for reporting that Joshua Pitcock, an aide to Indiana governor and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, was continuing to receive $23,000 a month from Indiana taxpayers for lobbying while simultaneously working for the Trump-Pence campaign. http://bit.ly/2fAGpEa
for completing the APâs yearlong âTrump Countryâ series with a story that spurred widespread discussion â returning to the roots of the presidentâs populist appeal. http://bit.ly/2BZ1eHO
For three months, Associated Press photographer Jae Hong traveled Americaâs West Coast to chronicle the regionâs exploding homeless crisis and do what many try to avoid: look into the eyes of the people living on the streets, in tents or in their vehicles and get to know them.
His series of intimate portraits focused on the subjectsâ eyes and were combined with short text stories to reveal their humanity, whether it was an aging, down-on-his-luck street performer on Los Angelesâ Skid Row or a 9-year-old boy who lives with his family in a rented RV blocks from Googleâs headquarters.
The unique portraits were one part of a larger package of images that Hong and his colleagues across the West â Ted Warren, Marcio Sanchez, Chris Carlson and Greg Bull â produced for a project looking at the roots of the homeless crisis in the region and identifying potential solutions.
For their work documenting the lives of the homeless, the team wins this weekâs Beat of the Week prize.
for exclusively announcing the nominees for the 2018 Songwriters Hall of Fame, getting a full day scoop over other media outlets reporting the news. http://bit.ly/2zLCUaq
When a Minnesota woman was preparing to meet the man who received her dead husbandâs face in a transplant operation, the hospital that performed the surgery â the Mayo Clinic â immediately recommended that The Associated Press be the news organization to tell their story.
In early 2016 AP national writer Sharon Cohen, video journalist Teresa Crawford and photographer Charlie Neibergall had been first with the tale of Andy Sandness and Calen âRudyâ Ross. The AP team's sensitive portrayal of two men who had each attempted suicide, with the one who lived (Sandness) ultimately receiving the face of the one who did not (Ross), had been well-regarded by Sandness and by Rossâ widow, Lilly.
In the months following, Mayo was besieged with requests from news outlets to cover the first meeting between Andy and Lilly, but when the pair began making plans to meet in fall 2017, they wanted only AP in the room.
For their exclusive coverage of that poignant meeting, Crawford, Neibergall and correspondent Kyle Potter win this weekâs Best of the States award.
delivered competitive all-formats coverage of Russian attacks on at least 10 Ukrainian cities, two days after an explosion on the Kerch Bridge between Crimea and Russia disrupted an important Russian supply line.From Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro, AP responded with strong reporting and striking visuals supplemented by user-generated content. APâs photos and videos led major news websites.Read more
AP photographers often scramble to the scene of a news story before itâs clear what is happening.
That was the case on a beautiful Halloween afternoon last week when a call came in to the New York City bureau that there was a swarm of police activity near the APâs lower Manhattan headquarters. News Editor David Caruso ran to the windows and saw an unbroken string of police cars speeding south on the West Side Highway, going down the wrong side of the street. That was enough for him to scramble reporters, photographers and videographers out the door.
At the scene, AP photographer Bebeto Matthews slipped behind police lines and started walking up the street near the west side bike path. He noticed something white on the path and soon realized it was a body covered in a sheet, surrounded by crumpled bicycles and other debris. He began furiously taking pictures, called in what he saw to the desk and then ducked behind some construction equipment to start transmitting his photos on the spot.
Meanwhile, AP photographer Mark Lennihan and stringer photographers Craig Ruttle and Andres Kudacki had also rushed to the scene, making dramatic photos of what would become the worst terrorist attack in New York City since 9/11.
