secured exclusive access to a nationwide raid by the Drug Enforcement Administration targeting a Mexican drug cartel, resulting in top-notch video and remarkable images at the scene east of Los Angeles, and at the DEA command center in Virginia.https://bit.ly/393d4Mohttps://bit.ly/2xdMrqT
In a gripping exclusive that reads like the plot of a Hollywood film, Latin America correspondent Josh Goodman revealed the failed plot to oust Venezuelan President NicolĂĄs Maduro by a ragtag group of 300 volunteers led by a former U.S. Green Beret. The ill-conceived plan called for the group to invade Venezuela from Colombia and ignite a popular rebellion that would end in Maduroâs arrest.
The plot was uncovered and dismantled with barely a whisper, but a cryptic tip to the well-sourced Goodman planted the seed of the story. Over the next several months he reviewed documents and interviewed more than 30 Maduro opponents and aspiring freedom fighters with knowledge of the plot, piecing together the narrative with a strong assist from investigative researcher Randy Herschaft.
Goodmanâs story broke and reaction was strong: International media struggled to catch up and authorities in the U.S. and Colombia launched investigations. Senate Democrats have sent a letter to the Trump administration demanding answers.
For his impressive scoop on the failed coup that has been dubbed âThe Bay of Piglets,â Goodman and Herschaft win APâs Best of the Week award.
When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced heâd sent a letter leaning on Gunnison County, Colorado, to end an order expelling non-residents during the pandemic, APâs Paul Weber immediately wondered: Why was the top law enforcement official in Texas picking a fight with a remote county two states away in the middle of the crisis? And did Paxton have donors there?
Weber and colleague Jake Bleiberg started combing campaign finance and property records, quickly finding that some of Paxtonâs biggest donors have homes in the wealthy mountain resort town of Crested Butte, Colorado.
Persistent reporting and extensive public records work revealed that Paxtonâs push against the Gunnison health order stood to benefit an exclusive group of Texans, including campaign donors who gave the attorney general a total of nearly $2 million. AP Texas members jumped on the story, using it in print and online.
For alertly connecting the dots between a puzzling press release and a conflict of interest in the attorney general's office, Weber and Bleiberg earn this weekâs Best of the States award.
With coronavirus infection and death rates mounting, hospitals in the New York City area imposed strict guidelines allowing only a small handful of media outlets limited access. After weeks of reaching out to hospitals, St. Josephâs in Yonkers agreed to give the AP access to its emergency room and screening tent.
But only one journalist would be allowed into the hospital. Versatile New York staff photographer John Minchillo was an easy choice.
Once inside in full protective gear, Minchillo connected with the hospital staff, who also granted access to the intensive care unit. He made the most of the next four hours, working in all formats to capture the mundane and the extreme, including the dramatic moments when a COVID-19 patient in cardiac arrest was saved. Turned around virtually overnight, Minchilloâs all-formats package was heavily played by major media outlets.
For his powerful, comprehensive all-formats storytelling that takes us inside medical workersâ daily fight save lives against the coronavirus, John Minchillo wins APâs Best of States Award.
A scathing letter sent in early April by doctors in Italyâs Lombardy region provided the first tangible inkling that something had gone terribly wrong in its fight against the coronavirus.
With Lombardy accounting for roughly half of Italyâs 27,000 deaths, chief Rome correspondent Nicole Winfield set out to document how the virus overwhelmed a medical system long considered one of Europeâs best.
Over the next three weeks, Winfield methodically collected details, conducted interviews, pored over government reports and briefings, and referenced APâs vast reporting on the pandemic to craft the first explanatory account of the missteps and failures that allowed the virus to become so pervasive in northern Italy.
Winfieldâs story quickly became one of the most-read on the AP News and was picked up by outlets globally.
For crafting a thorough, compelling and heartbreaking account of how COVID-19 got a pervasive, deadly grip on Lombardy, Winfield wins APâs Best of the Week honors.
With African American and Hispanic communities in the Houston region already suffering higher rates of asthma and other diseases than the nation at large, APâs Ellen Knickmeyer decided to focus on the area for a story on ordinary Americans living through the Trump administrationâs public health and environmental rollbacks.
The administration was cutting back on rules limiting and monitoring harmful industrial pollutants, slashing enforcement and weakening an industrial-disaster rule.
Knickmeyer, a Washington-based environmental issues reporter, spent months searching out Houston residents, telling their stories along with deep reporting on the regulatory actions and their consequences.
