for dominating global coverage with their video and stories on the renewed offensive against west Mosul in Iraq. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f084b4f094f440058e6...
As domestic production of oil has increased in recent years, Billings, Montana, Correspondent Matthew Brown closely followed derailments of trains carrying volatile crude. A train from North Dakota jumped the track, exploded and killed 47 people in Canada in 2013. In Brownâs own state, a derailment near the town of Culbertson spilled 27,000 gallons of oil in 2015. Last year, Brown reported that more than 800 potential safety violations were discovered on Union Pacific freight lines after a fiery June 2016 oil train derailment in Oregonâs Columbia River Gorge.
But Brown wanted to know how widespread the problem really was. By pushing repeatedly for public records and working with a longtime source, Brown was able to exclusively report the results of a two-year federal inspection program for the nationâs oil trains â and he revealed that some safety defects uncovered where similar to ones blamed in derailments that triggered huge fires or oil spills in Oregon, Virginia, Montana and elsewhere. For his AP NewsBreak, Brown wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
In a textbook display of outstanding source work and planning, Eric Tucker and Matthew Lee acted on a tip to score a massive scoop on a stunning U.S.-Russia prisoner exchange that happened despite heightened tensions between the countries.
In the process, the pair showed the rewards of careful, long-term source-building, a model of how to prepare in all formats to put the AP ahead of the competition the moment the news broke, and examples of how to build on a big story with smart sidebars in-cycle and a compelling follow-up story that offered new, behind-the-scenes details.
Their efforts paid off handsomely on Wednesday when Lee got the green light that the exchange had taken place, allowing AP to push out an alert and full story accompanied by photos and video, well before any Western media competitors were even aware the swap had happened.
For their exhaustive, comprehensive work that scooped everyone on the surprising swap, Tucker and Lee share APâs Best of the Week â First Winner honors.
targeted 10 states that have quickly rising coronavirus infections, finding that the crucial turnaround time to get results from a coronavirus test is exceeding federal guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideline for results is less than two days.In the absence of federal data, Cassidyâs state-by-state reporting found typical turnaround times of three days from public labs, and longer lag times at commercial labs. Her story included a global perspective, noting the turn-around time is much faster in South Korea but much worse in some other countries, including South Africa. https://bit.ly/3ePogjw
for reporting first that Michiganâs top education official decided to back away from issuing A-to-F letter grades for each public school in the state. http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/loâŠ
teamed up to present the strongest case yet that Ethiopia has conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing against its Tigray minority, who have claimed for months that thousands are being killed, raped and starved by the Ethiopian government and its allies.East Africa correspondent Anna and Cairo-based photographer El-Mofty conducted meticulous interviews with 30 refugees in Sudan who had fled their homeland, as well as aid workers and officials. Person after person described multiple killings, and several women and medical workers described mass rapes. Many warned that deliberate starvation had already started. The journalists also documented hard evidence of the ethnic cleansing, in the form of an identity card that completely removed all references to the Tigray minority. âI kept it to show the world,â one refugee said.El-Moftyâs photos were stunning, and a freelancer joined the team to take video footage. The package included an animated graphic of the identity cards by Peter Hamlin, and presentation by Natalie Castañeda.The deeply reported story sparked immediate reaction, and the Ethiopian government was provoked to reply, criticizing âthe rush to accuse the governmentâ and calling Tigray forces âa criminal enterprise.â But one researcher told Anna, âYou just wrote the most harrowing report about Tigray to date.â Even the bureau chief of a major competitor called the story âbeautifully written,â saying he was âsuper jealous.âhttps://bit.ly/3aaiLLVhttps://bit.ly/2ORR2ILhttps://bit.ly/3dk9Idu
combined source work and on-the-record reporting to reveal details of a secret trip to Syria taken by two Trump administration officials in a last-ditch effort to secure the release of kidnapped journalist Austin Tice and other U.S. hostages before the U.S. presidential election. Homeland security reporter Fox used years of source development to land the first on-the-record interview with one of the officials who made the risky trip to Damascus, while Tucker and Lee, national security and diplomatic reporters respectively, used their own sourcing to corroborate key details with current and former U.S. officials.The story was the most definitive account to date of the secretive meeting and revealed how the talks were stymied by significant Syrian demands and by the lack of information the Syrians offered about Ticeâs fate or whereabouts. It also revealed how the U.S. government, in an effort to build goodwill, had an ally in the region offer assistance for the cancer treatment of the wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad. https://bit.ly/3gikAKK
took a detailed look at the federal stimulus bill meant to address the economic turmoil in the U.S. caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Foley found that a $349 billion loan program intended to help small businesses survive will be open to large chains and franchises, jeopardizing the mom-and-pop operations. https://bit.ly/2Xk0w17
detailed â with the help of statehouse colleagues around the country â a dog-eat-dog marketplace where states have had to compete against each other, their own hospital systems, foreign countries and even the U.S. government for scarce protective gear and medical equipment. Would-be buyers would put down hundreds of thousands of dollars â even millions â only to be stiffed when someone else swooped in and offered more. Governors and hospital administrators said they had no choice, with lives on the line and the federal government refusing to nationalize purchasing. https://bit.ly/2RkNr3M
The Womenâs March shortly after Donald Trumpâs inauguration energized its backers with a message to get politically engaged. The emergence of the #MeToo movement later that year provided even more momentum. But would women follow through? At the start of 2018, a midterm election year, the state government and data teams decided to find out.
