for a months-long investigation showing Peruâs government undermining efforts to clean up its notoriously corrupt timber industry, reneging on obligations to combat illegal logging enumerated in a 2006 trade pact with the U.S. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3673713-Mi...
collaborated on an exclusive all-formats package that revealed how the booming development of clean energy from wind turbines threatens the preservation of iconic golden eagles in the U.S. West. Brown, a veteran environmental reporter, used sourcing, records searches and interviews, finding scientists concerned that collisions with turbine blades could lead to decline of golden eagle populations which thrive on the same open, windy landscapes preferred by wind energy developers.To document the plight of the birds and efforts to preserve them, Brown and video journalist Tobin traveled to remote northern Wyoming, where scientists rappelled down rock faces in their study of the eagles, producing strong visuals to accompany the engaging and deeply reported text story.Read more
joined forces for this rare hybrid story of state and international politics, revealing how the rush for medical supplies amid the pandemic raised new concerns about international trade and safety. Price used Nevada public records to report that one way the state tried to secure testing kits was by leveraging a former MGM CEOâs connections with the United Arab Emirates, which partnered with MGM to build a $9.2 billion multi-resort development in Las Vegas. The UAE donated 250,000 Chinese-made test kits that werenât eventually used because federal officials raised concerns about patient privacy, test accuracy and the involvement of a Chinese company that is the worldâs largest genetic sequencing firm. Gambrell framed the reporting around U.S. officialsâ concern that foreign powers could exploit the pandemic to access medical histories and genetic traits of test takers. https://bit.ly/37mUYIl
Many white Americans have likely never heard of âsundown towns,â where Black people were once forbidden after dark. So Tim Sullivan, Noreen Nasir and Maye-E Wong visited one such town, Vienna, Illinois, on the second stop in APâs âLooking for Americaâ series, to see how it is faring in a year marked by racial protests.
While there is no longer a rule against Black people in Vienna after sunset, the habit persists for many out of fear and tradition. With deep reporting and compelling visuals, the AP team captured a lingering racial divide that is obvious to some people but virtually invisible to others.
For a probing but nuanced package that speaks to a thread of systemic racism, the all-formats team of Sullivan, Nasir and Wong earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
It began as an anniversary story, but one that would break news. With North Carolinaâs hotly-contested âbathroom bill,â HB2, in place for nearly a year, APâs Raleigh bureau was asked by the South Desk to assess the economic impact of the law limiting protections for the LGBT community.
Reporters Jonathan Drew and Emery Dalesio created a spreadsheet tallying the results of their digging, including searches of public records, among them previously unseen state calculations of lost business; they interviewed corporate leaders and state and local officials. And they were able to put a hard minimum figure on huge losses to the state economy even as legislators were negotiating a revision of HB2. âThe deal was struck,â The New York Times noted, âdays after The Associated Press reported that the backlash against the law would cost North Carolina at least $3.7 billion in business over 12 years.â
The timely exclusive by Drew and Dalesio is the Beat of the Week.
With California sinking deeper into drought as wildfire season approaches, AP set out to show the droughtâs impact on vulnerable areas — beyond the orange glow of burning homes. Top freelance photographers Noah Berger and Josh Edelson teamed up with reporter Adam Beam, focusing on the six reservoirs with the lowest water levels.
Both photographers are trained and equipped with drones; they delivered stunning visuals, including boat docks beached on dry land, charred hillside homes overlooking a lake reduced to puddle-like status and boat launches that donât even reach the waterâs edge. Meanwhile, Beam conducted interviews and visited the massive Lake Oroville reservoir, where the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century raged in 2018.
The package was enhanced by digital storyteller Samantha Shotzbarger, who created a arresting presentation giving readers an immersive view of the evaporating reservoirs.
For a revealing and forbidding look at the effects of Californiaâs drought, the team of Berger, Edelson, Beam and Shotzbarger earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
As domestic production of oil has increased in recent years, Billings, Montana, Correspondent Matthew Brown closely followed derailments of trains carrying volatile crude. A train from North Dakota jumped the track, exploded and killed 47 people in Canada in 2013. In Brownâs own state, a derailment near the town of Culbertson spilled 27,000 gallons of oil in 2015. Last year, Brown reported that more than 800 potential safety violations were discovered on Union Pacific freight lines after a fiery June 2016 oil train derailment in Oregonâs Columbia River Gorge.
