for documenting a depressing, little-known trend: Many struggling U.S. factory cities have actually lost a greater proportion of white collar than blue collar jobs.
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For weeks, critics had complained that the Trump administration was putting political concerns ahead of scientific recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control.
A blockbuster AP scoop amplified those complaints: Reporters Jason Dearen and Mike Stobbe worked sources to reveal that President Donald Trumpâs administration shelved the CDCâs guidelines containing step-by-step advice to authorities on how and when to reopen businesses and other public places during the pandemic.
The story dominated news media and was by far the best-performing story on AP News for the week. And in a follow-up exclusive, Dearen reported on documents showing the decision to withhold came from the highest levels of the White House, and that the Trump administration ordered key parts of the CDC guidelines fast-tracked for approval after the APâs story appeared.
For a major scoop that resonated among customers and readers and finally brought to light the scientistsâ suppressed guidelines for how the country should reopen, Dearen and Stobbe win APâs Best of The Week award.
for delving into the world of intersex children by winning the trust of a family to tell of their struggles and triumphs in raising two such children who share male and female traits. The all-formats package brought understanding of a condition unfamiliar to most people, and perhaps empathy for the familyâs children, as well as a conflicted father and a mother who wants to share her learned experience.https://bit.ly/2WJtKrahttps://bit.ly/2RgOmkC
broke the news that a U.S. Navy veteran detained in Iran for two years, Michael White, had been released from custody as part of a deal that resolved a Justice Department case against an American-Iranian doctor in the United States. The AP was far ahead of competitors with the breaking story and key details of the deal, the result of months of reporting by Lee and Tucker, including constant checks with sources in government and elsewhere. https://bit.ly/3cQC3or
for a fast, dramatic lead on Trumpâs refusal to say whether he would accept the results of the election that grabbed the nationâs attention and shaped how the rest of the media wrote about the final debate. http://bit.ly/2ezTuwf
captured the surprising extent of pre-election lawsuits â more than 100 filed around the country, largely by Republicans â as the legal action lays the groundwork for challenges to midterm election results. The suits target rules for mail-in voting, early voting, voter access and registration, and more.White House reporter Long identified the broader trend and also uncovered an entirely unreported GOP strategy of approaching the midterms with thousands of volunteers and lawyers hired across the nation. Her assessment: The legal actions likely preview a contentious post-election period.Read more
It was supposed to be a 15-minute interview. Instead, Associated Press Chief White House Correspondent Julie Pace kept President Donald Trump talking for an hour in a wide-ranging Oval Office discussion that was exclusive, illuminating and full of news.
Pace's sit-down with the president â resulting in multiple stories that others scrambled to follow and a transcript that readers devoured despite its 8,000-word length â earns the Beat of the Week.
for a scoop that three wills purported to be written by the late âQueen of Soulâ had been found in her suburban Detroit home and filed in probate court. Moody found out about the upcoming filing from a longtime source close to the family. White went to the courthouse and through a friendly clerk, got the filing five minutes before the court closed. https://bit.ly/2VEetm0
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.
recognized news when they heard it. The White House reporters jumped on President Joe Biden's off-the-cuff warnings about nuclear âArmageddon,â made during a sleepy fundraiser, and set the news agenda, immediately moving a news alert followed by a 200-word story that rocketed around the globe ahead of all competitors.Read more
As the search for Alabama fugitives Casey White and Vicky White captured the attention of the world, Washington-based federal law enforcement reporter Mike Balsamo reached out, working his network of sources in the Justice Department and the U.S. Marshals Service for details.
Balsamo also connected with the U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Alabama, knowing he would be the person most likely to have the inside information that would enable AP to put together a clear timeline of a messy escape saga littered with gaps and confusing accounts.
That contact turned out to be pivotal after the pursuit came to a violent end in Indiana on May 9. The marshalâs exclusive account of the 11-day search, coupled with details Balsamo picked up from other sources, gave AP a story rich with previously unreported detail and context. It also made for an exceptionally easy-to-follow narrative. The resulting story played widely, from Alabama to Australia.
For using all his resources to distinguish APâs coverage on this extremely competitive story, Mike Balsamo is APâs Best of the Week â First Winner.
AP staffers are often called the âMarines of journalism.â First in, last out.
Our small New Zealand team of Mark Baker and Nick Perry showed what that looks like as they responded to horrific mass shootings at two mosques. Their swift response securing early, definitive images and witness accounts laid the foundation for the APâs dominant, agenda-setting coverage of the tragedy in the hours and days that followed.
