for breaking news that Minnesotaâs GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan had asked the party leadership to give her a 10 percent commission on major donations she lands for the party. http://trib.in/2DtvmM8
expanded APâs âAWOL Weaponsâ investigation, revealing how explosives are lost or stolen from the U.S. armed services, sometimes with deadly consequences.When AP reported in June that the U.S. military couldnât account for all its firearms, the team knew there was more to uncover. Their latest installment reports that hundreds (if not thousands) of armor-piercing grenades and hundreds of pounds of plastic explosives also vanished.APâs investigation was built on data the team extracted from the military, and which data editor Myers marshaled for analysis. Investigative reporter LaPorta filed the original Freedom of Information Act request with the Marines, obtaining data that was crucial to framing the scope of the problem, while video journalist Hall and investigative reporter Pritchard used exclusive investigative case files to detail how troops stole plastic explosives. At a major Marine base a sergeant hoarded C4 because he feared Donald Trump would lose; after another insider theft, explosives ended up with high school kids.Hall found a man who survived the explosion of an artillery shell at the Mississippi recycling yard where he worked. His co-worker died. That emotional interview alone drew more than 56,000 Twitter views. Combined with exclusive interrogation footage of Marines, video journalists Serginho Roosblad and Jeannie Ohm wove together a compelling video package using interviews by colleagues Stacey Plaisance and Robert Bumsted. Senior researcher Jennifer Farrar also contributed.The online presentation by Raghu Vadarevu, Natalie Castañeda and Peter Hamlin took the distinctive visual language they previously developed for the series and gave it even more impact. Thanks also to the expert wordsmithing of editor Jerry Schwartz and a well-conceived social media plan by audience engagement specialist Elise Ryan, the package scored over 130,000 views on AP News, more than double other top stories. The story also generated media buzz, including a prominent interview with Hall by CNBCâs Shepard Smith.https://aplink.news/xjghttps://aplink.news/d7yhttps://aplink.video/xnn
for breaking the news that two black men arrested for sitting at a Philadelphia Starbucks without ordering anything had settled with the city of Philadelphia. https://bit.ly/2jNQXmk
Allegations that a lawmaker had been trysting with a prostitute while the Utah Legislature was in session rocked the stateâs politics. The former lawmaker who had previously pushed for stricter laws cracking down on prostitution went into hiding. His attorney refused comment. The House speaker washed his hands of the scandal, and the prostitute was no longer talking, having sold the story to the tabloid site dailymail.com.
Political reporter Michelle Price needed another way into the story, so she started asking questions around the capitol.
She made a key discovery while looking at the screen grabs of the texts in the tabloid story: The dates lined up with the legislative session. She knew the lawmaker from southern Utah didnât commute to the Legislature and would be staying in hotels while in Salt Lake City.
She started asking tougher questions. Was taxpayer money used to reimburse the lawmaker for hotel rooms where he met the prostitute? Now she had the attention of officials in state government.
Finally came the APNewsBreak: Price exclusively reported that the lawmaker used taxpayer money to book at least two hotel rooms he is accused of using to meet with the prostitute.
For determination and a commitment to exploring all angles even when the main characters werenât talking, Price wins this weekâs Best of the States.
