for reporting exclusively that a top European bank official arrested in Latvia was involved in bribing local bank officials and money-laundering, with ties to Russia. http://bit.ly/2CSMqpz
for capitalizing on his understanding of the streaming giantâs business and his history of fair and accurate reporting. Those assets, combined with the APâs reach, enabled him to break the exclusive, market-moving news of Netflix's latest â and largest â price increase. https://bit.ly/2DbT916
teamed up to provide the first public look at large publicly traded companies getting money set aside by Congress to help small businesses. https://bit.ly/2VKZtGe
Small businesses â critical to the health of the global economy â are clearly being hit hard by the pandemic. Over the next six months to a year, Associated Press journalists around the world will chronicle their fight for survival, in an ambitious series called âSmall Business Struggles.â
The first piece, anchored by national writer Adam Geller with a rich digital presentation by video editor Samantha Shotzbarger, got the project off to an incredible start. With contributions in all formats from more than two dozen staffers worldwide, the story brought readers into the agonizing decisions business owners face as they try to stay afloat. The package led the AP News site and was used by digital, print and video customers around the world.
For pulling together the opening salvo in this immersive and significant global project, Geller and Shotzbarger share APâs Best of the Week.
took a detailed look at the federal stimulus bill meant to address the economic turmoil in the U.S. caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Foley found that a $349 billion loan program intended to help small businesses survive will be open to large chains and franchises, jeopardizing the mom-and-pop operations. https://bit.ly/2Xk0w17
worked with his AP statehouse colleagues in every state to reveal how businesses influenced governorsâ decisions on when to reopen state economies during a critical period of the coronavirus pandemic. AP obtained thousands of pages of emails through public record requests filed over several months in all 50 states. In a number of those states, governors overruled public health recommendations at the behest of business interests, only to have to reverse those decisions as COVID cases flared. The story received heavy play, and some AP bureaus added state-specific sidebars for their AP members. https://bit.ly/3hN27UN
for his assessment of how President Trumpâs businesses have fared in the first two years of his presidency, determining that his family business has taken a major hit. https://bit.ly/2s7EPR2
for unearthing a document that showed the Trump administration doesnât consider conserving oil an economic imperative for the U.S., breaking with decades-old policy on conservation. https://bit.ly/2o1DDfU
for breaking the news that the Trump administration is making a new push to get so-called sanctuary cities to cooperate with ICE on immigration enforcement. https://bit.ly/3azEmwd
for being first with the news that the Trump administration would extend temporary residency for nearly 7,000 Syrians in the U.S., but cut it off so new arrivals couldnât apply. http://wapo.st/2EP02Vz
teamed up to reveal wide disparities among the nationâs historically Black colleges and universities, with many smaller private schools fighting for survival.The reporting by Hudspeth Blackburn and Amy was built on an analysis of enrollment and endowment data by data journalists Fenn and Fassett. They found that many smaller, lesser-known HBCUs are struggling with weak endowments, aging buildings and steady enrollment declines. And while HBCUs in the U.S. have received millions of dollars in federal coronavirus aid and fresh attention after last summerâs racial justice protests, not all benefit equally.The teamâs comprehensive story was complemented by embeddable graphics illustrating the disparities, and advance detailed data on all 102 HBCUs for localization by AP customers. https://aplink.news/wrn
for confirming a critical claim in a former business partnerâs lawsuit against Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner â that they met at the Executive Mansion in Springfield on May 11, 2015 â because O'Connor has consistently filed monthly FOIA requests for the official calendars and had Raunerâs schedule from that date on file. http://trib.in/2BRQciC
Shootings in Chicago have captured national headlines, and for good reason: The city has among the highest rates of teenage gun violence in the nation. But where else in the U.S. are teenagers most likely to be killed or injured by gunfire? Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles?
In an exclusive analysis, journalists from the AP, working jointly with the USA Today Network, arrived at an unexpected answer: Except for Chicago, the places with the highest rates of teen gun violence in America are smaller and mid-sized cities â towns like Wilmington, Delaware, population 72,000.
AP data journalists Meghan Hoyer and Larry Fenn led the analysis of 3½ yearsâ worth of shooting cases provided by the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. Baltimore reporter Juliet Linderman, with significant assists from Albany reporter Michael Hill and Savannah correspondent Russ Bynum, picked it up from there. Video journalist Allen Breed produced a powerful video that illustrates the danger and despair, along with the difficulties that WIlmington is having in addressing the problems. The package also was enhanced with graphics from interactives producer Maureen Linke.
