across the United States harnessed the APâs national, multi-format footprint to produce an exclusive series of evocative personal vignettes portraying the struggle people faced to make their first rent payment since the economic collapse. The enterprise package received strong play and unusually long engagement times with readers. https://bit.ly/2xVvzG3https://bit.ly/2JLZdjF
President Donald Trump has altered the immigration system arguably more than any U.S. president, meaning this yearâs election could have major implications for future immigration policy and for those trying to enter or stay in the U.S. In the run-up to the election, APâs immigration team unraveled four key policies that have upended lives: reduced refugee numbers, restrictions on international students, a virtual shutdown of asylum and the curbing of legal immigration.
The journalists used unmatched source work, data reporting and APâs global footprint, scoring key on-the-record interviews, from would-be refugees stuck overseas to Stephen Miller, Trumpâs lead immigration adviser.
For timely, in-depth coverage of immigration issues that likely hang in the balance as the election is decided, the team of Spagat, Tareen, Snow, Watson, Bull and Akour wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
Supreme Court nominees are scrutinized for signs of how they may vote on important issues, but Amy Coney Barrettâs jurisprudence told little about her views on gay rights.
Reporters Michelle R. Smith and Michael Biesecker knew that Barrettâs ties to People of Praise, a religious group with anti-gay views, could be an important part of her confirmation process. Through dogged reporting and source work they were able to show that Barrett was a trustee at People of Praise-run schools that had anti-gay teachings.
Their story had an immediate impact in the run-up to her Oct. 26 Senate confirmation. For thorough and groundbreaking reporting on the tightly held views of a justice likely to sit in judgment of high-profile gay rights cases, Smith and Biesecker win APâs Best of the Week award.
When Mexico announced in August that its 30 million students would start the school year using a combination of internet and television-based distance learning, many poor families chose to send their children to work to help survive the pandemicâs economic toll.
With tens of millions of out-of-school children worldwide, AP decided to look at this sad phenomenon on a broad level, from Latin America, where children hammered away inside amber mines or labored in brick kilns, to Kenya where girls had been forced into prostitution while others broke rocks in a quarry.
For their important and compelling work, the team of Maria Verza, Eduardo Verdugo, Alexis Triboulard, Carlos Valdez, Juan Karita, Carlos Guerrero, William Costa, Jorge Saenz, Tom Odula, Brian Inganga, Sheikh Saaliq and Dario Lopez wins APâs Best of the Week award.
collaborated with Chalkbeat, a non-profit that reports on U.S. education, to reveal that schools serving primarily students of color were far more likely to start the year online than schools serving mostly white students â a divide that threatens to further exacerbate inequities in education.Fenn and Hoyer gathered and analyzed the data from hundreds of school districts, while Rubinkam and Vertuno interviewed school administrators, parents and educators to learn about the pressures that shaped districtsâ choices. The all-formats story was co-reported and co-written with Chalkbeat. https://bit.ly/2Rwwxirhttps://bit.ly/2FHfNCwhttps://bit.ly/3iAuaa8https://bit.ly/3iF2KQo
With school districts nationwide wrestling with tough decisions on reopening amid the pandemic, South Carolina reporter Jeffrey Collins wanted to show that process at work.
When several districts rebuffed his efforts at behind-the-scene access, Collins took another approach. He started reporting by watching a school boardâs meetings online, taking voluminous notes. Demonstrating a thorough understanding of what the district was facing, he was finally granted in-person access to the districtâs meetings and discussions for a revealing all-formats package.
For finding a way to delve into a local school boardâs deliberations, and providing insight into conversations happening nationally, Collins wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
The story of George Floydâs death will likely endure as a pivotal moment in civil rights and police accountability, but his life â from a start in Houston public housing to his death in Minneapolis, where he hoped to start a new chapter â wasnât lived in a spotlight.
In a uniquely AP collaboration across states and disciplines, AP journalists turned to people who knew Floyd from his childhood through his adult years, weaving together his story in all formats, enhanced by existing video of the man. The result was a revealing, deeply reported profile, including Floydâs brief turns as a football player, rapper and bouncer, time in prison and days spent trying to help mentor kids to avoid his mistakes.