teamed up on quick, resourceful coverage of the massive gridlock on Virginiaâs snowbound Interstate 95, reporting in all formats on the plight of stranded drivers while fact-checking state officials in real time.With the highway virtually inaccessible, journalists Gallion, Kunzelman, Walker and Finley used social media to land interviews with stranded motorists who waited hours for food, saw little in the way of law enforcement and struggled to conserve fuel amid frigid overnight temperatures.Richmond reporter Rankin, meanwhile, interviewed Virginiaâs governor, pressing him on why he hadnât activated the National Guard ahead of the storm. Photographer Helber delivered aerial images showing hundreds still stranded more than 24 hours in, important documentation as the state refused to estimate how many were trapped.The result was a mainbar, deftly assembled by Richmondâs Lavoie from a variety of feeds, racking up heavy play and readership numbers. A sidebar by Finley on one familyâs plight kept also scored high reader engagement. Many Virginia news outlets used APâs content as their top online offering. In a follow-up, Rankin and Springfield, Virginia, correspondent Matt Barakat reported on early missteps in the state and county response. With help from AP reporters in Ohio, New Jersey, Oregon and Georgia, the piece also recapped similar incidents elsewhere to evaluate Virginiaâs handling. Other news organizations couldnât easily or quickly match the story, demonstrating APâs unique reach.https://aplink.news/8kihttps://aplink.news/egxhttps://aplink.news/3r6https://aplink.news/1cchttps://aplink.video/kq2https://aplink.video/yiq
responded quickly Saturday, both in-person and remotely, to reports of a hostage standoff at a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue. Well-sourced reporting and old-fashioned door-knocking led to revelatory journalism as the story unfolded. The standoff ended with the hostage-takerâs death as an FBI SWAT team rushed the building.Dallas reporter Bleiberg was the first staffer on the ground, staying on-scene for more than eight hours, working in official updates and sourcing information that moved the story forward.Washington-based federal law enforcement reporters Tucker and Balsamo quickly jumped in, using their own sources for updates on the hostages, the gunman and the Pakistani neuroscientist he was demanding be freed from a federal prison. In what proved to be a smart decision, the AP used restraint when the gunman referred himself as a âbrotherâ to federal inmate Aafia Siddiqui; other news organizations had to backpedal as that story began to unravel. But AP did produce a first day explainer on Siddiqui and her case.Dallas staffer Jaime Stengle and Austin-based colleague Paul J. Weber made significant contributions to the coverage, and New York photo editor Don King wasted no time picking up early photos from member photographers at the scene, even as Dallas staff photographer Tony Gutierrez hurried to Colleyville.The morning after the final three hostages escaped, Bleiberg knocked on the most important door of the weekend, and it paid off, as he was able to speak briefly with Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who has been praised by other congregants, security specialists and law enforcement with his handling of the ordeal.From Saturday onward, AP reporters around the U.S. and overseas helped to deliver more tips, interviews and sourced information, producing stories that stayed in the AP News top 10 for the three-day weekend.https://aplink.news/ofmhttps://aplink.news/1iwhttps://aplink.news/k5whttps://aplink.news/s07https://aplink.news/gquhttps://aplink.video/oiy
reported exclusively on a California water district â home to Kim Kardashian and other celebrities â that may have the stateâs harshest water restrictions during the current drought.The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, just north of Los Angeles, is among districts that rely almost exclusively on state water supplies. Ronayne, Sacramento-based environment/climate reporter, learned of the districtâs new penalties for water wasters while reporting that in the midst of drought, local districts may not get any of the state water supply theyâd requested in 2022. She decided to find out more, reasoning that whatâs being imposed in Las Virgenes may serve as a model for other water districts as the drought continues.When Las Virgenes officials explained they would slow water flow to a trickle for households that keep wasting, Ronayne knew she had a story. With further reporting, she confirmed that the district's conservation tactics went further than others.Ronayneâs exclusive on the districtâs approach hooked AP customers and readers, partly because Las Virgenes serves celebrity-filled neighborhoods. District officials said many rich residents don't bother to cut back when fined; water isn't an expensive commodity for them and the penalties arenât significant â until the water slows to a trickle. https://aplink.news/1dv
for a detailed and well-written examination of falsehoods, exaggerations and disputed statements in the first year of the Donald Trump presidency. http://abcn.ws/2rCpfQe
reported exclusively on how Nuctech, a Chinese company with links to the military and government, has made major inroads in the market for security scanners in Europe. That raises concerns that China could exploit the equipment to sabotage key transit points or get illicit access to data.Because there is so little transparency about where Nuctech equipment has been purchased â and the company refused to confirm or deny information about its customers â the story required a lot of legwork.Kinetz, Brussels-based investigative reporter, received leaked internal communications from a competitor of Nuctech and scoured public procurement databases â which donât provide comprehensive information â as well as parliamentary testimony in multiple languages for clues about where the equipment had been sold.AP reporters across Europe reached out to airport and customs authorities and dug into national databases to try to get a record of Nuctech purchases. Kinetz also received exclusive analysis about Nuctechâs ownership structure from a Dutch data company. The story generated interest in Europe, and member of the European Parliament reached out for more detail on APâs reporting about how European Union funds contributed to Nuctech bids. https://aplink.news/e3e
APâs team coverage led the pack for the three-week Kyle Rittenhouse trial â including word of Rittenhouseâs full acquittal in the killing of two protesters and wounding of a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin â thanks to smart, detailed planning and deep knowledge cultivated throughout the proceedings.
