Santa Fe Reporter staff writer Maria Luisa Tucker won first place in the investigative reporting category last weekend in the New Mexico Press Association’s 2002 Better Newspaper Contest, known as the E. H. Shaffer Awards.

SFR competes in the Weekly 1 division against all weekly papers in the state of New Mexico with a circulation of more than 3,000.

Tucker’s award-winning piece, “Sophie’s Tale” uncovered the lax regulation of dog groomers and boarders in Santa Fe, NM, which led to the death of several dogs. Tucker also won a second-place award in the in-depth reporting category for stories she wrote on public records law and law enforcement, as well as the arrest and subsequent suicide of a Santa Fe man who downloaded child pornography.

SFR columnist Jerry Ortiz y Pino also won first place in the column-writing category for his monthly “Notary Public” column.