SHAMOKIN - The News-Item's Mike Staugaitis won second place in the News Photo category in this year's Pennsylvania Newspaper Association (PNA) Foundation Keystone Press Awards.
Staugaitis' winning photo featured a smiling Michael Harrell, a homicide defendant, as he was being led out of the Northumberland County Courthouse on Nov. 19 after having been found guilty on all counts.
Staugaitis, of Shamokin, has been a staff photographer, writer and copy editor with The News-Item since 2000. This was his second consecutive Keystone; he won first place for News Photo in 2010 for his shot of a teenage girl being comforted by her father on the front porch of a home while her flipped car sat nearby in the lawn.
The News-Item competes in Division IV (daily and Sunday newspapers under 20,000 circulation) in the annual contest, which involves stories, photos, headlines, graphics and other material published in the previous calendar year.
Awards will be presented at a dinner that wraps up PNA's annual two-day conference, set this year for May 20 and 21 in State College.