Award winner

The most prestigious awards in print journalism were announced Monday, and for just the second time a Nevada broadsheet was among the recipients.

The Las Vegas Sun was named the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for public service.

The Sun, which functions under a joint operating agreement with this newspaper, appears each day as an independent section delivered inside the Review-Journal. It was honored by the Pulitzer board for its stories last year on Strip construction deaths.

Some nine workers were killed on the Strip over a 16-month span as construction went forward on a number of projects, including CityCenter. The stories reported that the rush to build and the conditions on certain work sites led to potentially fatal safety lapses.

The judges cited the "outstanding reporting" of Alexandra Berzon, but it takes more than one person to win an award of this magnitude. No doubt a handful of Sun editors and perhaps a few other reporters and copy editors contributed to the cause.

We'd be remiss not to acknowledge that the Sun and Review-Journal have engaged in a fierce rivalry for decades, and it isn't unusual for the passions fueled by such competition to sometimes overflow onto the commentary and editorial pages of both newspapers.

But for one day, at least, we'll put all that aside and applaud this remarkable accomplishment. This award, along with a previous Pulitzer won by the Reno Gazette-Journal for editorial writing, represents a milestone in the history of Nevada newspapers. It will help improve the long-term quality of daily journalism in Las Vegas, something that will benefit this community and both publications alike.

Congratulations, Ms. Berzon. Congratulations, Las Vegas Sun. A Pulitzer is quite an achievement.