for breaking the news about a proposed House bill that would cut disaster relief money to help finance President Trump's border wall, and being first to report the amount of money Trump would request for Harvey aid. http://ti.me/2gNUbaZ
for all-formats coverage on the issue of immigration with a unique package that explores the toll of deportations on âmixed-statusâ families. https://bit.ly/2ObVYD7
for dominating coverage in the aftermath of the death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan migrant Jakelin Caal in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol.https://bit.ly/2T0U0qMhttps://bit.ly/2LrslwH
Houston-based immigration reporter Nomaan Merchant uncovered a heartbreaking tale in his coverage of the lingering toll of President Donald Trumpâs family separation policy: a 9-year-old boy, Byron Xol, who is still separated from his parents. The boy eventually landed in the home of a Texas family who took custody of the child, while his parents were deported to Guatemala.
Merchant had been looking for an opportunity to write a detailed narrative that would illustrate the stress that separations have on families. When he learned on short notice of Byronâs upcoming birthday, he decided it was the perfect time to tell the tale.
Merchant and his Houston colleagues â video journalist John Mone and photographer David Phillip â went to the boyâs current foster home outside Austin. Meanwhile, photographer Santiago Billy, reporter Sonny Figueroa and video stringer Sergio Alfaro went to the Guatemalan village of the Xol family. Together they captured the emotion of the day and the sharp contrast between the two worlds, as the dad phoned Byron on his birthday.
The story they produced was gripping, used by more than 400 AP members in the U.S. It was just one of a series of strong pieces that have put names, faces and personal narratives to the immigration story, keeping APâs coverage ahead.
For recognizing the moment and mobilizing quickly across formats and borders, Alfaro, Billy, Figueroa, Merchant, Mone and Phillip share APâs Best of the Week.
For more than a month, video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and photographer Dmitri Lovetsky tirelessly documented fierce fighting over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Then, as they were wrapping up their assignment, Armenia signed an agreement ceding the territory to Azerbaijan, triggering protests in Armenia and an exodus of ethnic Armenians from the region now falling into enemy hands. When Chernov and Lovetsky learned that Armenians were burning their own homes as they fled the region, the AP pair repeatedly made risky and arduous trips into the territory, producing powerful, emotionally charged reporting and images, including the moving story of a family abandoning its home.
For displaying exceptional commitment and courage in their coverage of last weekâs dramatic developments — as they have throughout this weekslong story — Chernov and Lovetsky earn APâs Best of the Week award.
teamed up to produce a pair of exclusives that capture the confusion and signs of problems at both the U.S.-Mexico border and inside federal immigration agencies in the early days of the Biden administration. Merchant used source work and reporting to find and tell the story of a Cuban migrant who was held in a short-term detention facility with her newborn son twice as long as federal rules generally allow. He worked with advocates and the Border Patrol to uncover information about the womanâs case and interviewed her exclusively after her release. The story illustrated how a recent increase in families and children crossing the border has maxed out holding facilities.In a second exclusive Merchant paired with Weber after a tweet from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, breaking a story on the near-release by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of three men with convictions for sexually abusing children.https://bit.ly/3dr8NZ9https://bit.ly/3dji3i1
gave AP an exclusive look at an earsplitting sonic weapon that Greek police are using to repel migrants at the border with Turkey. While local media had reported about the so-called âsound cannonâ when police received it last year, this all-formats team was the first to show it actually deployed on the border as part of Greeceâs vast array of physical and experimental digital barriers aimed at preventing people from entering the European Union illegally.The storyâs impact was immediate, prompting strong reactions from European politicians and human rights activists. Several European lawmakers questioned whether using a sound device against migrants was compatible with the EUâs commitment to human rights. Referring to the AP report, the European Commission expressed concern about the system and sought consultations with the Greek government over the issue.More than 40 European TV networks used the story and Gatopoulos was interviewed by Australian radio. Unable to ignore the piece, a major competitor ran a text story later in the week, with Greek police confirming their use of the sonic device.https://aplink.news/zmshttps://aplink.video/i5s
Paul J. Weber, newsperson, Austin, and Eric Gay, photogapher, San Antonio, Texas, for documenting Texasâ quiet but sweeping funding cuts to the 2,300 impoverished border communities known as âcolonias,â and including 360-degree video. http://abcn.ws/2wMSFbI
The disturbing stories of more than 2,000 kids caught up in the U.S. immigration system â including babies and toddlers forcibly separated from their parents â dominated headlines and led newscasts around the world.