For persistent, collaborative and creative storytelling that goes to the heart of the tragedy that unfolded in Minneapolis, the multiformat team of Luis Andres Henao, Juan Lozano, Nomaan Merchant, Adam Geller, John Mone, David Phillip and Aaron Morrison shares this weekâs Best of the States award.
analyzed all the arrests over the last two weeks in Washington and Minneapolis, concluding that there is little evidence of âantifaâ or âradical leftâ protest groups provoking violence as President Donald Trump claimed. The story, rich with detail, described who the real protesters were. Among them: a balloon artist, a cellist and a law student. But it was the heft of the reporting â acquiring and scouring hundreds of records in a limited amount of time â that made the anecdotal aspects of the story all the more credible. https://bit.ly/3f80JtW
When smartphone video emerged more than two months after Ahmaud Arbery was killed by a white father and son while running through a Georgia neighborhood, the case burst into the national consciousness. AP race and ethnicity writer Aaron Morrison headed to Brunswick, Georgia, seeking to tell the full story of the 25-year-oldâs life.
Morrison and video journalist Sarah Blake Morgan interviewed Arberyâs mother on the road where her son was killed. That conversation became a centerpiece of the text and visual package, with further reporting by Russ Bynum and Kate Brumback completing the picture.
For a nuanced and unflinching profile of Arberyâs life that spotlights the racism experienced by many young black men and captures the pain of a grieving family, Morrison, Morgan, Bynum and Brumback share this weekâs Best of the States award.
When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced heâd sent a letter leaning on Gunnison County, Colorado, to end an order expelling non-residents during the pandemic, APâs Paul Weber immediately wondered: Why was the top law enforcement official in Texas picking a fight with a remote county two states away in the middle of the crisis? And did Paxton have donors there?
Weber and colleague Jake Bleiberg started combing campaign finance and property records, quickly finding that some of Paxtonâs biggest donors have homes in the wealthy mountain resort town of Crested Butte, Colorado.
Persistent reporting and extensive public records work revealed that Paxtonâs push against the Gunnison health order stood to benefit an exclusive group of Texans, including campaign donors who gave the attorney general a total of nearly $2 million. AP Texas members jumped on the story, using it in print and online.
For alertly connecting the dots between a puzzling press release and a conflict of interest in the attorney general's office, Weber and Bleiberg earn this weekâs Best of the States award.
for a smart analysis of census data that revealed the U.S. âhomework gapâ â the problem of students being wired at school but lacking internet at home. Members had access to the data analyzed by Fenn, many using it to localize their stories. https://bit.ly/2XNcPR8
raced to cover rapidly developing stories as dozens of sports leagues and federations around the globe made decisions affecting players, fans and entire seasons in reaction to the spread of the coronavirus.https://bit.ly/2IXA9Wehttps://bit.ly/3a1Vg5Khttps://bit.ly/2UoUAkehttps://bit.ly/3923lWVhttps://bit.ly/2U37Xru
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
spent hundreds of hours with the Yeshiva University basketball team as APâs religion team looked at how Yeshiva navigates the world of college athletics while facing misperceptions of who they are as Jews â and even outright anti-Semitism, sometimes on the court. The New York-based trio delivered a deeply reported all-formats package as the Maccabees went on a historic run and won their conference championship. AP was there for the games, but also for classes, meals, family time, dorm time and a wedding. The relationship and trust built with the team became even more valuable as the team endures a new challenge: A Yeshiva student, not on the team, tested positive for the coronavirus, causing the team to be banned from a Baltimore hotel.https://bit.ly/2TMEulBhttps://bit.ly/3aOhckThttps://bit.ly/2U1DcSzhttps://bit.ly/3cVdIio
for calling attention to the migrant health care crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border with a compelling, all-formats look at how volunteer doctors are stepping in to care for sick, vulnerable and traumatized asylum seekers from Central America. The team followed Dr. Psyche Calderon as she made rounds in Tijuana, part of a movement of health professionals and medical students from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border that is quietly battling to keep asylum seekers healthy and safe while their lives remain in flux.https://bit.ly/2SmiY6Vhttps://bit.ly/2SpxgUf
When heavily-armored police stormed protesters occupying Hong Kongâs Polytechnic University, AP journalists were there to comprehensively document the violent confrontation that ensued.