For strong breaking news work that put AP ahead and kept us there, Matthews, Lennihan, Ruttle and Kudacki win this weeksâ Best of the States Award.
for finding that, contrary to conventional wisdom, increasingly automated e-commerce warehouses are creating rather than killing jobs. http://bit.ly/2zTb34l
teamed up for a decisive all-formats win on the ultracompetitive Johnny Depp-Amber Heard verdict with lightning-fast alerts, an insightful text story and a quickly prepared, extensively reported video package.Detailed planning across multiple formats for all the possible verdicts, and sharp, coordinated coverage as the verdict was announced ensured that AP does what it does best: owning key moments of a breaking story.The fast, sweeping coverage scored heavily: APâs all-formats mainbar was used by nearly 1,000 outlets in the first 24 hours with high readership and social media engagement, while the video edits made APâs top seven stories for client usage for the week.Read more
led an AP team producing a visually rich, deeply reported package examining a vast expansion of natural gas facilities in coastal Southwest Louisiana that is escalating greenhouse gas emissions, raising global temperatures, fueling extreme weather and imperiling communities.Reporting from coastal Southwest Louisiana, energy reporter Bussewitz and national multiformat journalist Irvine captured the lives of families hurt by extreme weather linked to a build-out of liquefied natural gas export terminals. But the two went further: They depicted an urgent concern: Where once it looked as if the nation might soon shift away from fossil fuel industries, a reversal has occurred. The U.S. has become the worldâs largest exporter of LNG, with worrisome consequences for Gulf Coast residents and the planetâs climate.A few news organizations, mostly local or niche environmental publications, have reported previously on this issue, but none have had the depth and range of AP's package, with its data, visuals and reporting on human impact.Read more
chronicled the struggle to care for Lawrence Brooks, who at 112 is now the oldest American World War II veteran.The story came about after Deep South correspondent Rebecca Santana received an email about a GoFundMe set up to help Brooksâ daughter care for him. Willinghamâs sensitive and respectful reporting style helped establish a level of trust with Vanessa Brooks, who eventually felt comfortable telling her fatherâs story and she struggles to care for him. The result was a touching tribute to a daughter doing her best in cificult circumstances.Willingham is a corps member in Jackson, Mississippi, for the AP/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Her story, accompanied by Kathleen Flynnâs intimate photos of Brooks and his daughter at home, received strong online play and was featured prominently in The Atlanta Journal Constitution print edition. https://aplink.news/tjr
for solid source work in scoring an exclusive interview with a Navy SEAL injured in the hunt for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. https://apnews.com/aad5bef14ca94edc8176e8839634cfc...
was the first and only journalist to reveal that a New Hampshire therapist accused of sexual assault previously spent 12 years in prison, where he changed his name and earned a degree in counseling after a conviction for a notorious drunk driving incident that resulted in the death of a 12-year-old girl.A tip from the client accusing Peter Stone of abuse started Ramerâs in-depth reporting on the therapistâs dark past and the ethical questions raised over whether professionals should disclose prior criminal convictions.Even major New England news outlets that reported Stoneâs 2021 arrest on sexual assault charges did not link him to his previous conviction as Pete Dushame; Ramer alone made that connection. Her story played widely with news outlets in the Northeast and beyond, and ranked near APâs top for pageviews and reader engagement over the weekend.Read more
for getting out first word of the dismissal of folksy humorist and radio man Garrison Keillor from Minnesota Public Radio. Keillor, the creator of âA Prairie Home Companion,â emailed Baenen with the news, âIâve been fired.â http://bit.ly/2nHRZoJ
secured the first look at a memoir by Natalie Woodâs sister, breaking the story that Kirk Douglas was the man who allegedly sexually assaulted Wood.
AP national writer Italie had been trying for years to get more details about the dark Hollywood secret. Woodâs younger sister Lana had dangled that she would name the person who assaulted Wood only after he was dead. Italie had a hunch Douglas was that person, but couldn't confirm it until now. Well-sourced in the publishing world, he landed a first read of Lanaâs memoir naming Douglas for the assault of her sister.
