for giving readers the first word on two key decisions by Pennsylvaniaâs governor as he combats a budget crisis: a prison closing and the consolidation of four government agencies. http://bit.ly/2jKDTyQ
collaborated on in-depth coverage from all corners of the Colorado River basin, building a comprehensive, visually engaging and illuminating series on the state of one of Americaâs most important rivers, which is approaching a crisis point because of climate change and overuse.All-formats AP journalists teamed up with the Colorado Sun, Albuquerque Journal, Salt Lake Tribune, Arizona Daily Star, Nevada Independent and Santa Fe New Mexican, all contributing stories from their respective states.The series included 11 text stories, with photos and animations for each, exploring the river from the perspectives of all seven Basin states, Native American tribes and Mexico. The package featured two revealing video pieces, an overview of how the river got to this point and the challenges tribes face to exercise their water rights. One week after the series launch, the stories had been picked up by more than 1,100 outlets.Read more
for breaking the news that the state Health and Human Services director was being charged with manslaughter in a death attributed to the Flint lead-water crisis. http://trib.in/2t0F2b2
delivered a fast, smart follow-up after U.K.-based Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals announced a U.S. settlement over its role in the opioid epidemic. The teamâs analysis revealed that Mallinckrodt and one other generic drug manufacturer were responsible for the vast majority of high-dosage prescription painkillers â billions of generic pills â distributed throughout the U.S. during the height of the opioid epidemic. https://bit.ly/2IoXuQG
New York-based federal law enforcement reporter Jim Mustian never gives up on a story.
Sticking with a case he began covering at another news organization in another state more than two years ago, Mustian landed a jaw-dropping exclusive for the AP: That a trove of hundreds of confidential emails has surfaced allegedly showing executives of the NFLâs New Orleans Saints doing public relations damage control for the areaâs Roman Catholic archdiocese amid its clergy sexual abuse crisis.
The story had an immediate, visceral impact with readers and earned praise from fellow journalists.
Mustian will continue to chip away at this story and, hopefully, reveal more about the Saints and their involvement with the church. But for now, Mustianâs sticktoitiveness and tough accountability reporting earns him this weekâs Best of the States award.
Venezuela was one of the least-prepared countries in the world to fight the coronavirus. But it has arguably succeeded on one front: suppressing news of the virusâs true impact on its people. The country has acknowledged only 814 COVID deaths. But this Caracas-based all-formats AP team scored a breakthrough, telling the actual story in a country where contradicting the governmentâs official narrative can lead to detention.
Documenting two women working to ensure the survival of their fathers, the AP journalists delivered a hard-won, startling and exclusive look at the bleak state of health care and the plight of relatives who risk their own lives to care for loved ones in the COVID-19 wing of a rundown public hospital.
For their determination and courage to report this story and expose Venezuelaâs ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Smith, Cubillos and Arraez earn APâs Best of the Week honors.
Since the pandemic took hold in America, myriad stories have covered the broad economic impact of millions laid off or underemployed. But few have captured how the chilling trickle-down effect is changing lives.
Enter Kelli Kennedy. The Florida reporter produced a compelling, poignant story on one man's struggle with the devastating effects of the coronavirus shutdowns. Orlando resident Jeff Lello lost his waiter job, ended up homeless and briefly lived in a tent in the woods.
The story was among APâs most-read of the week, drawing feedback from readers, colleagues and even politicians.
For a stark narrative of unemployment wrought by the pandemic, Kennedyâs story wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
When photographer Jae C. Hong returned to Los Angeles after a year in Japan, he was struck by how the number of homeless people had vastly multiplied. It was immediately before the pandemic -- and Hong, like so many reporters in the AP, spent much of the next year chronicling the impact of coronavirus.
Earlier this year, he was able to get back to the project heâd yearned to pursue and started chronicling homeless Angelenos between other assignments. One night, he encountered two police officers standing over a dead body -- and his project, spotlighting the lives, and sometimes the deaths, of fentanyl addicts, began to take shape.
