No joke: The Recorder’s resident humor columnist, Justice William Bedsworth of the Fourth District Court of Appeal, brought home top honors at the California Journalism Awards earlier this month.

Bedsworth, who writes The Recorder’s ‘A Criminal Waste of Space’ monthly column, was one of only eight winners in the California News Publishers Association’s statewide ‘Best of the Best’ contest as part of the organization’s annual awards which honor the best examples of journalism in California. This year marked the first time the organization picked the top winners among first-place finishers across divisions and circulation categories for the “Best of the Best.” Also among the top winners were entries from the Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Thousand Oaks Acorn, and the Taft Midway Driller.