for exposing that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Evan Bayh did not stay once at his condominium during visits to Indianapolis during the whole of 2010, his last year in the Senate before giving up his seat, despite Bayh's stressing during his campaign that it has long been his primary home. http://apne.ws/2eAWt6V
In Americaâs pitched debate over abortion, the voices of the people most affected by the slew of new laws restricting access to abortion are seldom heard.
Allowing patients to tell their stories of seeking to end their pregnancies has been a priority in APâs coverage of Texasâ new law banning most abortions. Oklahoma City-based reporter Sean Murphy and Miami-based photographer Rebecca Blackwell delivered impressively on that goal with a sensitively written, visually compelling all-formats package.
The pair carefully negotiated access to a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana, and earned the trust of Texas patients whose voices were vividly brought to life in text, photo, video and audio. They also met with anti-abortion protesters outside the clinic.
For gaining access and handling a delicate and polarizing story with professionalism, grace and accuracy while providing APâs worldwide audience a greater understanding of the real-life impacts of the Texas law, Murphy and Blackwell are APâs Best of the Week â First Winners.
for breaking the news that Michigan State Universityâs response to the Nassar scandal prompted 150 Nassar victims to call for the interim presidentâs ouster. https://bit.ly/2KgxQRr
reported from the ground, the water and from the air to document the impact of climate change and land loss on the vanishing island breeding grounds of Louisianaâs brown pelicans, as well as the people and other wildlife that depend on this coastal ecosystem.After obtaining permission to visit the off-limits barrier islands, the all-formats trio revealed in words and striking visuals the effects of erosion and sea level rise on the coastal habitat and Louisianaâs saltwater marshes, and what remains to be lost: Louisianaâs state bird, the brown pelican, brought back over decades from the edge of extinction.Read more
For nine months, AP has led all media on the story of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomoâs controversial directive to return recovering coronavirus patients from hospitals to nursing homes during the pandemic.
Last week, reporters Bernard Condon and Jennifer Peltz added to that record. Using data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, they reported exclusively that more than 9,000 patients in New York were released under the stateâs policy, amid criticism that it accelerated nursing home outbreaks. The latest AP scoop has helped put Cuomo and his administration on the defensive at home and nationally.
For keeping AP at the forefront of this accountability story for the better part of a year — including their latest break documenting the release of COVID patients into nursing homes — Condon and Peltz earn APâs Best of the Week award.
Topeka correspondent John Hanna had been hearing hints for weeks that there might be something in Kris Kobachâs record that could cause trouble for the Kansas secretary of state and candidate for governor.
At first, it was just that: hints. The suggestions were so vague that Hanna set off to review the nationally known Republicanâs statements, but Hanna, whose reporting sense is informed by 30 years of statehouse reporting, found nothing.
So he kept digging. Eventually a source suggested there might be something to do with a pardon, and Hanna filed a records request.
The governorâs office released a copy of its file on a pardon request for Ryan Bader, the vice president of TriStar Arms, a firearms importer. Bader had faced an aggravated robbery charge over a 2009 incident but agreed to a plea bargain and received a light sentence. Now he wanted a pardon so that he could buy a gun again and get the licenses needed to take over the family business.
Baderâs attorney for the pardon request? Kobach. The records showed Kobach did not provide a key police affidavit that was later released by the office of GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer â whom Kobach is challenging. But there was more. Campaign finance records showed that TriStar had donated at least $7,000 to Kobachâs campaigns for secretary of state and governor. The company also helped sponsor a fundraiser with Donald Trump Jr.
Hannaâs APNewsBreak was well used, including a post on the homepage of a member that is usually hesitant to showcase work done outside its newsroom. It also became a topic of a gubernatorial debate, with Kobach defending the pardon request.
For smart digging and use of public records that helped drive the news agenda and political conversation, Hanna wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
In western Alaska, rape survivors and their supporters say Nomeâs police department has often failed to investigate sexual assaults, especially when the victims are Alaska Native women.
Delivering sensitive-but-powerful coverage from a challenging environment, enterprise photographer Maye-E Wong and freelance correspondent Victoria Mckenzie tell the story of average Americans struggling with sexual violence and law enforcement in small communities. Their work made clear that Nomeâs struggles donât represent an isolated case; it is a microcosm of how police and towns and cities across the U.S. have failed survivors of sexual assaults.
For going to extremes â literally and figuratively â to shed light on a remote corner of the larger issue of sexual violence and enforcement, Wong and Mckenzie share this weekâs Best of the States award.
for a profile of President Donald Trumpâs choice for an important health care post that shed light on the nomineeâs business arrangements and possible conflicts of interest while acting as an adviser to then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. http://apne.ws/2l9wuY2
chronicled the struggle to care for Lawrence Brooks, who at 112 is now the oldest American World War II veteran.The story came about after Deep South correspondent Rebecca Santana received an email about a GoFundMe set up to help Brooksâ daughter care for him. Willinghamâs sensitive and respectful reporting style helped establish a level of trust with Vanessa Brooks, who eventually felt comfortable telling her fatherâs story and she struggles to care for him. The result was a touching tribute to a daughter doing her best in cificult circumstances.Willingham is a corps member in Jackson, Mississippi, for the AP/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Her story, accompanied by Kathleen Flynnâs intimate photos of Brooks and his daughter at home, received strong online play and was featured prominently in The Atlanta Journal Constitution print edition. https://aplink.news/tjr
The Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, has emerged as the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. At least 35 coronavirus deaths have been linked to the facility, and more than half of those inside have tested positive, leaving the remaining residents in a sort of purgatory that has anguished their relatives.