Hong spent about six months documenting the humanitarian disaster. What he produced were gut-wrenching photos that gave a rare, intensely personal and brutally honest look into the tragedy unfolding on the streets of LA, an unconscionable scene often overlooked. AP writer Brian Melley, using Hong's reporting and experiences, crafted a story of equally vivid imagery that portrayed the raw human suffering with sensitivity to complete the package. The package was widely used and kept readersâ attention. The engagement score on AP News was a perfect 100 and Facebook featured it on its news feed.
For focusing on a problem that is too often unseen and producing a raw, compelling visual package, this weekâs first Best of the Week is awarded to Los Angeles photojournalist Jae C. Hong.
alertly put AP out front of a burgeoning migration crisis on both sides of the Spain-Morocco border.While much of the world focused on the conflict in Gaza, Parra noticed something unusual on May 17: Dozens of migrants had entered Ceuta, Spain, that morning by swimming from Morocco. Usually, migrants seeking to enter Ceuta â in Spanish territory in North Africa â do so by climbing the border fence in small groups, evading the Moroccan security forces that keep would-be migrants away from the frontier. Parra filed a brief story and flagged it to other formats. Additional reporting confirmed something bigger was brewing, with the Moroccan authorities relaxing border security amid a diplomatic dispute. The all-formats team quickly responded, capturing riveting images of migrants swimming ashore by the thousands as Spain deployed troops and armored personnel carriers. Video coverage, both live and edited, showed migrants, including children, being rounded up on the beach and immediately returned to Morocco through a border gate by baton-wielding Spanish soldiers. There were also dramatic photos from the Moroccan side of the border, giving AP comprehensive coverage from both sides of the humanitarian crisis.Play for the story was tremendous. The video edits scored heavily and Armangueâs photos landed on news sites and in newspapers around the world, including in Spain, where the top papers used his photos on the front page two days in a row. His photo of a young migrant hugging a Red Cross volunteer on the beach went viral in social media and became perhaps the most iconic image of the crisis.https://aplink.news/mefhttps://aplink.news/vqihttps://aplink.photos/emahttps://aplink.video/j7whttps://aplink.video/zxuhttps://aplink.news/h8zhttps://aplink.photos/f8x
for revealing the list of demands by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries on Qatar to resolve a major diplomatic crisis. http://apne.ws/2sxygIL
AP Portland, Oregon, reporter Gillian Flaccus has long followed a simmering issue in the Klamath River Basin, a swath of rural agricultural land in Northern California and southern Oregon that is ground zero for the fight over an increasingly precious resource in the American West: water. Amid extreme drought in the region, the U.S. government has stopped irrigation to hundreds of farmers for the first time in history, while Native American tribes along the 257-mile Klamath River are watching fish species hover closer to extinction. The farmers face ruin and tribes worry their culture will vanish.Flaccus has developed deep sources with area farmers as well as tribal members and recently spent nearly a week in the remote area with freelance photographer Nathan Howard documenting an issue that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Working with New York photo editor and digital storyteller Alyssa Goodman, they produced a sweeping, striking all-formats package that showed the pain on both sides as people begin to realize the water may not be coming back. The package was among APâs most-viewed stories for Friday. For immersive journalism that explores the human consequences of drought in the U.S. West, Flaccus, Howard and Goodman receive this weekâs Best of the States award.
The scene, presented in the most vivid close-up, shows a paramedic frantically pushing an IV full of an opioid blocker into the vein of a woman turning blue and barely breathing. Then the radio squawks: Two more overdoses just reported. Where will Claire Galofaroâs riveting narrative go from here?