Former EPA Director Gina McCarthy was among many retweeting the story, calling it a âmust readâ article.
For a rich, insightful look at the consequences of the Trump administrationâs regulatory rollbacks on vulnerable communities, Knickmeyer wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
examined weeks of federal procurement records, including a thorough review of federal purchasing contracts, to create a detailed timeline of events related to the spread of COVID-19 and the Trump administrationâs response to the outbreak. The records show that the U.S. wasted two months when it could have been preparing to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Federal agencies largely waited until mid-March â when hospitals in several states were already treating thousands of infected patients â to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.
When AP White House reporter Kevin Freking attempted to ask Trump about the issue at Sundayâs briefing, the president angrily cut off the question, helping drive readers to Bieseckerâs story, which was widely shared on social media.https://bit.ly/3aVhmavhttps://bit.ly/3aZdLby
conducted extensive research and reporting on the high stakes of a near-final Trump administration plan to scrap criminal enforcement of the century-old Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which former top wildlife officials fear will devastate American bird populations already in extreme decline. A former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service warned that without criminal penalties billions of wild birds could be killed in coming decades. The piece, well-illustrated with staff and member photos, received wide play. https://bit.ly/3e3Tp2T
were out front with widespread coverage as many national parks insisted on remaining open during the COVID-19 pandemic, triggering health concerns in neighboring towns. Seattle photographer Ted Warren showed visitors enjoying Mount Rainier National Park, and while some parks closed, others remained open with entrance fees waived by the Trump administration and promised federal guidelines still in limbo.https://bit.ly/2UCB1Xbhttps://bit.ly/2xFR3qa
When reporters Justin Pritchard and Reese Dunklin were asked to look into price gouging and profiteering off the coronavirus crisis, they sought to go deeper by employing a key part of their investigative reporting toolkit: a systematic reporting strategy.
The pair quickly executed a plan to question attorneys general in all 50 states, resulting in the most comprehensive look yet at the problem across the nation. In just two days of reporting, Pritchard and Dunklin uncovered more than 5,000 reports of everything from price gouging on toilet paper and masks, to scams offering tests and even cures for the illness.
Their brightly written story won strong play on a busy day of coronavirus news, hitting the wire hours before Attorney General William Barr announced new actions against such crimes.
For fast, aggressive work that tapped into a topic on the publicâs mind, AP recognizes Pritchard and Dunklin with this weekâs Best of the States award.
for bringing new attention to a growing humanitarian crisis with a pair of powerful, complementary stories on the bleak conditions facing migrants forced to wait at the U.S.-Mexico border under Trump administration policies. Verza reported that drug cartels and gangs are profiting from the policy by robbing and extorting the migrants, while Merchant revealed the dire medical conditions at a migrant camp just feet from U.S. soil.https://bit.ly/2s0z5M8https://bit.ly/2XFDxvB
New York-based health and science reporter Mike Stobbe and Rome video journalist Trisha Thomas delivered two very different exclusives that stood out amid the weekâs impressive range of AP coronavirus coverage.
Stobbe was the first to report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wanted to tell a wide swath of Americans that they shouldnât get on commercial flights because of the virus. But the agency was overruled by the White House. Instead, federal officials settled on softer, less direct language. Realizing the significance, Stobbe pressed multiple sources until he had confirmation of the White House action.
Meanwhile, continents away, Rome visual journalist Trisha Thomas was visiting Padua when she learned the Italian city was about to be locked down. After making frantic arrangements to leave by train, she turned her personal odyssey into a cross-format package, producing a first-person essay and video story that gave a human face to Italyâs virus emergency.https://bit.ly/2TUgQCohttps://bit.ly/2W6dxL8
for a story of national interest about President Donald Trumpâs administration, reported not from Washington but from the nationâs heartland. After the president released his latest budget proposal, Lieb revealed that Trump has failed to deliver on his promise of a $1 trillion infrastructure spending plan. He has so far been unable to persuade Congress to pass anything like that, even when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress. https://bit.ly/2T38OrE
for first reporting unsealed documents that raised questions about the Trump administrationâs reasoning for forcing asylum seekers to remain in Mexico. Spagat closely watched the court file and prodded an official once a deadline had passed, breaking the news that holding cells at most U.S. facilities were no more than half full â and some were completely empty â during an unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking families from Central America. The Trump administration claimed that people had to wait in Mexico because it didnât have the means to accommodate them. https://bit.ly/39PkhAM
After its shocking Jan. 25 report on the locust swarms devastating agriculture in Kenya, APâs Nairobi team came through with another truly striking package on the worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years. This time, Nairobi staffers Ben Curtis and Josphat Kasire obtained exclusive coverage of the next wave of young locusts now bulking up in Somaliaâs desert.
