for her exclusive story about how the U.S. Coast Guard and Mexican Navy were going after drug smugglers on the high seas â even as the two countries' governments sparred on trade and immigration. https://bit.ly/2q9kvNU
for getting the news out of North Koreaâs attack on U.S. negotiators, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, ahead of the competition. https://bit.ly/2ubIa2R
for mining an exclusive data set to reveal â just as heavy rains and flooding in the Southeast put several dams on the brink of failure â that hundreds of dams in the region lack required emergency action plans to help authorities and downstream residents respond to the threat. https://bit.ly/2T1x3Gx
for breaking the news that U.S. officials had accused New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and his police security detail of violating both US and Mexican law by crossing the border on foot during a visit near El Paso, Texas. https://bit.ly/2L7vq8a
Washington-based photojournalist Pat Semansky was assigned weekend White House duty â a routine gig that meant waiting for President Donald Trumpâs overnight return from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his much-hyped rally didnât meet expectations.
The presidentâs arrival rarely makes a memorable photo, but Semansky dutifully waited until well after 1 a.m., while many of APâs competitors didnât bother to cover. When Trump finally stepped off Marine One, Semansky proved the time well spent: His flash caught an atypically rumpled Trump crossing the South Lawn.
The photo quickly became the signature image of the night, capping days of smart AP coverage on the event itself.
For making the most of a routine assignment to create what is likely to become an iconic photo of the Trump presidency, Pat Semansky wins APâs Best of the Week award.
for scoring an APNewsBreak on one of the most important details of how Olympic leaders in the United States are handling sexual abuse cases, finding that $2.2 million in key federal funds could not be used for the most pressing need of investigating any cases, with a backlog of more than 800 to be resolved. https://bit.ly/2TbqAqE
for breaking the news that after 35 years in Congress from Michigan, U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, a Democrat who chaired the House Ways and Means Committee during passage of the Affordable Care Act, would not seek re-election. http://bit.ly/2iIGOqs
for being first to report that Yale University had reached a $3 million settlement with the family of a graduate student, who was slain inside a research lab just days before her planned wedding in 2009.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/de084c9260a04d1b828...
How best to capture the story of recovering opioid users?
Chicago-based medical writer Lindsey Tanner and Atlanta-based photographer/videographer David Goldman teamed up to produce an intimate look at a diverse group of people â among them, a lawyer, a businessman and a trucker â who got caught up in the worst opioid epidemic in U.S. history.
Their illuminating package â combining Tanner's powerful text and Goldman's photos with a haunting mini-documentary â earns the Beat of the Week.
When BuzzFeed broke the news that the longest-serving current U.S. House member had settled a sexual harassment complaint, one notable thing missing was comment from U.S. Rep. John Conyers himself. The 88-year-old Conyers rarely gives interviews anymore, deferring to his staff to issue statements or simply not responding.
Congress was on Thanksgiving break, but News Editor Roger Schneider suggested that video journalist Mike Householder and reporter Corey Williams drop by Conyersâ Detroit home. They knew it was a long shot â Corey and Mike had been to Conyersâ house before, and knew it was gated.
To their surprise, Conyers answered their ring.
Conyers answered a few questions, giving Williams and Householder a major beat: He denied settling sexual harassment claims and other allegations of inappropriate touching of staffers.
For aggressive reporting that paid off with an exclusive on one of the weekâs top stories, Williams and Householder share this weekâs Best of the States prize.
for breaking the exclusive news that the 42 migrant caravan members arrested during a protest at the Mexico/U.S. border had their charges dropped. https://bit.ly/2Ulvpyf
For many in the U.S. and around the world, 2020 has been one of the most challenging years in recent memory â and a single wildfire photo by freelance photographer Noah Berger, on assignment for the AP, captured the danger, fear and uncertainty wrought by the pandemic.
The ironic image of a sign, surrounded by flames while urging safety, was widely interpreted as a pointed commentary on 2020. The photo went viral and was among APâs most downloaded images of the month.
And that was just one of many photos and videos by Berger that helped put the AP ahead of the competition in recent coverage of fires in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For his courageous and committed work, and a remarkable photo that frames much of 2020 in the context of a raging wildfire, Noah Berger wins APâs Best of the Week award.
Earmarked for deportation, the immigrant children, some mere toddlers, were parked in nondescript hotels â out of sight and, the Trump administration thought, out of mind. But not out of reach of an Associated Press exclusive.
