2013 Editorial Awards

Dr. Julio Diaz sees a patient at his office. In January of 2012 the Santa Barbara doctor, linked by authorities to a dozen drug-related deaths in recent years, was arrested by DEA agents on federal drug trafficking charges.   (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

“It wasn’t like we partied together,” Leslie Greenberg said about her past medication use with her late boyfriend. “It wasn’t like we said, ‘Hey, let’s do drugs.’ It’s just - you get up in the morning, you take your pill, just go on with the day. When you felt like you were coming down from it and you felt kind of icky, you take another one.” Although at times a struggle, Greenberg continues to work on her recovery and has been for approximately the last 7 years.   (LIZ O. BAYLEN / Los Angeles Times)

Sherrie Rubin and her husband Michael take care of their son Aaron, now 30. One of four children, Aaron was socially active, a football player and a partier. He overdosed on prescription medication including OxyContin according to his mother and life has never been the same for them.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

The space shuttle Endeavor passes the Hollywood sign (as seen from the US Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles) as the retired space shuttle makes the rounds of the Los Angeles and Orange County areas before landing at LAX.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

People on a roof watch as the nose of the space shuttle Endeavor approaches them on W. Manchester Avenue.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

The space shuttle Endeavor travels along Manchester, near Olive.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Amir Morris, 3, from Inglewood, is properly attired in space gear as the space shuttle Endeavor heads eastbound on Manchester Blvd. heading towards its next stop, the Forum.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Laying prostrate across the rails, Luis Luna, 19, nervously tries to figure out how to crawl up into the undercarriage of the freight car. He’s done it before but he has only seconds before the U.S.¿bound auto carrier train starts moving again.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Luis Rodriguez stops to watch northbound traffic at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Tijuana. The former South L.A. resident, originally from El Salvador, continued walking to the port of entry where he asked U.S. authorities for asylum.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Luis Martinez, 15, holds his little sister Amor Patino during a visit to the river wash where they and their grandmother ended their nearly 2¿day walk with smugglers who guided them to Nogales, Arizona.   (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Mario Ramos, 45, poses in the pantry that he once oversaw when he was chief cook at the Hotel of the Deported Migrant in Mexicali, Mexico.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)