Seattle Weekly and its staff members and friends were recognized with 15 awards at the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual Excellence in Journalism competition this weekend.SW claimed eight first place awards against several other alternative newsweeklies in the region, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Here’s a breakdown of the awards:Investigative:1st place, Rick Anderson, “Cracking the lavender code”2nd place, Rick Anderson, “Smoke on the mountain”Government:1st place, Aimee Curl, “Knight moves”Science and Health:1st place, Karla Starr, “Leveled”Social Issues:2nd place, Nina Shapiro, “Begging for pardon”Education:1st place, Huan Hsu, “Blame it on Becca”2nd place, Nina Shapiro, “The color of money”Lifestyle:1st place, Michael A. Stusser, “Organicize me”3rd place, Jonathan Kauffman, “Teriyaki’s boss”Personalities:2nd place, Mike Seely, “The Salvage Artist”Business:1st place, Sarah Stuteville and Alex Stonehill, “Bitter harvest”Sports:1st place, Huan Hsu, “Designing women”2nd place, Rafe Bartholomew, “Crossover to bear”Humor:3rd place, Brian Miller, “The SW treatment”Special Section:1st place, SW staff, “2007 dining guide: Functional feeding”