for leading a statewide audit of government compliance with Pennsylvania's right-to-know law and producing an exclusive four-day series of stories. Scolforo directed the efforts of 119 reporters from 21 news organizations across the state.
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for revealing details of General Motorsâ behind-the-scenes push to get to state legislators -- some of them recipients of GM donations -- to adopt rules for self-driving cars that would benefit the company and shut out competitors. http://apne.ws/2lzBxlt
for being first to report the findings of the state of Montanaâs investigation into the deaths of 14 children, and how lawmakers missed a chance to fix the problem: http://bit.ly/2iVA9Zd
Associated Press reporter Elliot Spagat has spent years covering the U.S.-Mexico border, building sources within the federal agencies that enforce the nationâs immigration laws and earning the respect of senior officials.
That source work paid off when Spagat scored an exclusive ride-along as federal agents executed what officials called the largest immigration action against an employer under Donald Trumpâs presidency: An early-morning sweep of nearly 100 7-Eleven stories that targeted the storesâ owners, rather than the workers.
One U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the operation was âa harbinger of whatâs to comeâ for employers.
For his efforts to put AP ahead of the competition (some news organizations cited AP while their own reporters rushed to confirm the story), Spagat wins this weekâs Beat of the Week prize.
for following up on an earlier investigation and showing that Hawaii may have been breaking its own laws for years by allowing thousands of foreign workers to catch and sell seafood as part of the stateâs fishing industry, worth $110 million a year. https://www.apnews.com/c17b1543c8294a40902aeeff608...
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.
When San Francisco-based data reporter Camille Fassett obtained a national dataset on police use of force, she and Washington-based law enforcement team leader Colleen Long pored over the numbers, looking for a new angle on the well-trod issue. Then investigative fellow Helen Wieffering hit on something â the data included numerous instances of force used against teens and kids.
Looking closer, what they found was stunning: 3,000 cases over 11 years where police used force against children, some as young as 6.
To put faces and voices to the numbers, the reporters spent months interviewing children, teens and parents. The team also secured police body camera footage that backed up the stories. The resulting package was a remarkable all-formats look at how Black and brown children are disproportionately affected by police force.For a deeply reported story that explores a little-recognized aspect of police use of force, the team of Fassett, Long and Wieffering is APâs Best of the Week â First Winner.
revealed the disturbing truth about environmental enforcement in Brazilâs Amazon. While reporting on the first days of the 2020 burning season they found that agents of Brazilâs environmental crime enforcement agency had gone almost totally inactive, and that since President Jair Bolsonaro put the army in charge of protecting the rainforest, Brazilâs once-effective investigation and prosecution of rainforest destruction has come to a virtual halt.Investigating on the ground and by phone with sources around Brazil, the team found that Brazilâs army is focusing on small road-and-bridge-building projects that allow exports to flow faster to ports and ease access to protected areas. Meanwhile, the enforcement agency has stopped using satellite maps to locate deforestation sites and fine their owners â a once-widely used technique â and is no longer penalizing illegal logging, mining and farming. On the heels of massive fires last year, this yearâs burning season is on track to be as bad as 2019.The all-formats story received heavy play globally in broadcast, print and hundreds of online news outlets.https://bit.ly/3hWs3gKhttps://bit.ly/31U1fbnhttps://bit.ly/2YWpHXp
âSo long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu,â sang the lead to APâs Jan. 31 story when, after years of divisiveness and debate, the United Kingdom finally withdrew from the European Union.
The sharp and pithy writing was a highlight of APâs unparalleled breadth of journalism, produced by a staff with the depth of talent, experience and knowledge in all formats that would dominate coverage of the historic withdrawal after nearly 50 years.
Video, text and photos staff were deployed to the U.K., including Scotland and Northern Ireland, and to Belgium, France, Gibraltar, Germany and beyond.
APâs multiformat package captured the emotion and news developments on all sides â from the final lead-up to Brexit to the ceremonies, celebrations and pro-EU vigils on the night itself. And it included exclusives, like the reunion of the two miners â one French, the other British â who shook hands when they broke through to connect the Channel Tunnel nearly 30 years go.