AP reporters, working across the country, in Washington, D.C., Latin America and along the U.S.-Mexican border led the coverage of the impact of the zero tolerance immigration policy. Their work produced a series of scoops that set the agenda, alerting Capitol Hill leaders to a major White House order, leaving an MSNBC anchor in tears and generating action by politicians.
For their work, the Beat of the Week is shared by investigative reporters Garance Burke, Martha Mendoza, Michael Biesecker and Jake Pearson, and Washington reporters Jill Colvin and Colleen Long. The award also recognizes an outstanding company-wide effort that included reporting from numerous locations and across formats, putting the AP repeatedly in front of a major global story.
used multiformat field reporting and extensive research to document extraordinary efforts to save rare fish populations from the environmental effects of climate-fueled megafires across the western U.S.While interviewing biologists, environment writer Flesher learned details of a rescue of Rio Grande cutthroat trout and coordinated with Peterson who later shot photos and video, including underwater images of the fish's release 750 miles away in New Mexicoâs Carson Nation Forest.The distinctive package played widely in the western U.S. and beyond, drawing readers and viewers.Read more
On a midnight assignment at the U.S.-Mexico border in mid-May, the all-formats team of Greg Bull, Eugene Garcia and Adriana GĂłmez LicĂłn reported on an 8-year-old Honduran migrant named Emely. Bull made a striking image as Emely stood alone and barefoot after crossing into Texas with strangers and turning herself into border agents.
Thanks to Bullâs photograph, just more than three weeks later another AP team — reporter Acacia Coronado, photographer Eric Gay and video journalist Angie Wang — were on hand when Emely hugged her mother for the first time in six years. The girlâs mother had seen Bullâs photo on television, setting her on a desperate mission to find Emely and setting in motion a determined AP effort to report on the reunion.
The result was a vivid and emotional package with remarkably high reader engagement and outstanding customer use in all formats.
For spotlighting the stories that persist even when a nationâs attention to the U.S-Mexico border does not — and commitment and compassion in seeing it through — Coronado, Gay, Wang, Bull, Garcia and GĂłmez LicĂłn earn APâs Best of the Week award.
On the sparsely populated fringe of the Navajo Nation, AP Report for America journalist Cedar Attanasio saw a storytelling opportunity: the bus system used by the Cuba, New Mexico, school district to solve distance-learning challenges for some of the countryâs most isolated, vulnerable students during the pandemic.
Reporting for text, photos and video, Attanasio rode one of the school buses used to transport meals, assignments and counselors to remote students, a number of whom do not have electricity, let alone internet. When the bus driver was forced to quarantine, Attanasio took to his car, chasing buses on their routes and interviewing students and their families.
For delivering an insightful multiformat package that reveals the pandemicâs impact on education in a disadvantaged community — prompting one reader to donate $1000 to the school board — Attanasio earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
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.
Few places in America have been as hard hit by the pandemic as the Texas border, and the package by this all-formats team exposes the stark contrast between this part of the country and regions with greater resources.
With access to two hospitals overwhelmed by cases in the Rio Grande Valley, AP reporter Paul Weber, photographer Eric Gay and video journalist John Mone carefully documented stories of patients and staff, including a new mom in the maternity ward who unknowingly contracted the virus and had to be isolated from her newborn.