But Brown wanted to know how widespread the problem really was. By pushing repeatedly for public records and working with a longtime source, Brown was able to exclusively report the results of a two-year federal inspection program for the nationâs oil trains â and he revealed that some safety defects uncovered where similar to ones blamed in derailments that triggered huge fires or oil spills in Oregon, Virginia, Montana and elsewhere. For his AP NewsBreak, Brown wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
teamed up to provide the fastest, most complete coverage of the Trump administrationâs announcement that it would resettle no more than 15,000 refugees in 2021, another record low.Their work began days before the Sept. 30 deadline for a decision. Lee worked sources on his State Department beat, while Watson drew on her long experience covering refugees, speaking with advocates and with an Eritrean refugee in the U.S. whose dream of reuniting with his family became more remote as a result of Trumpâs decision. At 11:26 p.m. on the evening of the deadline, Lee received confirmation of the 15,000 cap from the State Department. Watson rushed it to wire, delivering a 700-word story by 12:04 a.m., including a quote of Trump vilifying refugees at a campaign rally that night in Minnesota. A major competitor moved its story at 2:37 a.m., and no one else had a story for hours. https://bit.ly/2Gr9NyA
Baton Rouge-based reporter Michael Kunzelman was reporting on the police killing of a black man outside a convenience store last summer when a source called to encourage him to look into a case in front of a federal judge that had been mysteriously reassigned. It wasnât the easiest time to be chasing down tips: the Alton Sterling shooting was swiftly followed by the killings of three law enforcement officials and then catastrophic flooding in Louisianaâs capital.
But Kunzelman didnât forget about it.
When he was free, he began an investigation into the performance of U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi, work that would take months and aggressive use of public records. It culminated with the discovery last week sheâd been ordered to seek treatment for alcoholism so severe that a colleague believed she couldnât take care of herself. For his work Kunzelman wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
for breaking news revealing how the U.S. government has quietly begun releasing Haitian immigrants who have been pouring into the country in recent months, marking a reversal from officials' previous stance that the migrants would be jailed. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-begins-relea...
This AP exclusive started with a tip: A Republican nominee in Ohio had made questionable claims about his tenure in the Air Force.
J.R. Majewski told voters he was a combat veteran with a tour of duty in Afghanistan, but reporters Brian Slodysko and James LaPorta, joined by investigative researcher Randy Herschaft, reported extensively using public documents, expert interviews and a survey of former employers, revealing that among multiple misrepresentations, Majewski did not deploy to Afghanistan but instead spent six-months loading planes in Qatar. He was also demoted and barred from reenlisting.
The story was a hit with readers and had rival news outlets citing APâs exclusive, while the Republican Party pulled its advertising money from Majewski, essentially giving up on his race.
For deep source work and dogged reporting that exposed a political candidateâs blatant lies about his record, Slodysko, LaPorta and Herschaft take APâs Best of the Week â First Winner honors.
delivered a distinctive enterprise package, shining light on the little-recognized 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre which involved the killings of at least 25 Black people and the destruction of Black-owned businesses.Warren, an Atlanta desk editor who also writes and edits for the APâs Race and Ethnicity Team, has a passion and eye for history, particularly overlooked events related to race. Through diligent source work and reporting â and despite the misgivings of some Atlantans â he and multiformat colleague Sharon Johnson developed an engaging all-formats package raising awareness of the massacre and making it relevant to the current racial reckoning in the U.S.Read more
Two of the most challenging aspects of covering the ongoing abortion story in the U.S. are getting inside abortion clinics and telling the stories of women who have decided to end their pregnancies. So it was significant when two AP journalists gained exclusive access to a pair of abortion clinics â and to a woman who allowed them to follow her through the entire abortion process.
Medical writer Lindsey Tanner used her sources to find a clinic in Ohio sending patients to Indiana, where tighter abortion restrictions were still weeks away. She and video journalist Patrick Orsagos saw both clinics in operation, and they documented âwith sensitivity and candor â patient Monica Eberhartâs experience, from her morning routine to the clinic room during her abortion. The resulting package delicately wove together Eberhartâs story with others who are navigating the ever-changing state laws on abortion.