The foundation of the coverage was the daily testimony, but following a blueprint laid down during earlier coverage of the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis, it was the spinoff coverage, starting weeks ahead of the trial and carrying through after the verdict, that was key. A multiformat team of journalists delivered more than a dozen AP Explainers, enterprise pieces and video debriefings that went deeper into what was happening in court â and in some cases anticipated developments in the case.
The expansive team coverage figured prominently among APâs top stories throughout the trial. APâs explainer on the charges against the teenager remained at the top of Googleâs âRittenhouseâ search results, placement that droveâŻsome 3.5 million pageviews on AP News before and after the verdict.
For comprehensive, speedy and illuminating coverage of a trial that riveted the country, the Kyle Rittenhouse trial team earns APâs Best of the Week â First Winner.
used a distinctive, nuanced approach to explore one of the biggest unknowns in Ethiopiaâs yearlong Tigray conflict: the death toll.The story, funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, went beyond the numbers, humanizing the horrific toll of the war through a Tigrayan man, Desta Haileselassie, who collects the names of the dead â a groom, a lawyer, an ambulance driver â more than 3,000 Ethnic Tigrayans confirmed so far. He reluctantly revealed to Anna that 19 members of his own family had died. Video journalist Keyton and stroytelling producer Castañeda conducted a delicate interview with Desta in Stockholm, while Anna, APâs East Africa correspondent, attended online. The listkeeper was deeply affected by his experience but the journalists earned his trust, gently eliciting information from him while careful not to re-traumatize him.The resulting package is powerful and engaging â and balanced, noting atrocities and victims on both sides of the conflict. It introduces victims by name and goes on to tell their stories. At its most personal it focuses on Destaâs mother, whom he hasnât been able to reach since June. Instead he listens to recordings he made of her voice.The photos and presentation by Castañeda are no less compelling as AP continues to lead coverage of the Tigray conflict despite severe restrictions on access. Readers, competitors and experts complimented this latest work, with one describing it as a âmasterpiece of precision, thoughtfulness and humanity.âhttps://aplink.news/iduhttps://aplink.news/c90https://aplink.video/p3whttps://aplink.photos/fbs
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
traveled to Cabo Frio, a tourist city a couple hours north of Rio de Janeiro which has been wracked with problems and violence following a surge of Bitcoin pyramid schemes. Reporting in all formats, their trip followed Brazilâs federal police bust last April of three people loading a chopper with $1.3 million in neatly packed bills.Brazil-based text stringer Jeantet obtained hundreds of police and prosecutorsâ reports regarding the alleged pyramid scheme run by the townâs top dog, Glaidson dos Santos. She sorted through the reports, crafting a gripping narrative of the man's rise to power and fortune, and his eventual imprisonment. But she also discovered the story was more complex, with many of dos Santosâ former clients swearing that he was being wrongly accused for having the audacity to beat a rigged financial system at its own game.Such nuance gave the reader an inside look at why Bitcoin has become hugely popular in Brazil. Senior cameraman LobĂŁo delivered video footage produced by Tatiana Pollastri, and photo freelancer Prado made the stills. The text story was published in English, Spanish and Portuguese, picked up by publications from USA Today to The Times of India.https://aplink.news/j5xhttps://aplink.video/5s2
