Sound Publishing newspapers garnered 184 awards at the annual Better Newspapers Competition held Oct. 1-4 in conjunction with the Washington Newspaper Publishers conference in Yakima. Sound Publishing has 26 newspapers that are members of the WNPA, and 23 of them took awards in general excellence, news, photography and advertising categories.

The Mirror earned five awards. Reporter Jacinda Howard received first place in the news category for “The perils of panhandling” and second place in the weird news category with “Voting goes to the dogs — literally.” Sports editor Casey Olson won first place in the sports column category for “A life behind bars” and second place in the sports feature category with “Living in a fantasy football world.” Mirror editor Andy Hobbs won second place in black-and-white spot news photography with “Pulling down pants in public attracts police.”