For access and reporting that bought a rare and timely perspective to the issue of abortion, Tanner and Orsagos earn APâs Best of the Week â First Winner honors.
delivered an all-formats package based on the first joint interview with #MeToo founder Tarana Burke and the organizationâs new CEO Dani Ayers. They told Stafford that the movementâs original intent was to focus on marginalized voices and experiences, and that people have failed to acknowledge that the #MeToo movement was started and led by Black women and people of color.The multiformat project included Ruarkâs portraits of Burke in Baltimore, and Bazemoreâs images of Ayers in Atlanta. New York video producer Vanessa Alvarez created a video piece from the interview and file footage of some key #MeToo moments.https://bit.ly/35drj1ihttps://bit.ly/2FQQyhu
marked the 400th anniversary of the Mayflowerâs arrival in 1620 by interviewing descendants of the Pilgrims and the Indigenous people who helped them survive â all discussing the legacy of the Pilgrimsâ arrival and how it manifests in todayâs world confronting racial and ethnic injustice.This was supposed to be the year for lavish celebrations of the Mayflowerâs arrival in 1620, with President Donald Trump, Queen Elizabeth II and other dignitaries in attendance. The pandemic foiled those plans. But AP launched a transatlantic effort to track down descendants of the Pilgrims and the Indigenous tribe that helped them survive, only to suffer disease and persecution in the long run. Goldman conducted the interviews in the U.S.; Barker contributed from the U.K.; and Richer pulled it all together in an illuminating text story that also featured a photo gallery of Goldmanâs elegantly composed stills, complemented with work from photographers Matt Dunham in London and Brynn Anderson in Atlanta. One Mayflower descendant, 19-year-old Olivia Musoke, whose father is Black, said the pride she feels in coming from people who helped settle this country âgets diminished by the role they played in kind of manipulating and terrorizing people of color, which trickled down to the structures we have today.âhttps://bit.ly/35tTPMghttps://bit.ly/2TxfKwP
for using source reporting and records requests to reveal that job applicants at U.S. Customs and Border Protection fail a required lie detector test at more than twice the rate of similar agencies. The revelation raises doubts about whether President-elect Donald Trump can fulfill his campaign pledge to add 5,000 border agents. http://bit.ly/2jAMe8F
has led the way nationally on just about every aspect of the 2020 U.S. Census, from the many legal fights over who would be counted and when the massive effort would end, to confusion among census workers themselves about the task before them and the impact of the global pandemic on door-knocking efforts nationwide.When the count wrapped up, Schneider leaned on his wealth of sources to report the ultimate explainer story, spelling out in relatable terms where the count fell short in terms of both geography and demographics and its meaning for those left out. An AP senior editor called it âthe best story I've seen about what went down, and what's at stake.âhttps://bit.ly/2HM3INw
used multiformat field reporting and extensive research to document extraordinary efforts to save rare fish populations from the environmental effects of climate-fueled megafires across the western U.S.While interviewing biologists, environment writer Flesher learned details of a rescue of Rio Grande cutthroat trout and coordinated with Peterson who later shot photos and video, including underwater images of the fish's release 750 miles away in New Mexicoâs Carson Nation Forest.The distinctive package played widely in the western U.S. and beyond, drawing readers and viewers.Read more
In the course of source-building in early 2016, northeastern Pennsylvania correspondent Michael Rubinkam had lunch with a local lawyer. The lawyer mentioned that a member of the U.S. attorney's office had lost a son to heroin but had never spoken publicly about it.
Intrigued, Rubinkam asked the lawyer to approach the then-assistant prosecutor, Bruce Brandler, about an interview. Rubinkam had been looking for fresh ways to write about the scourge of heroin, and saw the prosecutorâs story as a powerful new example of how no family is immune.
But Brandler, he learned, was adamantly against going public with his familyâs â and his sonâs â story. It was too painful.
for reporting exclusively that a failed wind energy project off the coast of New Jersey had burned through $10.6 million in federal money before the U.S. Department of Energy cut off its funding: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2f22bca05âŠ