The goal was ambitious: Track every woman running for Congress, statewide office and state legislature in the country, get historical numbers for comparison and follow their electoral fates through Election Day to see if the movements had led to real change. That effort, which will be ongoing throughout the year, produced its first scoop last week when AP declared a record number of women running for the U.S. House of Representatives.
For breaking significant news on one of the most dominant political trends of the year, state government team reporters Christina Cassidy and Geoff Mulvihill, and data team visual journalist Maureen Linke share this weekâs Best of the States.
broke the news that governments and aid groups worldwide, along with the World Health Organization, are calling on pharmaceutical companies to share their vaccine information more broadly to meet a yawning global shortfall and inequities in vaccine distribution. The companies say they can only sign deals on a one-on-one basis to protect their intellectual property, but critics believe they have broader obligations because they took taxpayer money to develop the vaccines. The London-based correspondents found three factories on three continents whose owners say they could start producing hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccines on short notice if only they had the blueprints and technical know-how. A former director of chemistry at Moderna confirmed that, and photographer Al-emrun Garjon delivered photos of a high-tech factory in Bangladesh producing vaccine at about 25% of its capacity.After the AP story ran, the head of WHO, citing a health emergency, called for patent rights to be waived until the end of the pandemic so that vaccine supplies can be dramatically increased. https://bit.ly/38vMgXI
for capturing emotional images of Gov. Dannel Malloy announcing unexpectedly that he would not seek reelection. The photos widely used on membersâ front pages and websites http://bit.ly/2obtW1i
combined for a deeply reported, critical look at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomoâs handling of coronavirus outbreaks in his state, which has suffered the most nursing home deaths in the country. The AP story was followed the next day by Cuomo announcing major changes addressing concerns raised by APâs reporting.https://bit.ly/2WLPDmIhttps://bit.ly/2WYHU55
broke the news that a $200 million fund intended to help opioid addicts has been sitting unused for more than a year. Mulvihill has maintained his sourcing and has followed various opioids cases, even during a year focused on the coronavirus and U.S. elections. His attention to the opioids beat paid off with an exclusive story revealing that as part of its bankruptcy case, Purdue Pharma had set aside $200 million to help local communities and nonprofits serve people addicted to opioids. Yet more than a year after the fund was established, not a penny had been spent because state attorneys general and lawyers representing local governments couldnât agree on who should be in charge of distributing the money. Advocates for addiction treatment were outraged. One lawyer representing overdose victims called it âa tragedy of epic proportionsâ that the money had not been spent. Portraits by Richmond, Virginia, photographer Steve Helber, of a woman who lost her twin brother to addiction, complemented the story. https://bit.ly/3lF6rX0
When AP reported exclusively last August that New York state was undercounting its COVID nursing home death toll by thousands, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ripped the story as part of a politically motivated âblame game.â
But the stateâs own investigation, announced last week, reached a nearly identical conclusion, affirming APâs reporting.
APâs 2020 investigation had seized on the fact that New York counts just residents who died at nursing homes, not those who were transported to hospitals and died there. APâs analysis of federal data indicated that the stateâs official toll was undercounted by 65%, or well over 4,000 deaths.
For sharp reporting that led the media pack, withstood criticism from the governor and months later was vindicated, this weekâs Best of the States award goes to Bernard Condon, Matt Sedensky and Meghan Hoyer (now data director at The Washington Post).
On the news-heavy weekend between impeachment and inauguration, Lolita Baldor broke a story that became the dominant item for news organizations across platforms: Top military officials feared insider attacks from National Guardsmen activated to protect the inauguration, prompting the FBI to vet all 25,000 troops sent to the city.
And officials werenât whispering their concerns anonymously; Baldor quoted the Secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy. That was no fluke; Baldor has built trust with McCarthy and other top officials at the Pentagon. The Army granted her exclusive, off-the-record access to an inaugural planning session, then arranged on-the-record interviews with a number of leaders.
Baldorâs scoop immediately lit up social media and was picked up by some 330 news outlets, including networks and major publications.
For impressive source work that produced a major scoop in the intensive buildup to the inauguration, Baldor wins APâs Best of the Week award.
for their quick, authoritative work in producing both text items and a rich multimedia experience for users as they fact-checked President Trumpâs claims during his State of the Union speech. http://bit.ly/2nsBvNO
turned a routine feature into a news-breaking story by successfully pressing ABC to address Native American groupsâ criticism that its show âBig Skyâ failed to acknowledge the problem of missing and abused women on native land. Few outlets had reported on it, and none had gotten a response from ABC.Elber spoke to native groups and pressed ABC, but was repeatedly told the network would have no response. But just before filing her story, Elber received a statement from ABC acknowledging the concerns and vowing to work with native groups to rectify them. The network gave the AP a dayâs beat on all other outlets, and that nightâs âBig Skyâ episode carried for the first time a message about missing women and exploited children. https://bit.ly/39TR0YU
for exemplary journalistic craft in requesting records of the case of the car-and-knife attack at Ohio State after a grand jury had cleared the police officer who shot and killed the attacker. The request produced an APNewsBreak and previously unseen visuals. http://apne.ws/2qXaHpm
for reporting exclusively that a California inmate had become the first in the nation to receive state-funded sex reassignment surgery: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/apnewsbre...