For their work revealing a surprising side of teenage gun violence in America, state reporters Linderman, Bynum and Hill, video journalist Breed, data journalists Hoyer and Fenn, and graphic artist Linke share this weekâs Best of the States award.
for getting the first word on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's recommendations on the fates of two dozen federally protected land and ocean sites under review at the request of President Trump. Zinke told AP he will not rescind their status as national monuments but may allow other changes. http://bit.ly/2w2K0Ey
President Donald Trump has long asserted that his tax cuts and other policies would accelerate job growth, which, in turn, would serve the âforgottenâ men and women who had helped propel him to the White House in the 2016 election.
Washington, D.C.-based economics reporter Josh Boak wondered: Had that actually occurred so far? And how much was job growth a motivating force for Trump supporters?
Boak hit on a possible way to hold the presidentâs claims to a fair test. He turned to a relatively obscure report issued by the governmentâs Bureau of Labor Statistics, then merged those economic figures with the APâs 2016 election returns, broken down by county.
The result, under multiple calculations, was clear: The bulk of U.S. hiring under Trump had so far occurred in Democratic counties.
Boak then spent three days in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, an area that had voted decisively for Trump and had lost jobs in the past 12 months. He reported that Republican voters appeared to be motivated more by social issues â opposition to gun control, for example. âOur No. 1 motivating factor,â the county Republican chairman told Boak, âis Second Amendment issues.â
For exclusively documenting how job growth under Trump has disproportionately underserved his geographic base and for illustrating that trend in a community that reflects it, Boak earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
Smart phone private messaging apps are great for keeping secrets. The apps delete messages almost immediately and do not allow them to be saved, copied or captured with a screenshot.
But what about use of the apps by government officials and elected representatives? State Government Team reporter Ryan Foley spotted a trend of public officials increasingly using such apps for official business. Itâs a trend that alarms advocates for open government, who say it undermines state laws designed to ensure transparency and access to records.
Foleyâs research was based in large part on use of a new legislative tracking tool called the Sunshine Hub that was developed by AP Data Team members Serdar Tumgoren and Seth Rasmussen. The tool allowed Foley to see whether bills addressing the trend were being introduced in state legislatures across the country. And indeed they were.
The resulting story won play on more than two dozen front pages and prompted several editorials, including one in The Columbus Dispatch warning that officialsâ use of message-vanishing apps was the same as destroying public records.
For their efforts in exposing a potentially dangerous anti-transparency trend among government officials, and developing a unique tool to track it, Foley, Tumgoren and Rasmussen win the Best of the States award.
One of the most vulnerable senators up for re-election in 2018 â Democrat Joe Donnelly of Indiana - has staked his nearly two-decade political career on opposition to outsourcing and free-trade agreements that ship American jobs abroad.
Following up on a tip from Washington, D.C., colleague Erica Werner, Indiana Statehouse reporter Brian Slodysko pulled together public documents and customs records to reveal that Donnelly has benefited financially from the very free trade policies he has decried since his first run for Congress. As Slodysko reported in his âOnly on APâ story, Donnelly earned thousands of dollars in 2016 alone from stock in the arts and crafts business his family has owned for generations, which ships raw materials to its Mexican factory that produces ink pads and other supplies.
For shining light on something a politician would have preferred left unknown to his constituents, Slodysko wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
for their AP investigation that found that a company owned by a big U.S. political donor had profited by guiding dubious businesses to circumvent anti-money-laundering protections.https://bit.ly/2KEBEaxhttps://bit.ly/2AX87cp
obtained rare access to members of Haitiâs wealthy elite â and to the violent gangs that threaten them â for a deep look at doing business in this failed state. Using contacts and determination and building trust, they explored how entrepreneurs continue to operate in an environment where more than 100 heavily armed gangs control access to the port, the fuel and the food supply chains. Kidnappings and killings are not uncommon in the impoverished capital, leaderless after the assassination of President Jovenel MoĂŻse.During their reporting, the pair was threatened verbally by people who didn't want to be photographed and with weapons by gangsters who didn't want them there at all. After many attempts, Buenos-Aires based photographer Abd and freelance reporter Arce finally gained access to Barbecue, the leader of a coalition of gangs who presents himself as a populist fighting economic injustices, but who operates as an armed thug instilling fear in the people.The piece was among APâs top stories in reader engagement and earned kudos from Pulitzer Center funders: â(Abd and Arce) avoided all the easy frameworks ... and did a fantastic job depicting the abject inequity that is at the root of Haiti's social/economic collapse,â wrote Executive Editor Marina Walker. https://aplink.news/wzdhttps://aplink.photos/b47
for her story showing how the deepening secrecy surrounding Ivanka Trumpâs supply chains makes it impossible to understand who the company is doing business with in China. http://bit.ly/2yDDlQK