The story posed multiple challenges, not the least of which was the very real threat of al-Shabab extremists in the area. And the young insects were relentless. âIf you put anything down on the ground for a minute, youâd find a bunch of bugs crawling over it,â Curtis recounted.
Despite the obstacles, the team produced stunning images and vivid reporting from the source of the widespread outbreak, proof that the regionâs infestation was far from over.
For resourceful and determined work that resulted in an only-on-AP direct look at the ravages of a veritable Biblical plague of locusts, Kasire and Curtis win APâs Best of the Week award.
Led by reporters Amy Taxin and Deepti Hajela, the AP harnessed its vast geographic reach and expertise on the topic of immigration to deliver a striking, all-formats examination of the nationâs beleaguered immigration court system.
AP journalists fanned out to courtrooms across the U.S. to vividly illustrate chaos in the nationâs immigration courts, plagued by a 1 million case backlog.
The reporting uncovered personal stories of immigrants entangled in the system, including an in-depth package from rural Georgia by reporter Kate Brumback and photographer David Goldman, and video by producer Noreen Nasir.
For a revealing look at a legal system struggling to cope with the influx of immigrants, and families caught up in the grinding legal process, Taxin, Hajela, Brumback, Goldman and Nasir share APâs Best of the Week honors.
On the edge of America, the U.S. Census started in a tiny Alaska town on the Bering Sea. Toksook Bay, population 661, is only reachable by plane, and isnât an easy place to live, much less report. The temperatures hover around zero, and daylight is scarce this time of year.
After months of planning, Alaska news editor Mark Thiessen and San Diego photographer Greg Bull spent four days in the remote community, getting rare access to day-to-day life and an interview with the person who would be the first counted, 90-year-old Lizzie Chimiugak.
And when the Census director finally arrived, delayed by bad weather that kept many other news organizations away, Thiessen and Bull were able to quickly file the spot news that Census 2020 had begun.
For overcoming myriad technical obstacles and very cold fingers to cover the news in a far-flung part of the country, while also providing a window into a world unlike any other place in the U.S., Thiessen and Bull win this weekâs Best of the States award.
for telling the stories of perils faced by migrants â including the death of a spouse â as they return to dangerous home towns after being denied asylum by the restrictive policies of the Trump administration. https://bit.ly/2s7MG4H
Photographer Maye-E Wong wanted to find a new way to tell the stories of those who suffered from clergy abuse, emphasizing that they were survivors, not victims.
Her plan: She would photograph them with a Polaroid camera, then soak the prints and release the thin fragile membranes that held the images. The images were imperfect â wrinkled and distressed â but they endure, a metaphor for the survivors they portrayed.
Wong and reporter Juliet Linderman traveled the country to interview and photograph survivors, spending days with them and listening to their stories. The result was a stunning presentation that set AP viewership records and earned praise from both the subjects and the public.
For an arresting package of inspired photography and sensitive, insightful reporting, Wong and Linderman receive this weekâs Best of the States award.
Jolted out of bed by the 6.4-magnitude earthquake just before 4 a.m., correspondent Llazar Semini in Tirana knew immediately he was dealing with a major story. Communications networks were shaky, but he managed to reach colleagues in other formats by phone, triggering what would become a virtual sweep of the disaster coverage.
The quick decisions made in the early hours resulted in a compelling all-formats report and gave AP the clear advantage over competitive agencies. Nowhere was that advantage more evident than in live video â AP picked up live video within an hour of the quake, and several hours before any of the competition.
Coverage was just as impressive in text, photo and video edits. APâs dominance continued with drone video, and all-formats coverage of dramatic rescue efforts and anguished survivors.
For resourceful work that powerfully conveyed the human toll and devastation while delivering a dominant competitive performance, the multinational all-formats team of Llazar Semini, Visar Kryeziu, Hektor Pustina, Amer Cohadzic, Erion Xhiabati, Florent Bajrami, Sylejman Klokkoqi and Petros Giannakouris shares APâs Best of the Week.
