for a data analysis that found that non-whites are targeted by the Boston police at rates that far outstrip the percentages these minorities represent in the city's population. http://bit.ly/2pJqcSc
continues to hold Formula One accountable for racing in countries where human rights are routinely trampled. While covering the exceptionally intense and challenging kickoff to the F1 racing season in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Pugmire, APâs Paris-based auto racing writer, held exclusive interviews with a released torture survivor and the 12-year-old son of a man on death row, and pressured Formula One heavyweights to advocate for human rights in both countries.Pugmireâs persistence led seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to tell him, âYou sure donât make it easy for me.â To which Pugmire replied, âThatâs because youâre the only one who doesnât duck questions.â In the private conversation that followed, the two shared experiences of meeting released prisoners, and Hamilton complimented Pugmire on his commitment to the issue. Read more
for obtaining exclusively a draft report of a study commissioned by the state senate that concluded that the victimâs race is a factor in the imposition of capital punishment in the Keystone State. http://bit.ly/2zwAEji
for breaking the news that the racing team of popular NASCAR driver Danica Patrick had sued her primary sponsor for more than $31 million, an embarrassing setback for the sponsor and for her just a few weeks before the season begins. http://apne.ws/2lrDXlH
revealed how pressure and politics have corrupted and delayed the scientific process, slowing the development of effective treatments against the coronavirus pandemic.Marchione reviewed studies that are underway and interviewed dozens of doctors, researchers, patients and policy experts as she looked at organizations trying to do rigorous science, as well as the issues undermining that research. Young found creative ways to tell the story visually, including a GoPro mounted on a medical cart. Together they document a Pennsylvania COVID-19 patient enrolled in a clinical trial.The story â challenging to report because of the fluid and chaotic nature of the subject itself â attracted readers and generated interest on social media, a strong showing for non-breaking news.https://bit.ly/2B1uyxRhttps://bit.ly/2CFLpqo
When Baltimore Orioles' outfielder Adam Jones was the target of racial slurs at Fenway Park, the story resonated beyond sports, and required reporting that provided deeper context and meaning.
Philadelphia reporter Errin Whack has written previously about the intersection of sports, culture and race as a member of AP's Race & Ethnicity reporting team. She was tasked with explaining why Boston is perceived, particularly among blacks, as a racist sports town â a perception that also is challenged by many others as unfair and outdated. She had to figure out a way to plainly and objectively lay out for readers where this perception came from, and the lasting effect it has on both the city and its sports teams.
And she had to get this done on a tight deadline. For her timely, layered look at this racially-charged issue, Whack receives this week's Best of States award.
used the Freedom of Information Act and on-the-ground reporting in the Texas Panhandle to reveal a new Dust Bowl brewing on farmland above the nationâs biggest aquifer â and the halting efforts to stave it off.Farmers, communities and researchers have long known that groundwater in the Ogallala aquifer was steadily declining due to irrigation and might not recover. But while researching a story about disappearing prairie grasslands, Webber discovered that both issues were colliding to create another challenge: As climate change is making rainfall scarcer, farmland is blowing away just as it did during the Dust Bowl.Webber, a member of APâs global environment team, talked to researchers who warned of huge farmland losses, and she traveling to the Panhandle town of Muleshoe where she told the story of farmers planting native grasses to preserve terrain as their wells struggle to produce water. She also reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had identified a Dust Bowl zone where farmers would receive extra money for grasslands conservation, and spent months prying loose government data showing that not all farmers were embracing the program.Webberâs comprehensive and engagingly written narrative, with photos by freelancer Mark Rogers, vividly captured the new Dust Bowl threatening an important agricultural region, and the efforts to keep farmers on their land. https://aplink.news/6or
AP delivered stellar work on the 2022 midterm elections with fast, accurate vote count and race calling, engaging explanatory journalism, unparalleled insight into the minds of voters thanks to AP VoteCast survey methodology, and ambitious, robust all-formats coverage. That teamwork chronicled an unexpectedly successful election for Democrats and the defeat of many candidates who supported baseless claims of 2020 election fraud.
The key to that performance was collaboration among formats, teams, departments and more across the entire AP, not just on Election Day but in the weeks and months leading up to Nov. 8 and beyond. That effort included a team of 60 race callers, APâs expanded national politics team and its new democracy team, 30 live video cameras across the U.S., over 80 photographers and much more, all complementing the footprint of APâs 50-state on-the-ground staff.
For reinforcing the cooperativeâs longstanding reputation as the foundation of U.S. election coverage, APâs vast, tireless U.S. elections team earns Best of the Week â First Winner honors.
teamed up to reveal where Black people in the United States are growing in number and where their population is shrinking. Tareen a Chicago-based race and ethnicity writer, and Schneider, an Orlando, Florida-based census writer, reported a pair of telling stories: one that found Black residents have been leaving some of the nationâs largest cities for the suburbs, and another about Black growth in less-congested cities with lower profiles.The stories, elevated by the work of photographers Huh and Otero in Chicago and Dallas respectively, complemented each other but also stood on their own as strong enterprise work. Other news organizations had done their own stories on Black population trends, but none with the depth and range of the AP package. Read more
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.
took a fresh, insightful look at racial injustice, exploring the trauma caused by exposure to images of police brutality.