scored a timely and exclusive interview with the first Asian American muppet on âSesame Street.âPhoenix-based Tang had been watching for race-related news tied to the classic childrenâs television show, when Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the show, reached out about giving AP the exclusive on their first ever Asian American muppet â a 7-year-old Korean American named Ji-Young.Tang knew the story would resonate after a wave of attacks against Asian Americans and calls for greater Asian American and Pacific Islander representation, and she looked forward to writing âJi-Young told The Associated Press.â She teamed up with New York-based video journalist Noreen Nasir, who also saw the cultural importance of the story as well as the potential to have fun telling it.Nasir interviewed both Ji-Young and longtime âSesame Streetâ favorite Ernie, being careful not to show the puppeteers, and snapped photos of the muppets. Then she and Tang interviewed Kathleen Kim, the Korean American puppeteer behind Ji-Young, about the impact of portraying a groundbreaking character.Tang arranged for AP to release the text story and photos exclusively at an hour when both audiences in the U.S. and Asia could wake up to the story, followed shortly by the video, generating strong interest from customers and readers.https://aplink.news/fi2https://aplink.video/blr
put AP far ahead in confirming the details of a fatal stampede at a soccer stadium in Cameroon during the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. An early coverage decision made AP the only English-language news outlet with firm details on the tragedy for hours.Read more
has kept human rights on the media agenda while covering the international Formula One auto racing series. His reporting has had impact and is now credited with helping free a political prisoner in Bahrain, site of one of the races.Paris-based Pugmire, long aware of governmental efforts at âsportswashingâ in authoritarian countries hosting the series, had been one of the first journalists to press world champion Lewis Hamilton last season about jailed dissidents after discovering that Hamilton had received letters with harrowing descriptions of torture and sexual abuse by authorities in Bahrain. When an 11-year-old boy whose father is on Bahrain's death row sent Hamilton a drawing of the driverâs Mercedes race car, Pugmire had asked the driver publicly what he would do it about the case. Hamilton pledged to raise the cases with Bahraini authorities, saying the boyâs letter âreally hits home.â Such questioning by reporters is rare and risky at sports events in such tightly controlled countries, but Pugmire kept at it for months.Then, this past September, an 18-year-old man was released from prison in Bahrain after being allegedly being tortured since 2019, an apparent reprisal against his family. His mother had spent more than two years in prison for criticizing the Bahrain F1 race on social media.The familyâs supporters credit Pugmireâs reporting for helping lead to the release.Pugmire raised the rights issue again at the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix last week, asking Hamilton about a doctor on a 138-day hunger strike. The driver, who wore a rainbow helmet in support of LGBTQ rights in Qatar, said F1 is âduty boundâ to call attention to human rights.APâs reporting emboldened other media, including the BBC and Britainâs The Times, to follow Pugmireâs lead, questioning drivers and F1âs governing body about such issues. Pugmire won praise from a Bahraini human rights advocacy group as well as APâs news leadership.https://aplink.news/etyhttps://aplink.news/gnghttps://aplink.news/xzehttps://aplink.news/ba9
produced a beautifully rendered, widely read and highly praised portrait of an America divided along political lines, focusing on the editor/publisher of a weekly newspaper and his disgruntled readers in the small prairie town of Benson, Minnesota. The immersive package was among the APâs most-viewed stories of the week and tops in reader engagement.Read more
met the highly anticipated moment, leveraging a tip to deliver fast, sweeping coverage on the retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.Read more
demonstrated the value of beat coverage and persistence, providing an all-formats, exclusive interview with the man won a coveted trip into space and gave it to a friend.Read more
has known Roger Federerâs agent since 2005 and kept in touch with him in recent months amid fevered speculation on social media about the tennis starâs return from two knee operations that sidelined him for most of 2020.The source development paid off: When Federer told his agent that he had decided not to compete in the Australian Open in early 2021, the agent texted Fendrich to give him the news first â even before Federer formally withdrew. Fendrichâs exclusive moved 2 1/2 hours before the tournament director announced Federerâs withdrawal, generating worldwide play. AP was widely credited, including by a leading competitor. https://bit.ly/3niLfak