Italie made sure AP would be first to break it, building in time to craft a fully formed story and give the Douglas family ample chance to respond. Actor Michael Douglasâ response did not refute Lana Woodâs claim, simply saying: âMay they both rest in peace.âThe piece was a major draw â APâs top story in reader engagement for the week. News outlets from Variety to The Times of London picked up the story with credit to AP. https://aplink.news/hh6
for an all-formats package that holds state and federal regulators accountable for doing little or nothing to address rising concerns that sewage sludge, used as cheap farm fertilizer, is contaminating food with potentially harmful chemicals. The team interviewed numerous experts and officials about PFAS, a group of chemicals used in a wide variety of household products and industrial processes. They found concern that certain of these chemicals associated with increased risk of cancer and organ damage could wind up in the food chain fertilized by contaminated sludge. But they also found that the federal government and most states had done little if anything to assess or regulate the amount of PFAS in the sludge being spread on farm fields across America.https://bit.ly/2kRjDiihttps://bit.ly/2mmYxc2https://bit.ly/2lXGo4f
In western Alaska, rape survivors and their supporters say Nomeâs police department has often failed to investigate sexual assaults, especially when the victims are Alaska Native women.
Delivering sensitive-but-powerful coverage from a challenging environment, enterprise photographer Maye-E Wong and freelance correspondent Victoria Mckenzie tell the story of average Americans struggling with sexual violence and law enforcement in small communities. Their work made clear that Nomeâs struggles donât represent an isolated case; it is a microcosm of how police and towns and cities across the U.S. have failed survivors of sexual assaults.
For going to extremes â literally and figuratively â to shed light on a remote corner of the larger issue of sexual violence and enforcement, Wong and Mckenzie share this weekâs Best of the States award.
put AP out front in reporting that an 83-year-old has become the oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail. While writing about the youngest hiker to finish the 2,193-mile (3,530-kilometer) odyssey, Portland, Maine, correspondent Sharp got a tip: M.J. âSunnyâ Eberhart would be the oldest when he finished. Sharp found Eberhartâs blog and developed a rapport over several months with the man who goes by the trail name of Nimblewill Nomad.After exchanging lots of text messages, Sharp got Eberhart on the phone for an extensive interview in which he shared his life story. Portland photographer Bob Bukaty then hiked several miles to meet the octogenarian at the top of 2,536-foot Mount Hayes in Gorham, New Hampshire.The story, edited by New Yorkâs Jeff McMillan, was ready to move when Eberhart finished his trek late on a Sunday afternoon. Accompanied by Bukatyâs engaging photos of the wild-bearded Eberhart, the piece quickly went viral, leaving the competition to catch up Monday morning. Eberhart, for his part, was stunned by the reach of the AP: By Monday morning, more than a half-million people had clicked on his blog. The story also drew response on Facebook and Twitter, and appeared on news sites throughout the region and around the country. https://aplink.news/i2l
Responding to APâs call for ambitious journalism in 2019, Holbrook âBertâ Mohr of the U.S. investigative team tossed out an idea during a brainstorming session: Authorities in Mississippi had found vapes containing fentanyl and synthetic marijuana in stores near Mohrâs home. What caught his eye was that the product was labeled as CBD.
That led to a collaboration by the Investigations and the Health and Science teams that would offer not just the exclusive results of laboratory testing — finding cheap and illegal synthetic marijuana instead of natural CBD in vapes and edibles — but also telling details about the people who bring dangerous products to market.
The âSpiked CBDâ package broke through. It was easily the top story on AP Mobile, and Mohrâs bylined story appeared on the front page of at least 23 newspapers; it was teased on the front of nearly 100 others.
For identifying and leading a collaborative investigative project that connected with customers and readers, Mohr receives this weekâs Best of the States award.
relied on instinct, local knowledge and a deep awareness of the significance of President Joe Biden receiving Communion in Rome to report exclusively that he had slipped into the American Catholic church for a Saturday vigil Mass a day after meeting Pope Francis.The story and an exclusive photo of the Bidens standing in the pew, shot by Winfiield with her smartphone, scooped even White House press officers, who didnât know where the president had gone until APâs pool reporter, Joshua Boak, informed them.Reporters had been expecting Biden would attend Mass on Sunday at St. Peterâs Basilica. Biden regularly attends Mass and receives Communion, but some American Catholic bishops believe he should be denied the sacrament because of his support for abortion rights.The AP story, picked up around the world, was made possible by close coordination with traveling AP reporters Zeke Miller and Boak, the Washington trip deskâs Darlene Superville and White House editor Nancy Benac. https://aplink.news/00j
