Best of the Week — First Winner

AP explores El Salvador’s strict abortion ban through the voices of women who lived it

As the U.S. Supreme Court considers overturning the constitutional right to abortion, reporter Luis Henao and video journalist Jessie Wardarski provided a compelling account of what can happen under a total abortion ban, through the testimonials of women who were raped or suffered miscarriages in El Salvador — where the country’s harsh anti-abortion law committed them to long prison terms.

Henao and Wardarski traveled to rural El Salvador to meet women willing to share on camera their harrowing stories of being imprisoned under the law. To these Salvadoran women, their plight should serve as a cautionary tale for Americans.

The AP pair also sought the views of a Catholic cardinal and a lawmaker who defended the ban on abortion. The resulting all-formats package was used by hundreds of news outlets, was widely praised by experts on the issue and generated impassioned commentary on social media.

For engaging, insightful coverage that gives voice to women who have suffered the consequences of an abortion ban, and shedding light on an issue that sharply divides opinions in the U.S. and beyond, Henao and Wardarski earn AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner honors.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Conductor Dutoit faces new sexual misconduct claims, including a rape

for interviews with six more women who charge that maestro Charles Dutoit sexually abused them, including one who alleged rape. http://bit.ly/2Dbc9KM

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

CBD pioneer peddled vapes that sickened dozens

for linking tainted vapes blamed for clusters of illnesses to a CBD pioneer who was a major drug wholesaler of synthetic marijuana. Mohr traced the vapes back to a woman who had remained unknown for nearly two years – and whose product had sickened dozens of people in Utah and other states. https://bit.ly/31UieXG

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Nationwide review: Some states naming people positive for virus

working with AP colleagues around the country found that at least two-thirds of states are sharing the addresses of people who tested positive for the coronavirus with police and other first responders, and at least 10 states are going further, sharing the names of those who test positive, creating a potential chilling effect on people wanting to get tested. https://bit.ly/3dc0UnE

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Kenyan man’s search for his father runs into church cover-up

for their extraordinary story of a three-decade-long coverup by the Catholic Church about the life of Gerald Erebon, who learned after his mother’s death that his father was an Italian missionary priest who impregnated his mother in Kenya when she was only 16 years old. https://bit.ly/33ony6Vhttps://bit.ly/32rKdyThttps://bit.ly/33DWikN

Best of the States

A powerful retrospective and breaking news, 20 years after Columbine mass shooting

Twenty years have passed since the Columbine high school massacre, which was, to many people, the beginning of school shootings as we know them. In those years, life has changed: Mass shootings happen again and again, schoolchildren participate in lockdowns instead of fire drills, and many reflect on the moment in time when two young men took 13 lives with them on their suicidal quest.

AP was uniquely positioned to cover the two decades since the massacre, with journalists who were there, those who cover the Colorado community every day, and experts in polling, education and guns. Stories by Denver reporter Kathleen Foody and videojournalist Peter Banda led a deep all-formats package by dozens of journalists across the AP telling not just of the carnage but of those who survived it, their struggle, and the future.

But all the planning couldn't prepare anyone for this spot development: Early in the week, Sol Pais, a young Florida woman, prompted panic over a possible attack at Columbine, later taking her own life near the Colorado school. Miami reporter Kelli Kennedy tracked down a good friend of Pais who not only filled in personal details about her in an exclusive interview, but supplied photos of Pais and cast doubt on the official narrative about her friend.

The overarching theme of the spot and enterprise coverage focused on the short and long-term mental health issues from school shootings. The result was a unique, meaningful package that received impressive play nationally – online and in print. The video was among the top-used AP videos of the week.

For their work spearheading the package, and breaking news, Foody, Banda and Kennedy win this week’s Best of the States.

Best of the States

Exclusive: AP obtains cellphone photo, interview at Chicago hospital shooting

As video journalist Carrie Antlfinger awaited a news conference outside a Chicago hospital where a gunman had killed three people a day earlier, a deliveryman waiting for the emergency room to reopen showed her a photo he had taken.

The cellphone photo captured a pivotal moment in the story – the shooter standing next to his first victim, his former fiancee, whom he had shot in front of the hospital.

Antlfinger, who had been dispatched from Milwaukee to cover the breaking story, immediately recognized the value of the image and the man’s firsthand account. While the deliveryman was at first reluctant, Antlfinger was able to persuade him not only to provide the AP with the photo but to go on camera for an interview describing what he saw: the gunman standing over the body with a handgun in his hand, police pulling up to the scene and the gunman shooting at police.

Antlfinger’s scoops – central to the AP’s second-day coverage of the story – were part of an aggressive cross-format effort by AP staff to cover all aspects of the story from day one.

For recognizing a critical way to advance the AP’s reporting and then negotiating exclusive access to the photo and interview, Antlfinger wins this week’s Best of the States.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP Analysis: ‘Obamacare’ shapes state spending on opioid crisis

for their Health and Science accountability data project that revealed how millions is being spent to fight the opioid crisis. The AP analysis of FOIA records found that states with expanded Medicaid under “Obamacare” spent the funding more slowly than states that didn’t expand the health insurance program because the Medicaid already covers nearly everyone who is poor and needs treatment for addiction. https://bit.ly/2yVcqRm

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

APNewsBreak and exclusives on disappearance of Interpol's ex-president

for an AP exclusive and the first one-on-one interview with two he wife of Interpol's ex-president, who disappeared in China.https://bit.ly/2EvQGlbhttps://bit.ly/2OurGz3

Best of the States

#NotInvisible: Why are Native American women vanishing, dying?

