The Covington News won the “story of the year” and 13 other awards in its newspaper size category in the Georgia Associated Press Media Editors 2013 newspaper competition.

Gabriel Khouli’s report, “Officials under fire for excessive spending,’’ which examined lavish spending by Social Circle officials during training trips, was the top story winner. The story also won first place in AP’s Freedom of Information award category.

Other first-place awards to The Covington News included: non-deadline reporting for Amber Pittman’s story, “Prostitution problem”; editorial writing for “Action, leadership needed to address complex problems”; beat reporting for Amber Pittman’s coverage of crime and courts; graphics and illustrations for “Newton County Theme School Report Card,’’ by Rachel Goff; and spot news photo, “Covington woman shot to death,’’ by Josh Briggs.

The News also won second-place awards in deadline reporting for “Newton lands major industry,” by Gabriel Khouli; sports reporting for “83 years, 30 races, 1 man,” by Bryan Fazio; business reporting for “Hundreds could save on flood insurance,’’ by Gabriel Khouli; editorial writing for “In the Dark”; graphics and illustrations, for “A Means to No End,’’ by Josh Briggs; and spot news photo, “Storage fire proves challenging,’’ by Gabriel Khouli.

“We are proud of these results, which reflect our commitment to providing comprehensive coverage of Newton County and its citizens,’’ said Jan Phillips, Covington News editor.

Entries were judged by newspaper editors from the state of Michigan.

The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative representing 1,500 newspapers and 5,000 broadcast stations in the United States.