Weber wrote: âThe U.S. failure to contain the pandemic has been laid bare.â
For a compelling and hard-to-report all-formats package, Weber, Gay and Mone win this weekâs Best of the States award.
for tracing a little-noticed surge in Brazilians crossing into the U.S. Leveraging APâs footprint from Brazil to Texas to Boston, the deeply reported story documented an astonishing number of Brazilians pouring through El Paso. Hundreds of them had ridden with a single cab driver who Attanasio found by canvassing taxi stands at border bridges, while in Boston, Marcelo found a recently-arrived mechanic, adding texture to the story. https://bit.ly/2PG3jh7
Homeland Security reporter Colleen Long and White House reporter Jill Colvin have repeatedly put the AP ahead on immigration coverage, but they outdid themselves during an intensely competitive week on the topic.
With President Donald Trump stepping up his threats to shut down the border amid a record surge of migrant families coming to the country, the pair dove into their source reporting, scoring three major scoops by the end of the week:
â Long and Colvin were first to report that Trump was contemplating naming a âborder czarâ to oversee immigration issues at the border. â They broke the news that the White House had withdrawn the nomination of its pick to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one day before he was scheduled to travel to the border with Trump. The scoop was so far ahead, and the news so perplexing, some in the Trump administration assumed it was a mistake. â A few days later, they delivered a smart piece pulling together the various actions surrounding Trumpâs border troubles, suggesting that more personnel shakeups were expected. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned the next day.
The stories all received wide play by major outlets, and the weekender on Trumpâs growing problem on the border scored in newspapers around the country, landing on the front page of Sunday papers in 20 states.
For their outstanding work to break multiple stories on a subject that dominated the news cycle, Long and Colvin win APâs Best of the Week.
Christopher Sherman, newsperson, Mexico City; Arnulfo Franco, photographer, Panama City, and Gerardo Carrillo, videojournalist, Mexico City, for detailing abuses by Nicaraguan security forces against protesters, including a young woman arrested without charges and beaten until she lost her pregnancy. https://bit.ly/2Mjws1s
Reporters Christopher Sherman, Martha Mendoza and Garance Burke were weeks into a deep look at police misconduct in Honduras, where public mistrust of law enforcement is among the highest in the world. So when they heard a new national police chief had been appointed, they immediately shifted gears and began asking questions about him.
What they found was explosive â a confidential government security document that detailed a troubling allegation regarding the force. It said the newly named National Police Chief Jose David Aguilar Moran had once helped a drug cartel leader pull off the delivery of nearly a ton of cocaine. The clandestine haul, worth at least $20 million on U.S. streets, was packed inside a tanker truck that, the report said, was escorted by corrupt police officers to the home of Wilter Blanco, a drug trafficker recently convicted in Florida and now serving a 20-year sentence.
For their dogged reporting, Sherman, Mendoza and Burke share the Beat of the Week.
One of the most vulnerable senators up for re-election in 2018 â Democrat Joe Donnelly of Indiana - has staked his nearly two-decade political career on opposition to outsourcing and free-trade agreements that ship American jobs abroad.
Following up on a tip from Washington, D.C., colleague Erica Werner, Indiana Statehouse reporter Brian Slodysko pulled together public documents and customs records to reveal that Donnelly has benefited financially from the very free trade policies he has decried since his first run for Congress. As Slodysko reported in his âOnly on APâ story, Donnelly earned thousands of dollars in 2016 alone from stock in the arts and crafts business his family has owned for generations, which ships raw materials to its Mexican factory that produces ink pads and other supplies.
For shining light on something a politician would have preferred left unknown to his constituents, Slodysko wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
The scene was nightmarish. Women and girls fleeing fighting in South Sudan had taken refuge in a United Nations camp. As fighting subsided, they ventured out in search of food, but just outside the camp, they were dragged off by soldiers and raped. Two died of their injuries. At least one attack was said to have occurred within sight of U.N. peacekeepers.
The details in Jason Patinkinâs only-on-AP story could not have been reported without getting into the camp â but the U.N. at first blocked journalists from entering. Demanding access along with other journalists â and winning â in the midst of already challenging coverage allowed Patinkin to produce an exclusive that prompted outrage around the world. It earns Beat of the Week.