For standout efforts in a continent-wide team effort in which there are too many to name, Jeffrey Schaeffer, Susie Blann, Jill Lawless, Raf Casert, Danica Kirka, Virginia Mayo, Martin Cleaver and Nicolas Garriga share APâs Best of the Week honors.
for breaking the news of a lawsuit alleging dozens of victims and decades of abuse at a state-run New Hampshire youth detention center. The lead plaintiff in the suit gave Ramer an exclusive interview and he allowed AP to photograph him, something no other media outlet had done. Ramer also reported that one of the plaintiffâs alleged abusers worked as a clubhouse attendant for the Boston Red Sox until he was suspended without pay in July. https://bit.ly/35U707C
made AP first to report authoritatively that a majority of New York lawmakers favored removing Gov. Andrew Cuomo from office in the days before he resigned.As soon as New York's attorney general released a report concluding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women â and with Cuomo appearing to resist top Democratsâ calls for his resignation â the AP journalists began working the phones and reviewing social media postings, pressing to get every member of the Assembly on the record about whether they would move to impeach Cuomo.By midday on Aug. 4, a day after the reportâs release, their tally of lawmakers favoring impeachment had climbed to 86, allowing AP to move an alert saying that more than half of the bodyâs 150 members favored initiating the process of ousting Cuomo â enough to authorize an impeachment trial. Peltz crafted the findings and other developments into a newsmaking story about the governor's perilous position, and over the next few days the team continued updating their tally as it climbed to nearly two-thirds of the Assembly.The reporting was widely used by online, print and broadcast members, with CBS reading the report on air and CNN crediting the APâs work. https://aplink.news/8ar
teamed up for a close look at the reliability of rapid tests being developed to track the spread of the new coronavirus. In a prime example of AP bureaus collaborating to elevate a story from a national to a global level, reporters in Spain, Britain and the U.S. worked together to reveal that while some were touting the rapid tests as a breakthrough in detecting and tracking the disease, scientists in several countries cast doubt on the testsâ reliability. Spanish scientists said the rapid tests they reviewed were less than 30% accurate. The more established lab tests for coronavirus were about 84% accurate. https://bit.ly/344pzqm
New York-based federal law enforcement reporter Jim Mustian never gives up on a story.
Sticking with a case he began covering at another news organization in another state more than two years ago, Mustian landed a jaw-dropping exclusive for the AP: That a trove of hundreds of confidential emails has surfaced allegedly showing executives of the NFLâs New Orleans Saints doing public relations damage control for the areaâs Roman Catholic archdiocese amid its clergy sexual abuse crisis.
The story had an immediate, visceral impact with readers and earned praise from fellow journalists.
Mustian will continue to chip away at this story and, hopefully, reveal more about the Saints and their involvement with the church. But for now, Mustianâs sticktoitiveness and tough accountability reporting earns him this weekâs Best of the States award.
âDonât dismiss a [story] idea just because itâs unfamiliar. Pelvic exams arenât exactly in the wheelhouse of the State Government Team, but it turned out to be a really terrific and distinctive topic.â
Thatâs one editorâs takeaway from a story by Providence, Rhode Island, reporter Jennifer McDermott and Seattle medical writer Carla Johnson, both of whom, acting on a heads-up from New York photo editor Jenny Kane, found that itâs common practice for medical students to perform a pelvic exam on women under anesthesia as part of their training. Whether the patients have given consent for that exam is not clear, drawing the interest of state lawmakers.
The pair faced multiple obstacles in reporting the story, including initial reluctance by doctors and harried legislators to discuss the issue, but McDermott and Johnson succeeded in defining the conflict between medical schools and elected officials seeking to protect patient rights. Their efforts resulted in a unique story that received heavy play among major AP customers, both online and in print.
For their teamwork, execution and sensitive handling of a complex topic, McDermott, Johnson and Kane win APâs Best of the Week award.
