for being first to report that testing of prototypes of Trumpâs proposed wall with Mexico found that their imposing heights would likely stop border crossers, a finding that pleased border hawks. http://bit.ly/2n4PUzF
traced the Watts neighborhood of South Los Angeles from the 1965 riots to the Watts of today. While Watts did not experience the violent protests that shook parts of LA and other cities in the wake of George Floydâs killing, the AP team found a neighborhood still bearing scars 55 years after a traffic stop of a Black motorist by a white police officer led to a mass uprising and widespread violence. Through words, photos, video and archival images, the trio takes an intimate look at the challenges facing Watts at a time when racial justice and police violence are central issues in America.https://bit.ly/2E90pxThttps://bit.ly/2Ei193Whttps://bit.ly/34b1wbo
Greg Beacham, sports writer, Los Angeles, for being first to report that the oldest son of the late Kimbo Slice was making his professional debut in mixed martial arts, a sport with a rapidly growing fan base.
scored a revealing interview with actress Glenn Close, who was candid about journalists and others who have focused more on her Oscar losses than on celebrating her eight career nominations. Fekadu, AP entertainment journalist, conducted the interview on Zoom for both text and video. Close addressed the Academy Awards issue, saying: "First of all, I don't think Iâm a loser ... who in (the best supporting actress category) is a loser?â And in reference to her critics she emphatically ended with: âI say, (expletive) them!âThe quotes were widely picked up by publications from Vanity Fair to the New York Daily News, while other outlets ran APâs full story. Clients using the interview video included USA Today, MSN, Entertainment Tonight, Fox and ABC.https://tinyurl.com/3ye74rbwhttps://tinyurl.com/yrc3yxye
gave voice to the intense emotion within communities of Catholic nuns that have experienced devastating losses from outbreaks of the coronavirus. The Felician Sisters alone lost 21 of their own from four U.S. convents, a remarkable blow for a community of about 450 women. This intimate look within the cloister showed the lasting effects of what the pandemic wrought â in this case, the most reverent found themselves questioning faith and how one might continue living when so many nuns didnât.After initial difficulty connecting with receptive sources, national writer Sedensky found Sister Mary Jeanine Morozowich in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, who had a level of introspection and eloquence that would help drive this story. That opened the doors to St. Anne Home in Greensburg. Sedensky and video journalist Wardarski, both compassionate listeners, encouraged the openness of the sisters, helping introduce the pair to others at the ministry. âBy the time Jessie and I paid a visit there, we were able to share moments and conversations with all of them,â Sedensky said. Along the way, a couple of sisters told him that they felt better after their conversations.The package, including Wardarskiâs poignant visuals, found a receptive audience. The AP pair received innumerable emails expressing how much the story moved readers. One was headlined: âMy tears flowed as I read your article.â Another said: âYour article about the loss of these beautiful women will stay with me always. ... You wrote it so beautifully and with such respect.âhttps://bit.ly/3g8vYsGhttps://bit.ly/3gdjJeh
followed up on his previous reporting about migrant David Xol, who was deported back to Guatemala after being separated from his son by border agents in May 2018. Merchantâs relationship-building paid off with a heads up when Xol was one of nine parents who won the exceedingly rare chance to return to the U.S., reuniting him with his son, now 9. AP produced an all-formats package on the emotional airport reunion in Los Angeles.https://bit.ly/2RVbtC0https://bit.ly/2t8xJ2Rhttps://bit.ly/2S4AbQi
With two major cases over partisan redistricting coming before the Supreme Court, how could the APâs coverage stand out?
Missouri-based reporter David Lieb of the state government team provided the answer, taking the results of last yearâs midterm election and applying a formula called the âefficiency gapâ to measure the potential effects of highly partisan map-making on races for the U.S. House and state legislatures. The efficiency gap, developed at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California and The University of Chicago, measures a partyâs advantage on a statewide basis.
His finding: Democrats could have done even better last November had it not been for boundaries created by Republicans during the last round of redistricting â otherwise known as âgerrymandering.â His analysis showed that Republicans won about 16 more U.S. House seats â and held on to as many as seven state legislative chambers â than would have been expected based on their share of the vote.
Lieb and Data Team editor Meghan Hoyer previewed the state-by-state findings for customers and other AP reporters so the data could be used for localizations. The resulting package landed the week before the Supreme Court arguments, and the play was spectacular, both online and print.
The package was complemented by video and photos from national enterprise reporter Allen Breed, based in Raleigh, who traveled to a historically black college in North Carolina, where Republicans had split the campus between two districts, diluting the votes of the left-leaning student body.
Breedâs full-length video ran with the spot stories surrounding the Supreme Court arguments and parts of it were folded into a video graphic produced by New York deputy director for digital graphics Darrell Allen and Minneapolis-based video graphics newsperson Heidi Morrow. It became a key part of the extensive social promotion plan created by Alina Hartounian, the Phoenix-based multimedia coordinator for the beat teams.
For producing a distinctive multimedia package that made the AP stand out on one of the most important and competitive political topics of the day, Lieb, Hoyer, Breed, Allen, Morrow and Hartounian win this weekâs Best of the States.
Associated Press reporter Elliot Spagat has spent years covering the U.S.-Mexico border, building sources within the federal agencies that enforce the nationâs immigration laws and earning the respect of senior officials.
That source work paid off when Spagat scored an exclusive ride-along as federal agents executed what officials called the largest immigration action against an employer under Donald Trumpâs presidency: An early-morning sweep of nearly 100 7-Eleven stories that targeted the storesâ owners, rather than the workers.
One U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the operation was âa harbinger of whatâs to comeâ for employers.