Photographer Ted Warren has spent much of his time recently outside the long-term care center, documenting in heartrending photos how people have tried to communicate with mothers, fathers and loved ones through windows because visitors are no longer allowed inside.
Warren found an ideal subject for conveying this desperation in the story of 86-year-old Chuck Sedlacek. With reporting by Gene Johnson, the pair delivered a package that detailed the isolation and anguish faced by the nursing home residents and their families â a feeling of helplessness many more are likely to experience as the disease spreads across the country.
For compelling work that conveys the frustration and despair of families coping with the coronavirus at a facility in the glare of the media spotlight, Warren and Johnson earn this weekâs Best of the States award.
for using records requests and documentation to exclusively report that Virginia spent $100 million over 10 years on economic development of rural sites to draw advanced manufacturing â but those sites still sit empty and the state lacks any meaningful data about what it actually has to offer companies. https://bit.ly/2GdfIVj
for accepting an inmateâs call and reporting his remarkable claim with essential context: The prisoner, charged with killing a transit guard, claimed to be a supporter of the Islamic State group, but APâs story, with reporting also by Jim Anderson, noted investigators had found no evidence the terror group had anything to do with the killing. http://apne.ws/2m56r4e
for giving the first glimpse inside tunnels built by Islamic State fighters to defend against Iraqi forces advancing on the IS-held city of Mosul. http://dailym.ai/2ebO3Dl
After the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, investigative reporters Garance Burke, Martha Mendoza and Juliet Linderman wanted to know if local, county and state Republican officials across the country were continuing to amplify online messages similar to those that had inspired the riot, and what they hoped to accomplish by doing so.
The trio turned to data journalist Larry Fenn, AP statehouse reporters and a comprehensive archive of the Parler social media platform. A third-party algorithm matched public officials to their Parler accounts, allowing an unprecedented look at GOP officialsâ unfiltered posts on the right-wing aligned site. The analysis of Parler and other alternative platforms identified a faction of lower-level Republican officials that have pushed lies, misinformation and QAnon conspiracy theories echoing those that fueled the violent U.S. Capitol siege.
For harnessing the power of social media analysis, data science and APâs state-level expertise to reveal how lies and misinformation from the 2020 election have reached deep into the GOPâs state apparatus, Burke, Mendoza, Linderman and Fenn win APâs Best of the Week award.
for revealing details of General Motorsâ behind-the-scenes push to get to state legislators -- some of them recipients of GM donations -- to adopt rules for self-driving cars that would benefit the company and shut out competitors. http://apne.ws/2lzBxlt
for breaking the news that a federal judge in Louisiana had retired several months after taking medical leave to treat her severe alcoholism. http://bit.ly/2upPfip
teamed up for an intimate look into a 25-bed rural hospital whose medical staff was struggling with deeply personal concerns as they treated people they had known long before the coronavirus hit.
Salter, from rural Missouri himself, has been covering the pandemic in the state all year, on the lookout for undertold stories. When he found a hospital with an extraordinarily accommodating public relations chief, he proposed an all-formats package that would put readers inside the Scotland County Hospital in Memphis, Missouri. As they have for years, he and Roberson collaborated on this package, Salter working the phones to interview patients and staff while Roberson suited up in personal protective gear to capture poignant photos and video on the hospital floor.
Said Roberson: âWhat makes this story different and interesting to me are the close relationships between the hospital and its patients. The fact they are often neighbors, coworkers and sometimes even family makes the story unique and somehow more personal.âhttps://bit.ly/37PkEvJhttps://bit.ly/37VRyuS
A mentally disabled Louisiana man walked free last week after 20 years in prison for a killing his attorneys say he didn't commit. But New Orleans reporter Janet McConnaughey questioned why his plea agreement blames him for obstructing justice.
Corey Williams was a 16-year-old who still sucked his thumb, often wet himself and had been hospitalized for extreme lead poisoning when Shreveport, Louisiana, police brought him in for questioning in 1998 about a shooting that killed a pizza deliveryman.
For hours, he said he was innocent. Finally, Williams told police he did it and wanted to go home and lie down.
Two decades later, with doubts swirling around his murder conviction and the case submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court for review, Williams accepted a plea agreement, pleading guilty to manslaughter and obstructing justice.
McConnaughey asked the district attorney's office for documentation outlining the plea deal. There it was: Williams said heâd obstructed justice by removing evidence from the crime scene and by providing âa false inculpatory statement to police." Williamsâ signature was in inch-high printing, with big circles over the iâs.
McConnaugheyâs story received strong use by AP customers. For pursuing the underlying details and shining a light on a deal that set Williams free â but only after putting the blame on himself for a false confession â McConnaughey wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
for dogged reporting on the physical and emotional struggles of three children wounded when police officers opened fire on their motherâs pickup truck. Authorities had largely avoided releasing information for nearly a month after the incident, but using Oklahoma open records law, and interviews with police, lawyers and the childrenâs mother, the team was first to reveal details of the investigation into the shooting, and the long recovery ahead for the children. https://bit.ly/2Wmwvyx
Paul J. Weber, newsperson, Austin, and Eric Gay, photogapher, San Antonio, Texas, for documenting Texasâ quiet but sweeping funding cuts to the 2,300 impoverished border communities known as âcolonias,â and including 360-degree video. http://abcn.ws/2wMSFbI