kjersten Johnson, Erica Palmer, Cassidy Hansen, Jenna Barratt, Universe (BYU), “Parliament of the World’s Religions”

SPORTS COLUMN

1st — Eric Plummer, Bonner County Daily Bee

2nd —Alex Clark, Universe (BYU)

SPORTS FEATURE

1st — Travis Mortensen, Universe (BYU), “More to coaching than money, coaches, players say”

2nd — Michael-Shawn Dugar, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, “Deary’s Anderson named Daily News Player of the Year”

3rd — Tom Hager, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, “WSU’s Taylor Taliulu completes long journey; Senior senior overcame plenty of obstacles to finish WSU career”

SPORTS FEATURE PHOTO

1st —John Zsiray, The Herald Journal, “Little Lifter”

2nd —Eli Lucero, The Herald Journal, “Cycling Fan”

3rd —Eric Plummer, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Jubilation”

SPORTS PHOTO

1st —Geoff Crimmins, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, “Idaho Soccer”

2nd — Eric Plummer, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Diving effort”

3rd — Eric Plummer, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Hit the Water”

SPOT NEWS PHOTO

1st —Keith Kinnaird, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Hoax Threatens Violence”

2nd —Geoff Crimmins, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, “Car in House”

SPOT NEWS STORY

1st — Keith Kinnaird, Bonner County Daily Bee, “Hoax Threatens Violence”

2nd —Stacie Faulk, Whitney Hales, Universe (BYU), “BYU Paris study abroad students safe after terror attack”

3rd —Allie Arnell, Universe (BYU), “Religion scholar protests BYU Honor Code”

SPOT SPORTS STORY

1st — Clayton Gefre, The Herald Journal, “’Sitting Ducks’: Heavily armed man vows to defend Logan military recruitment centers “