Nasir started reporting on the issue while in Minneapolis covering the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. She followed up with interviews of people who experienced the trauma, as well as a psychiatrist and others who specialize in racial trauma therapy. Hong meanwhile delivered fresh images of a man who tries to find balance between his awareness of racial injustice and the pain inflicted by such images.https://bit.ly/2VY45sehttps://bit.ly/3iEqqF5
APâs race and ethnicity beat writer Jesse J. Holland was on vacation in Mississippi when a source called with a tip: New Orleansâ mayor was ordering the removal of the first of four Confederate-related statues in the middle of the night to avoid a racially-charged scene in the city.
Hollandâs quick work to negotiate an exclusive on the monumentâs removal, including an interview with the mayor, and photographer Gerald Herbertâs dramatic pre-dawn photos and video, earn the Beat of the Week.
Coverage of U.S. elections is one of the APâs most crucial missions, carried out in a sprawling but hyper-meticulous operation that stretches company-wide and brings order and clarity to the nationâs patchwork voting system.
In this yearâs election cycle, upended by partisan feuding, a steady stream of disinformation and a global pandemic, the AP built on 172 years of election experience to deliver stories, photos, videos and graphics in innovative ways that didnât just tell the story of who won, but why as well. Among the highlights was a new feature called Explainer that offered contextual looks at the reasons behind race calls for each state, bringing greater transparency to APâs decisions when it has never mattered more.
Success on a story this massive can happen only with months, even years, of diligent planning, strong execution and the dedication of hundreds of AP journalists and support staff. For coverage that distinguished the AP in a momentous election year, the collective work of APâs staff earns this weekâs Best of the Week honors.
used months of diligent reporting and sourcing to gain exclusive access to a financial snapshot of the foundation widely seen as a steward of the Black Lives Matter movement. Morrisonâs story revealed that the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation took in just over $90 million last year, as the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement grew following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.Morrison, a New York-based AP race and ethnicity writer, delved into the tensions between some of the movementâs grassroots organizers and national leaders, showing the full picture of the movement's financial journey â the successes and the growing pains. Morrison's exclusive received many shares on social media and put the AP well ahead of other news organizations. https://bit.ly/389DK0A
gathered and analyzed state and local data to find that nearly one-third of those who have died in the COVID-19 outbreak are African American, with black people representing about 14% of the population in the areas covered in the analysis. And beyond the data the teamâs all-formats story looked into the lives of people personally affected. https://bit.ly/2S4NZLshttps://bit.ly/2VUjJEo
requested data on racial breakdowns for the COVID-19 disease in states, cities and counties nationwide, ultimately analyzing data from eight states, six major U.S. cities and six of Floridaâs largest counties. The result was one of the first and most deeply reported examinations of the racial disparities of U.S. cases and deaths, reviewing more than 4,450 deaths and 52,000 COVID-19 cases across the country. https://bit.ly/2Xy7TSO
used years of data on U.S. attorneys to reveal how any diversity gains made under previous administrations have faltered under President Donald Trump. APâs analysis found the 85% of Trumpâs Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys are white men, significantly more than the three previous administrations going back to 1993. But the numbers were just part of the story. The AP team reported on why it mattered in this moment of national reckoning over racial inequality and the fairness of the criminal justice system. The story articulated how Black and brown people are disproportionately imprisoned but underrepresented in the system that puts them there. The piece included an impressive photo combo of all the attorneys, showing row after row â predominantly of white men â and video interviews on the value of diversity in the U.S. attorney ranks.https://bit.ly/3drn6e6https://bit.ly/318gc8J
For years, marijuana arrests have put minorities in jail at a disproportionately higher rate than whites. Now that recreational marijuana is legal in eight states, the majority of those who benefit most from the profitable industry are white.
Reporters Janie Har, from the Associated Press Race & Ethnicity team, and Bob Salsberg, from the Massachusetts statehouse bureau, set out to explore this dichotomy and how local governments are responding to it.
For their compelling explanation of the cannabis racial divide, Har and Salsberg receive this weekâs $300 Best of the States award.
worked sources on Staffordâs newly expanded beat to land an exclusive on the launch of a climate justice campaign.The effort by the group Donors of Color Network would shift millions in funding toward environmental and justice groups led by Black Americans, other people of color and Indigenous people and came on the heels of President Joe Biden pledging to make environmental justice central to the fight against climate change. Stafford, AP investigative race writer, brought the story to life by taking readers on a tour of neighborhoods in Detroitâs 48217 ZIP code, where residents live against the backdrop of heavy industrial sites that have long been a major concern in the nationâs largest Black-majority city. Baltimore-based photographer Julio Cortezâs photos of Donors of Color co-founder Ashindi Maxton, the storyâs lead character, rounded out the package. https://bit.ly/3d4zfaP
landed an exclusive interview with civil rights figure Hazel Dukes on Rep. Shirley Chisholmâs 1972 run for the Democratic presidential nomination, a first for a Black woman. Dukes, who seconded Chisholmâs nomination, set the tone for Staffordâs multiformat piece, offering an exclusive window into how Chisholmâs legacy folded into the historic vice presidential nomination of Kamala Harris.The timing of the story and Staffordâs inclusion of other key, relevant voices helped set up APâs coverage of Harrisâ remarks to the Democratic convention and elevated the voices of Black women during the DNC. The piece was accompanied by âInspiring Women,â a video that Stafford narrated.https://bit.ly/2EwQTFlhttps://bit.ly/3hATPPC