secured rare access inside the federal jail in Manhattan where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, reporting first-hand about the structural mess and squalid conditions. The AP pair had previously reported that the infamous Metropolitan Correctional Center, built in the 1970s, is slated for at least temporary closure. Still, they wanted more.Previous requests had been denied, but Balsamo and Sisak relied on years of deep source work and weeks of negotiations with the Justice Department and the BOP, finally winning access inside the MCC in Manhattan and the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where a majority of the inmates will be moved.Balsamo, APâs lead Justice Department reporter who was the first journalist to cover the resumption of federal executions, came away from MCC with details like: âOne cell is off-limits because the door is now unstable â likely because of the constant pounding over the years from the prisoners inside on the cinder block walls.â New York-based law enforcement reporter Sisak also reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents and judicial orders that detailed the conditions inmates had faced and researched the history of the building.The result was a vividly written and reported exclusive unmatched by any other news agency. The story was picked up by New York media and news outlets across the country. https://aplink.news/xck
for telling the story of migrants who obeyed U.S. instructions and have been waiting in Mexico to apply for asylum. A new lawsuit alleges the Trump administration is carrying out a âbait and switchâ by now banning asylum for many of those immigrants who passed through another country on their way to the U.S. border. https://bit.ly/2MdUBDy
From the very beginning of Jim Mustianâs stellar reporting on the death of Black motorist Ronald Greene, he has been driven by two main questions: What really happened to Greene on the night of his 2019 arrest? And was this a pattern of how Louisiana state troopers treated Black motorists?
Mustian answered the first last month when he obtained body camera video showing troopers stunning, choking, punching and dragging the unarmed Greene as he apologized and begged for mercy.
And he began answering the second this past week when he exclusively reported that the Louisiana State Police has convened a secret panel to investigate whether Troop F — the same unit involved in Greeneâs arrest — was systematically targeting other Black motorists. Mustianâs detailed reporting and solid sourcing turned up new cases and new video, and he landed the first-ever interview with one of the victims.
His scoop scored with heavy play and strong engagement. For dogged reporting to keep the AP ahead on a searing case of racial injustice and its continuing fallout, Mustian earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
exclusively obtained body camera video kept secret for more than two years showing a Louisiana State Police trooper pummeling a Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight, an attack the trooper defended as âpain compliance.âThe dramatic footage of the May 2019 beating of Aaron Larry Bowman â who could be heard wailing between blows, âIâm not resisting! Iâm not resistingâ â was featured with credit to AP on news broadcasts by all three major U.S. networks and in matcher stories by The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN. APâs coverage also included exclusively obtained investigative documents on the case and an emotional all-formats interview with Bowman, conducted just a few weeks earlier, in which he recounted the beating that left him with a broken jaw, broken ribs, a broken wrist and a deep gash in his head.The piece by Mustian and Bleiberg shared a theme with several of the weekâs top AP stories: They shed light on issues fundamental to democracy that no one would have known about without the AP. This was just latest in a series of AP exclusives on the Louisiana State Police that began with stunning coverage of the deadly arrest of Ronald Greene by troopers from the same headquarters. Greeneâs arrest was kept under wraps before AP obtained video and published it earlier this year. Federal prosecutors are now examining both cases in a widening investigation into police brutality and potential cover-ups involving both troopers and state police brass.This weekâs story, accompanied by a video package from Stacey Plaisance and photographs by Rogelio Solis, saw strong play online with 225,000 pageviews on AP News and was APâs most-engaged story of the week with readers.https://aplink.news/tc9https://aplink.video/acm
David Crary heard from his legal sources that something big was coming for the Boy Scouts of America, which has been besieged by sexual abuse lawsuits: a bankruptcy filing.
Weeks before the paperwork was filed, Crary, who has been covering the organization for 20 years, set into motion plans to ensure the AP was well-covered. When the Scoutsâ filing finally came out late on a holiday, his sharply written prep had the story on the wire within minutes, explaining the gravity of the filing and the reasons behind it.
AP journalists around the country pitched in, including Brady McCombs who gathered reaction from Scouts and local councils, spinning it into an engaging follow-up, and correspondent Randall Chase who attended the Scoutsâ first bankruptcy hearing in a Delaware court. Their efforts were rewarded with outstanding play.
For their careful planning and flawless execution of coverage of the Scoutsâ bankruptcy filing, Crary, McCombs and Chase win this weekâs Best of the States award.
delivered back-to-back scoops on the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, that is billed as one of the most secure in America.Balsamo and Sisak first learned through sources that the jail was on lockdown because of a report of a possible gun that had been smuggled inside. Next, they had a scoop when investigators looking for the gun found contraband instead, including cellphones, narcotics and homemade weapons. The spot news died down, but they stayed focused on the story and it paid off: A source called Balsamo and said off the record: âYou'll never believe it, we found the gun!â The smuggled items marked a massive breach of prison protocol and raised serious questions about the security practices in place at the Bureau of Prisons.APâs exclusive was used by virtually every major outlet. https://bit.ly/3aRDLVW