Baker, the Southeast Asia photo editor known widely as âCrusty,â lives in Christchurch, where the attack happened. He heard radio reports of a possible shooting at a mosque and quickly alerted Perry, the Wellington correspondent, to get words on the wire. Baker headed immediately to the scene, where his early images of survivors became the definitive shots of the tragedy.
Back in Wellington, Perry aggressively filed on breaking developments before going to Christchurch, where he scored another major win for AP by interviewing an Afghan refugee who would be hailed as a hero for confronting the gunman, likely preventing more deaths.
Asia quickly deployed reinforcements, with cross-format teams ensuring AP kept up its advantage on the ground while colleagues from afar kept the story fresh as Asia slept.
For their quick response that showcased APâs fundamental advantage when news breaks across the world, Baker and Perry share APâs Best of the Week award.
collaborated with a team of AP state reporters on an analysis of federal data, finding that states passing the toughest abortion restrictions are generally the most challenging places for people to have and raise children. With the U.S. Supreme Court widely expected to roll back abortion rights later this year, the data and reporting revealed a weak network of social services in many of these states for women who become pregnant and may be unable to obtain an abortion.APâs analysis, led by data journalists Fassett and Lo, looked at seven social safety net measurements collected by the federal government; visualized in an engaging interactive by the data teamâs Gorman. The reporting team, led by Utah statehouse reporter Whitehurst, interviewed parents, researchers and nonprofit groups that provide support to pregnant people, new parents, infants and young children. And while the data overwhelming showed that Republican-controlled states with strict abortion laws performed the worst on these social services, the reporting also came with the important caveat that a few Democratically controlled states with more permissive abortion laws also measured poorly in some categories.Read more
used AP feeds from across the country to report exclusively that millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by President Trump, were flowing from private companies and the federal stockpile to states and cities, despite warnings from doctors that the drug was unproven for treatment of COVID-19. https://bit.ly/2zJ7fYP
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
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
New York-based health and science reporter Mike Stobbe and Rome video journalist Trisha Thomas delivered two very different exclusives that stood out amid the weekâs impressive range of AP coronavirus coverage.
Stobbe was the first to report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wanted to tell a wide swath of Americans that they shouldnât get on commercial flights because of the virus. But the agency was overruled by the White House. Instead, federal officials settled on softer, less direct language. Realizing the significance, Stobbe pressed multiple sources until he had confirmation of the White House action.
Meanwhile, continents away, Rome visual journalist Trisha Thomas was visiting Padua when she learned the Italian city was about to be locked down. After making frantic arrangements to leave by train, she turned her personal odyssey into a cross-format package, producing a first-person essay and video story that gave a human face to Italyâs virus emergency.https://bit.ly/2TUgQCohttps://bit.ly/2W6dxL8
As AP race and ethnicity writer Aaron Morrison covered the protests that grew out of the 2020 killings of George Floyd and others, he also saw President Donald Trump on TV, trying to undermine the racial reckoning at every turn.
Fast forward to Jan. 6, when a mob of mostly white rioters, upset that Trump wasn't reelected, violently breached the U.S. Capitol. Morrison connected the dots of what he described as a war of white aggression. âA war rages on in America,â Morrison wrote in this analysis piece, âIt started with slavery and never ended ...â
With powerful video by Noreen Nasir, portraits by Chris Carlson and presentation by Alyssa Goodman, the package received prominent play and sparked discussion both online and within the AP.
For a timely, compelling package that looks at the state of race relations with historical context and thoughtful analysis, the team of Morrison, Nasir, Carlson and Goodman earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
AP investigative reporter Jason Dearen received a curious email on Dec. 1, claiming to be from Joseph Moore, a man DearenâŻhad written about months earlier. Moore was an FBI undercover informant who had infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Florida and disrupted a murder plot by three klansmen working as prison guards.
Dearen and AP visual journalist Robert Bumsted soon found themselves in Florida interviewing Moore about his years in the klan.
Moore said heâd identified dozens of law enforcement officers who were either sympathetic to the klan, or active members, telling AP, âIt is more prevalent and consequential than any of them are willing to admit.â Dearen also came away with details to further challenge Florida officialsâ claims that they have no indication of wider klan or other criminal gang activity among their prison guards.
The âmust readâ story, accompanied by Bumsted's video, lit up online and numerous film producers inquired about film rights.
For chasing the story so long and covering it so well that it brought an underground FBI informant out of the shadows, Dearen and Bumsted earn APâs Best of the Week â First Winner honors.
for one of the most thorough and extensive examinations into the thousands of abandoned mines that are scattered across the American West, transporting readers to a place most will never go: The dark, dangerous and for some, enchanting, underground caverns. https://bit.ly/2zgFD9phttps://bit.ly/2qK0Epnhttps://bit.ly/2RI12zW