The City Paper and the Butler Eagle swooped in to snatch victory for several press awards at The Associated Press Awards, including finalists at the Golden Quill and two honorable mentions in the Keystone Press Awards.

“We are very proud of our staff of writers at the Eagle and the Pittsburgh City Papers,” said Ron Vodenichar, the Eagle’s publisher. “They have to be judged in very competitive categories and against much larger news operations. Our people are very diligent and take their roles as news people very seriously. I can only say well done, well done indeed.”

The highest awards the Butler Eagle got came from Associated Press; two stories received second place. The second place for Best General News Reporting went to J.W. Johnson for his story,

“A Crisis of Their Own: VFD, EMS Lack Funding, Report Says.” The judges wrote “A good primer on what is happening to Pennsylvania’s volunteer fire departments and why they are losing volunteers.” The other second place winner went to Tanner Cole and Caleb Harshberger in Best Spot News Coverage for their story

“6 Hurt in Mars School Bus Crash.”The judges commended Cole and Harshberger and said, “Great job being on the scene.”For the Keystone Press Awards two Butler Eagle stories gained an honorable mention — Paula Grubbs’ story “

Workforce goes to war: Local man wants to return pictures of veterans who worked at Armco during World War II” and Caleb Harshberger’s story

“Landfill profitability harvests natural gas, Seneca facility receives award for its effort.” Both showed the reporters’ working understanding of the English language.Finally, the alternative-weekly City Paper, the Eagle’s sister paper, raked in awards and several finalists at the Golden Quill.Jared Wickerham won the Craft Achievement Photo Essay award and the Ed Romano Memorial Award with

“Pirates Polaroids.” And Tereneh Idia’s

“Voices” Column won Excellence in Written Journalism, Daily — Columns/Blogs. And coming in as a finalist in the same category was Jassie Sage’s

“Peepshow: A Sex and Social Justice Column.” The other finalists include City Paper writer Ryan Deto’s

“Is the Pittsburgh Airport Building up a Flight Bubble?” for Excellence in Written Journalism, Daily — Business/Technology/Consumer. Another finalist was Jordan Snowden’s

“What Was It About Mac Miller That Connected With Pittsburghers?”And the Eagle’s Nathan Bottiger was a finalist in the tradition feature writing category with his story “

Two Students Bring Friend Back to Life.”“I couldn’t be prouder of Jared Wickerham, Tereneh Idia, and the entire Pittsburgh City Paper team on producing amazing work week after week,” said Lisa Cunningham, the paper’s editor in chief. “It was an honor to be nominated, and awarded, against so many incredible journalists in the city.