When it comes to humor columnists, the Bay Area has a couple of the best. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists handed out their awards in Detroit on June 8, and in the category of newspapers under 50,000 circulation, Steve Symanovich, editor of the San Francisco Business Times, got the first-place award. Second-place went to John Philipp, columnist for Sausalito Marinscope.

There was third winner from the Bay Area, too, though not for humor. In the general interest category, Stanford’s Joel Brinkley (syndicated by Tribune Media Services) received a second-place award.