The effort to retake the school and arrest protesters trapped on the campus was beamed to customers around the globe in real-time, putting AP ahead of the competition with photos and live video of a dramatic escalation in the struggle between authorities and those protesting Beijingâs tightening policies toward Hong Kong.
The scoops were the result of months of protest coverage by AP visual journalists in Hong Kong, careful planning of how to report the siege, and wise use of AP resources around the world.
The team on the ground â photographers Vincent Yu and Kin Cheung of Hong Kong; Han Guan Ng, Beijing; and Achmad Ibrahim, Jakarta; and video journalists Raf Wober, Hong Kong; Johnson Lai, Taipei; Dake Kang, Beijing; Andi Jatmiko, Jakarta; and freelancers Katie Tam and Alice Fung â delivered days of impressive coverage around the siege.
For smart planning and outstanding execution to document a chaotic story with breathtaking speed and depth, the visuals team covering the Hong Kong protests wins APâs Best of the Week.
AP staffers displayed remarkable professionalism and composure under extraordinary circumstances in their coverage of the Nov. 14 mass shooting at Saugus High School in a Los Angeles suburb.
LA photographer Marcio Sanchez found himself in a nearly unfathomable position: He was making news photos outside a high school where a gunman had opened fire while one of his sons was locked down inside. Later, when Sanchez was safely home with his 15-year-old son Noah, his longtime LA colleague, reporter Brian Melley, did a sensitive interview with the teenager about his experience during the shooting and lockdown.
Meanwhile, veteran breaking news staffer John Antczak in the LA bureau reported the shifting numbers of casualties with careful sourcing and attribution, anchoring the coverage and avoiding the false reports put out by some media.
APâs full complement of all-format coverage was the product of excellent reporting and editing by staffers in the field and in the bureau. That team effort was highlighted by the remarkable work of Sanchez, Antczak and Melley, who earn this weekâs Best of the States award.
for using dozens of public records requests to break news on the FBIâs efforts to warn American colleges and universities that theyâre vulnerable to economic and industrial espionage by China. Emails obtained by AP underscore the extent of U.S. concerns that universities, as recruiters of foreign talent and incubators of cutting-edge research, present a particularly inviting target for espionage. https://bit.ly/2ovvbtc
for reporting that the gunman in the Dayton, Ohio, shooting that killed nine people had significant red flags in his background.Following up on a thinly sourced local news report that Ohio shooter Connor Betts had a hit list in high school, Biesecker and Dunklin began calling dozens of former classmates, particularly those who may have had a chance of knowing Betts well. They struck paydirt with a former track teammate and a classmate who gave firsthand accounts of knowing not only about the hit list of people Betts wanted to kill, but also a rape list of girls he wanted to sexually assault. Both students had knowledge of separate high school suspensions of Betts, and with help from Smyth and others on the ground in Dayton, AP found more people who could confirm the accounts. https://bit.ly/2YIUEQg
Itâs a story so dangerous that the journalists who covered it are still checking their temperatures regulary to ensure that theyâre not infected with one of the worldâs most lethal diseases. Yet APâs all-formats journalists helped tell intimate stories about the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history.
The team â Johannesburg Chief Photographer Jerome Delay, West Africa Bureau Chief Krista Larson, Istanbul video journalist Bram Janssen and Congo stringer Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro â had been planning since April to report on the outbreak in Congo, a journey complicated not only by risk of the disease but also the threat of rebel attacks. And their story took on even greater urgency when the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a world health emergency.
Readers, and editors, around the world took notice as the team produced a series of compelling stories from the epicenter of the outbreak.
For careful planning and execution of multiformat coverage that brought the frightening outbreak to a deeply personal level, Larson, Delay, Janssen and Kudra win APâs Best of the Week.