It’s a subject that has been largely ignored by the public and mainstream press in the U.S.: the plight of thousands of missing and murdered Native American women across the country.

Albuquerque reporter Mary Hudetz and national enterprise journalists Sharon Cohen and David Goldman teamed up to deliver an impressive all-formats package that illuminated these tragedies, engaging readers on one of the busiest news days in recent memory and earning praise from the industry.

For their efforts, Hudetz, Goldman and Cohen win this week’s Best of the States award.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Reporter’s direct questions to Trump, Putin command center stage in Helsinki

“Who do you believe?”

In the defining moment of the US-Russia summit in Helsinki, President Donald Trump stood side-by-side with Russia's Vladimir Putin and appeared to side with Russian denials when asked whether Moscow meddled in the 2016 election.

The crystal-clear question came from AP White House reporter Jonathan Lemire, who asked Trump to choose between Putin and his own intelligence agencies.

The exchange, and an equally bold couple of questions to Putin, was the capstone of a grueling weeklong reporting effort by Lemire and fellow White House reporter Jill Colvin as they chronicled Trump’s tumultuous travels across Europe. The two, working in cooperation with colleagues in Europe and Russia, delivered smart spot reporting and strong enterprise at every stop on the president’s jaw-dropping trip.

For their exhaustive and highly impactful work, they win Beat of the Week.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Vietnamese hero in fishing boat sinking was also the de facto captain

for exclusively getting the back story that boat modifications may have contributed to the capsizing of a fishing boat whose mixed nationality crew was saved through the actions of a young Vietnamese man who was the boat’s de facto captain, rather than the inexperienced American who was its captain of record. https://bit.ly/2GUuaim

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

APNewsBreak: Trump Jr. and fundraiser had longtime undisclosed links

for revealing exclusively that Donald Trump Jr. and a hedge fund manager who helped raise millions for the Trump campaign – and who later lobbied National Security Council officials – had an undisclosed business relationship dating back years. http://nydn.us/2GRAQyK

Best of the States

APNewsBreak: Man charged with selling armor-piercing bullets to Las Vegas shooter

In the days after the Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 people, authorities said gunman Stephen Paddock acted alone. But search warrants showed that police and the FBI were looking at two "persons of interest."

One was Paddock's girlfriend, whom police had cleared, and the other was a man named Douglas Haig of Arizona.

Haig talked to various media, including the AP, and held a news conference characterizing his sale of tracer ammunition to Paddock as a lawful transaction.

But Phoenix newsman Jacques Billeaud wasn’t convinced. He called a source he has cultivated in law enforcement who was willing to help but didn’t know the answer to Billeaud’s questions. Then, a few days later, the official called to say that Haig indeed had been charged with a crime. Billeaud quickly checked an electronic court records system and found that armor-piercing ammunition with Haig's fingerprints had been found in Paddock's hotel room. Haig was charged with illegally manufacturing and selling the ammunition.

Billeaud's relationship with his source put the AP ahead, and customers used the AP as first word on a competitive story. For sticking with the story and using long-term source work to break news, Billeaud will receive this week’s Best of the States prize.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Millions of world's children lack any record of their births, with potentially dire consequences

for showing the pervasive problems faced by millions of children worldwide whose births are not registered. http://bit.ly/2jMRlUH

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP first to identify, interview Russian-American lobbyist at Trump Jr. meeting

The sensational news about a campaign-season meeting involving a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump’s inner circle – including his son, Donald Trump Jr. – developed over six days, with details and accounts changing almost by the hour. Reports trickled out that another man also was at the meeting to represent Russian interests.

With all major news organizations in hot pursuit, Washington’s Desmond Butler was the first to nail the identity of the lobbyist in question and also to nab the first on-the-record interview with him. For tenacious source work, Butler wins Beat of the Week.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP beats the competition on two big stories out of China

for cross-format teamwork and exclusive coverage of alleged labor abuses at a shoe factory in China making Ivanka Trump-branded items. Kinetz and Ting managed to talk to workers who complained of overtime that stretched past midnight, steep production quotas and crude verbal and even physical abuse. Shih and Ting closely followed the story of three activists detained while investigating the plant, including getting exclusive photos and video when they were later released.

https://apnews.com/6cfff3ca3c7d422594556044369bfb8...

https://www.apnews.com/d120059433fd4767b2e3a1c2477...

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Texas bathroom bill could expose secrets of transgender kids

for an exclusive, intimate, cross-format window into an overlooked population who would bear the brunt of Texas’ proposed bathroom bill: transgender children whose teachers have kept their birth genders secret from their peers. https://yhoo.it/2rNWkb2

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP: Obama ends ‘wet foot/dry foot’ immigration policy for Cubans

for breaking the news 90 minutes ahead of the White House announcement that the Obama administration was ending the longstanding immigration policy that allowed any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil to stay. http://apne.ws/2jAKlsz

Best of the Week — First Winner

Showcasing AP's college football poll

For 80 years, AP has organized the longest-running college football poll of its kind. Every week through each season, AP’s marquee listing tells who’s up, who’s down and most significantly, who’s No. 1. The 2016 preseason poll will start the buzz again when it comes out this Sunday.

But in this anniversary year, AP Sports wanted to do something extra: Produce a composite poll showing which 100 teams ranked highest over the full eight decades and 1,103 polls. The result – anchored by Ralph Russo, Paul Montella and Howie Rumberg – was an exclusive package that dramatically moved the needle on digital, social media and in print, while further boosting the profile of the AP Top 25 poll. It earns the Beat of the Week.