With an investigation based on source work, court records and witness accounts, immigration reporter Nomaan Merchant exposed how the Trump administration held children in hotels despite federal anti-trafficking laws and court rulings that mandate child-appropriate facilities.
Merchantâs exclusive sparked outrage and accusations of child abuse. Five days later, the Trump administration said it would not expel 17 people, including children, detained at one Texas hotel, and the hotels pledged to stop allowing the practice.
For his investigative story that punctured layers of secrecy and changed the fortunes of all-but-invisible immigrant children, Merchant wins APâs Best of the Week award.
for their teamwork and persistence that led to two major scoops on a story of international interest: the arrest by U.S. authorities of a prominent Iranian anchorwoman. AP was first to report the release of Marzieh Hashemi, and scored the first interview with her â- ahead of even her own network.https://bit.ly/2WAGRqNhttps://bit.ly/2G4CLSMhttps://bit.ly/2D4tYMK
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
For more than a decade, Washington photo editor Jon Elswick has negotiated with the Department of Defense over coverage plans for the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush, while Houston photojournalist David Phillip fostered a relationship with the Bush family and their spokesman to secure APâs shooting positions for the eventual funeral events.
Those relationships were crucial to arranging and executing coverage, paving the way for more than two dozen staffers to parachute into Washington, Houston and College Station, Texas, where they produced outstanding photos in real time and for the history books.
Among the highlights: Photographer Morry Gash fired a remote-controlled camera that captured a stunning birdâs-eye view of the U.S. Capitol rotunda during visitation and services, and David Phillip negotiated to shoot inside the railroad car carrying the coffin as the funeral train passed through Texas. Phillip called it âthe most incredible event I have ever covered.â
The photo coverage was part of an impressive dayslong cross-format effort by scores of AP staff across the country and globe that included hours of live video and spot and breaking text, video, audio and graphics coverage that explored Bushâs life and presidency from every angle.
For exceptional planning and execution on one of the largest news events of the year, this weekâs Best of the States goes to the team of photo staff covering the Bush funeral.
The reason the warden at a large San Diego detention center gave for not wearing masks amid the pandemic was astonishing â and likely helped fuel a large outbreak.
âWell, you canât wear the mask because we donât want to scare the employees and we donât want to scare the inmates and detainees,â a guard recalled being told.
Thatâs just the lead of the story by APâs Elliot Spagat, who landed the first detailed interviews with employees and detainees about the situation at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Spagat also reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents and government data to provide the most complete account yet of the first major outbreak at a U.S. immigration facility.
For giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the factors that surely contributed to the virus outbreak, and for holding the warden and other officials accountable, Spagat wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
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.
In the months after a shocking Pennsylvania grand jury report on sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, scattered dioceses across the country started putting out their own lists of molester priests. Some state and local authorities also announced they would investigate the church.
News outlets began reporting the varied efforts piecemeal. But no one was capturing the big picture â including the sudden urgency being shown by the church to open its books on past abuse.
Reporter Claudia Lauer in the Philadelphia bureau set out to fix that. Starting in November, she began systematically documenting every investigation taking place around the country and every instance of a diocese naming abusive priests in the wake of the Pennsylvania report.
With the number of US dioceses totaling 187, it was a time-consuming task. But that work paid off with her Jan. 3 exclusive. Lauer tallied more than 1,000 names publicized by 50 or so dioceses and established that over 50 more dioceses were committed to naming names. She also identified nearly 20 outside investigations taking place across the country, both criminal and civil.
The story won phenomenal play online and in print and generated huge interest on social media. Some Catholic publications used her story to provide an update on developments in the church.
For her painstaking and dogged work to document what has been happening in the church nationally in the wake of the Pennsylvania report, Lauer wins this weekâs Best of the States.
scored an exclusive, on-the-record interview about U.S. plans to share 60 million doses of vaccine with the world.Miller, who has turned COVID reporting into a fulltime beat at the White House, repeatedly prodded officials on a matter of keen global interest â an explanation for why the U.S. wasnât sharing more of its vaccine supplies with the rest of the world. Just days after Miller had teamed up with reporters around the globe for a story on the growing calls for the U.S. to start sharing doses with poorer countries, the White House responded to Millerâs latest request with a promise: âDo we have some news to share with you.â Ninety minutes later, Miller was on the phone with COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients and his deputies who outlined plans to share millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.AP had the story exclusively, with the only on-the-record comments from Zients. Other major news organizations scrambled to match the news, some with anonymous sourcing. Millerâs scoop scored the most use by AP customers for the day. https://bit.ly/3vME9Q6