For his efforts to put AP ahead of the competition (some news organizations cited AP while their own reporters rushed to confirm the story), Spagat wins this weekâs Beat of the Week prize.
for their Only on AP story that details new accusations from three women of sexual misconduct against filmmaker Paul Haggis. Getting the story required deft interviewing by the two reporters to get the accusers to open up about their assertions against another Hollywood heavyweight. http://bit.ly/2m4YgY4
for discovering that nearly two-thirds of the building collapses in Mexico Cityâs devastating earthquake last month were caused by a risky building technique now forbidden in seismic hot spots elsewhere. http://bit.ly/2yyvIwS
used sources and reporting expertise developed over many years on the religion beat to explain that while the majority of United Methodist Church congregations arenât breaking from the church over its bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriages, hundreds of congregations have already left the denomination and hundreds more are preparing to leave.Smithâs piece was one of the most approachable narratives of this slow-motion exodus, offering both the nuance and clarity to engage those close to the Methodist church and those new to the story, and was was No. 5 on APâs list of most-viewed stories for the week.Read more
teamed up to chronicle the toll the pandemic has taken on Black funeral directors in the U.S. Some 130 Black morticians have died since the onset of COVID-19, leaving holes not just in their families but in their communities, where they have long played a prominent role. Often admired for their success in business, a number have been elected to political office, served as local power brokers and helped fund civil rights efforts.Geller interviewed the families of Black morticians who died, and Breed shot emotional video and photos of Mullins, South Carolina, funeral director Shawn Troy, who suddenly finds himself trying to fill his fatherâs shoes. The result is a powerful look at a unique toll that COVID has taken in many Black communities.https://aplink.news/f8shttps://aplink.video/b4a
have delivered a steady stream of all-formats coverage amid Haitiâs escalating violence as gangs consolidate power in the countryâs capital. Despite daily kidnappings and the widespread violence, APâs reporting continues at great personal risk. This enterprising story focuses on survivors who lost loved ones and their homes as the gangs fight each other, seizing territory in Port-au-Prince.The team on the ground reported the harrowing stories of families taking shelter in squalid conditions â many of the people initially reluctant to talk for fear of being killed â and visited one neighborhood at the center of the most recent gang war to show charred homes â some still containing the remains of people who did not escape.Read more
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
teamed up to tell the story of the heavy toll paid by Gazaâs civilians in last monthâs war between Israel and Hamas militants, with scores of civilians dead and hundreds of homes destroyed. Looking for a way to tell that story, Laub and Akram went through a list of people killed in Israeli airstrikes, then noticed that the youngest and oldest victims came from the same family â the Kawlaks.The family of four generations lived next door to each other in downtown Gaza City, unprepared for the Israeli air raid that came at about 1 a.m. on May 16, causing homes belonging to the family to collapse. The Kawlaks lost 22 members that night â including the 89-year-old family patriarch and his 6-month-old great grandson who had just lost his first tooth. Three young nieces were found dead in a tight embrace, said one of the survivors. Israel said the strike, the single deadliest of the 11-day war, was aimed at Hamas military targets in the crowded Gaza City neighborhood. Middle East news director Laub and Gaza reporter Akram made a series of visits to the family hoping to interview them. At first, they were reluctant, but the AP pair managed to gain their trust, eventually gettting an exclusive all-formats interview. Thanks to their efforts, the family shared death certificates of all of the victims, along with photos of the men and children. For cultural reasons, the family chose not to provide photos of the women.With strong visuals from video journalist Dumitrache and photographers Hamra and Dana, the result was a compelling account of the terrifying night of the bombing, the familyâs immense grief and poignant remembrances of lost loved ones.https://aplink.news/s78https://aplink.video/1mg
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged across the world last week, and the confirmed U.S. death toll approached 100,000, AP photographers on two continents found unusual and meaningful ways to bring home the tragedy of lives lost. They were:
â Photographer David Goldman, who met with the families of COVID-19 victims at a Massachusetts soldiersâ home, literally projecting veteransâ images onto the exterior of the familiesâ homes for a series of arresting, ghostly and emotion-laden scenes.
â And Rodrigo Abd, who spent weeks with Venezuelan migrants collecting bodies in a poor area of Lima, Peru, showing the abject desperation of that cityâs victims. Also honored is Lima reporter Franklin Briceño who accompanied Abd, documenting for text and video the funeral home workers on their grueling rounds.
Both projects had immense impact online and in print, drawing praise from readers and editors. For intrepid and creative multiformat storytelling emphasized by unforgettable images, Goldman, Abd and Briceño share APâs Best of the Week honors.
for obtaining financial documents that revealed that Minnesotaâs two licensed medical marijuana manufacturers had lost a combined $11 million in their first two years. http://bit.ly/2rKYCU3
The team â Todd Pitman, Esther Htusan and Jerry Harmer â had gone to Kachin state to report on the war between Kachin rebels and Myanmarâs army. Near the end of their trip, they decided to look into a story Htusan wanted to do on bride trafficking. The lead was vague and the team wasnât sure where it would take them.
But then, at a refugee camp, they met Marip Lu. And they knew immediately this was a story that had to be told.
With major contribution by Beijing staffers Shanshan Wang, Yanan Wang, Han Guan Ng and Dake Kang, they tell the harrowing tale of a woman who was kidnapped, held in captivity, raped and then forced to make the choice between freedom and her child. This powerful story, reported and told with great sensitivity, earns Beat of the Week.
for a haunting image of a mother kissing a baby who died in a boat capsizing, drawing attention around the world to the humanitarian crisis of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. http://bit.ly/2xfJ5lJ
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.
