from staff reports

JACKSON — The Natchez Democrat’s staff won nine total awards, including four first-place awards at the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press Managing Editors annual contest.

The entries in the AP contest were from newspapers from both Mississippi and Louisiana and were published in 2016. The winners were announced during a banquet in Jackson Saturday.

The Democrat competes in the small daily newspaper division for a majority of the contest categories in the AP contest.

First-place awards in the AP contest were:

• Personal columns — Kevin Cooper
• Breaking news photo — “Early morning house fire” by Ben Hillyer
• Multi-photo package —“Faces of the flood: Crosby victims return to houses” by Nicole Hester
• Sports feature photo — “Love of the game” by Nicole Hester

Second-place awards:

• Breaking news story —“Flooding forces Crosby residents to flee” by  Lindsey Shelton
• Breaking news photo — “Two men found dead in parish” by Nicole Hester
• General news photo — “Bye, bye balloons” by Ben Hillyer

Third-place awards were:

• General news story — “County votes to take down state flag” by Vershal Hogan
• Personality portrait — “I can beat you” by Nicole Hester