One of the best things about working in journalism is getting to learn new things nearly every day. On June 10, we had a chance to look over our work from the past year at the Illinois Press Association’s annual awards convention, and it’s incredible how many different topics we covered in 2015. From homelessness to the history of baseball in the capital city; from the state budget crisis to the state of the arts in Springfi eld; from wild horses to wild police departments – we’ve done a little of everything. In all, Illinois Times took home six fi rst-place awards at the convention, along with three secondplace spots, fi ve third-place spots and two honorable mentions. We also ranked third in cumulative points within our division of midsize papers across the state and took the top spot for general advertising excellence. We don’t do what we do for the accolades, but accolades are nice when they come.