âThe womanâs eyes blinked openâ she writes next. Then: âRed lights on the phone at the 911 dispatch center flashed faster and faster until all 16 lines were screaming. They called from the dining room of a rickety house, the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, the bathroom of a gas station. `People are dying everywhere,â one caller said.â
worked sources to report exclusively that criminal charges would be filed against former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and others in the Flint water crisis, one of the worst human-made environmental disasters in U.S. history.White was reporting an unrelated story when he asked a source about any developments in the Flint investigation. That paid off with a tip â confirmed with a second source by Eggert â about the imminent charges.The bombshell exclusive hit a full two days before the official announcement and was APâs most-used story by customers online that day, widely credited by local and national news outlets, including the Detroit Free Press and the New York Times. https://bit.ly/35T67z6
for exclusive reporting that counterfeit vape pens and packaging are selling in in sight in downtown Los Angeles and online, fooling consumers, harming legitimate companies and possibly contributing to the spreading health crisis linked to vaping.https://bit.ly/2kW6B34https://bit.ly/2mtubEPhttps://bit.ly/2kocs0G
for obtaining an exclusive interview with the new interim U.S. attorney for half of Pennsylvania about his son's heroin death, the first time the prosecutor had spoken publicly about the tragedy. http://bit.ly/2iJCUfS
Few places in America have been as hard hit by the pandemic as the Texas border, and the package by this all-formats team exposes the stark contrast between this part of the country and regions with greater resources.
With access to two hospitals overwhelmed by cases in the Rio Grande Valley, AP reporter Paul Weber, photographer Eric Gay and video journalist John Mone carefully documented stories of patients and staff, including a new mom in the maternity ward who unknowingly contracted the virus and had to be isolated from her newborn.
Weber wrote: âThe U.S. failure to contain the pandemic has been laid bare.â
For a compelling and hard-to-report all-formats package, Weber, Gay and Mone win this weekâs Best of the States award.
for being the first to report that misconduct in office charges against eight current and former employees in the Flint water crisis ... http://wapo.st/2bH9Z8D
sidestepped resistance from Vice President Kamala Harrisâ office to report on the vice presidentâs connections to India, even as the coronavirus raged in India and the U.S. came under criticism for not doing more to aid the country. Harrisâ mother had immigrated to the U.S. from India in the 1950s to pursue a career as a scientist.White House reporter Jaffe lined up a Zoom interview with Harrisâ uncle in New Delhi, who had spoken with the vice president on his 80th birthday this spring. And New Delhi writer Krutika Pathi contributed comments from the administrator of a temple in the hometown of Harrisâ grandfather in southern Tamil Nadu state. Jaffe rounded out the story with India-related tweets from Harrisâ niece in California and background on the vice presidentâs many comments about her ties to India over the years.The story generated strong play, particularly in Indian media, including online versions of the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times.https://bit.ly/3tFOH1Chttps://bit.ly/3vZZdT7
The thousands of refugees spilling over the border into Sudan from Ethiopiaâs Tigray region are some of the only firsthand witnesses to a worsening conflict that remains out of reach for most of the worldâs media. Crossing a remote desert area, they recount ethnic-targeted killings, many fleeing at a momentâs notice and leaving loved ones behind amid an offensive by the Ethiopian government against Tigray separatists.
Video journalist Fay Abuelgasim and photographer Nariman el-Mofty have put individual faces on the complex story since arriving at the Sudan-Ethiopia border area nearly two weeks ago. Along with reporters Sam Magdy in Cairo and Cara Anna in Nairobi, their work has revealed the human toll of a conflict to which access remains tightly restricted, even as the United Nations warns of possible war crimes. AP clients have recognized the work with strong play.
For their determined, resourceful and revealing work to document the individual struggles of an escalating refugee crisis, Abuelgasim, el-Mofty, Anna and Magdy earn APâs Best of the Week award.
for months of careful relationship building with opioid addicts and their loved ones, resulting in a richly-detailed package about opioid addiction in Australia, where stigma around addiction remains high. The stories revealed how drug companies and the Australian government have contributed to the crisis, and an intimate narrative provided striking detail about the pain and impact of opioid dependency on addicts and their families. To find the right subjects, Gelineau contacted countless rehab centers, doctors, pain groups, nonprofits and addiction specialists, combed through online forums and social media and read through thousands of signatures on petitions related to opioid abuse. Putting the pieces together also required painstaking sifting through data from Australiaâs de-centralized health system and 12 years of coronersâ reports to find early warnings about the opioid crisis. The work resonated with readers, and the director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, which funded the stories, called them âstellar journalism ... so well told and presented,â while the mother profiled in the teamâs narrative piece wrote to Gelineau, âIâm so grateful for having met you, Sam and Goldie. You have given me a voice.âhttps://bit.ly/2kebqV7https://bit.ly/2lKn9ez
