TUNICA – The DAILY LEADER news staff captured 13 awards,including four first-place honors, Saturday during the MississippiPress Association’s Editorial Division Better Newspaper Contest for2009.

Staff Writer Therese Apel received two first-place awards, one inthe Spot News Story category for a story on a Wesson shootingsuspect’s capture and another for Spot News Photograph of an Aprilhouse fire on Fern Lane. Sports Editor Tom Goetz won first place inthe Sports Feature category for a story on the American Legion ballfield, and Managing Editor Matthew Coleman and Graphics ArtistJason Reeves shared a first-place award for Best Graphic for one ontraveling nurses.

Second-place awards went to Apel for Spot News, Goetz for SportsColumns, Reeves for Best Graphic, Coleman for Opinion Page andformer Staff Writer Scott Tynes for Feature Story.

FOCUS captured a third-place honor in the Best Special Sectioncategory. Also, Apel received a third-place award in the FeatureStory category and Goetz got a third-place honor for Sport Page orSection.

An honorable mention went to Apel in the Picture-Story Combinationcategory.

The DAILY LEADER competed in the Daily Division C category, fornewspapers with circulations under 9,000. The MPA awards werepresented during the Tri-State Convention with press associationsfrom Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.