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
A mother shot fatally shot in front of her 3-year-old son. A suspect killed while an officer tried to handcuff him. A Homeland Security agent was shot at a Texas high school by a U.S. marshal fumbling with equipment. These are among the more than 1,400 unintentional discharges found by Seattle reporter Martha Bellisle in an investigation that highlights the shortcomings of police weapons training.
No agency tracks how often local, state and federal officers accidentally fire their weapons. Over the course of more than a year, Bellisle exhaustively documented 1,422 unintentional discharges by 258 law enforcement agencies since 2012.
With contributions from colleagues in photo and video â including the story of an Iowa woman who was killed when an officerâs gun discharged, leaving her husband and children still scarred by the tragedy â the all-formats package received prominent play.
For an exclusive that sheds light on a virtually undocumented area of firearms safety, Bellisle earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
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.
In a world focused on life and survival, death is often unseen, endured in private and acknowledged in glowing obituaries or tragic news stories. Itâs also mostly out of the control of the person who is dying.
Now, with nine U.S. states allowing terminally ill people to end their lives with fatal drugs, thousands of people have legally chosen how and when to end their lives.
Seattle Photographer Elaine Thompson has long wanted to show the real, personal side of what often comes across as an impersonal process. She spent months looking for the right subject, getting tantalizingly close to success before plans fell through. She stuck with it, and when she found Bob Fuller, she enlisted reporter Gene Johnson to tell his story.
This weekâs Best of the Week goes to the team of Elaine Thompson and Gene Johnson who chronicled how one man, in the face of death, created the party of a lifetime.
deftly explored political conspiracy theories and those who embrace them, traveling to Wisconsin where thousands of Donald Trumpâs most loyal supporters recently gathered to hear speakers, including the former president himself on video, push the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.The subject is challenging to report without bringing more attention to the conspiracies or needlessly demeaning adherents who, though deeply misguided, genuinely believe the lies that are being advanced. Yet this work is critical to understanding the political dynamics that are unfolding every day in the U.S.Colvinâs story stands out from much of the reporting on this right-wing movement because she took the time to listen â really listen â to the people who attended and to understand what motivates them to accept outlandish theories.But Colvin didnât hold back. Rather than relying on vague adjectives or stock fact-checking paragraphs, she built a narrative that repeatedly points to concrete evidence of what actually happened in the 2020 election. Using direct and pointed language, the White House reporter makes clear that these baseless claims are completely false and part of a broader pattern of events centered on deceit. âTaken together, the gatherings have gelled into a convention circuit of delusion centered on the false premise that the election was stolen,â she wrote.The result is revealing and distinctive journalism. Brian Stelter led his widely read media newsletter with Colvinâs story, saying it âperfectly sums up this moment in politics.â https://aplink.news/gau
Because San Diego correspondent Elliot Spagat received a tip that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were planning massive raids on food processing plants, AP was uniquely positioned â literally â when ICE stormed seven Mississippi chicken processing plants and arrested 680 people, the largest workplace raid in a decade.
ICEâs acting Director Matthew Albence said that the investigation was so secret that even the White House didnât know.
On the day of the raids, weeks of persistence and planning put AP way ahead of local and national media in the speed and depth of the report. Photographer Rogelio V. Solis was the only journalist on scene when about 600 agents simultaneously hit the plants, while his Jackson colleague, reporter Jeff Amy, got an exclusive interview with Albence.
Their multiday coverage received monster play, including 3 million social interactions for the first-day story alone.
For scoring scoops on a major ICE operation, Spagat, Amy and Solis are the winners of this weekâs Best of the States honors.
It was a piece of investigative journalism that yielded stunning revelations about the role of Opus Bono Sacerdotii, a small nonprofit in Michigan that has been quietly providing money, shelter and legal help to hundreds of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse.
Investigative reporters Martha Mendoza, Garance Burke and Juliet Linderman launched an aggressive effort using shoe leather and Freedom of Information requests to unravel the story behind the organization. Photographer Paul Sancya told the story through a powerful set of images, while videographer Mike Householder produced his own compelling piece.
The riveting story received prominent play and gathered growing interest as it was translated and published in predominantly Catholic countries around the world.
For a story that revealed a startling but little-known group in the shadows of the churchâs sexual abuse scandals, Mendoza, Linderman, Burke, Householder and Sancya win APâs Best of the Week.
for reporting about the worldâs largest animal crossing, planned for the U.S. 101 freeway northwest of Los Angeles. California transportation officials didnât have much to say about the plan, but Weber connected with a source at the National Wildlife Federation, a major backer of the project. They gave AP access to plans, renderings and other images, and eventually the site itself. The organizers allowed the AP all-formats package, which received extraordinary play, serve as the projectâs public announcement. https://bit.ly/2KXSGnl
With California sinking deeper into drought as wildfire season approaches, AP set out to show the droughtâs impact on vulnerable areas — beyond the orange glow of burning homes. Top freelance photographers Noah Berger and Josh Edelson teamed up with reporter Adam Beam, focusing on the six reservoirs with the lowest water levels.
Both photographers are trained and equipped with drones; they delivered stunning visuals, including boat docks beached on dry land, charred hillside homes overlooking a lake reduced to puddle-like status and boat launches that donât even reach the waterâs edge. Meanwhile, Beam conducted interviews and visited the massive Lake Oroville reservoir, where the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century raged in 2018.
The package was enhanced by digital storyteller Samantha Shotzbarger, who created a arresting presentation giving readers an immersive view of the evaporating reservoirs.
For a revealing and forbidding look at the effects of Californiaâs drought, the team of Berger, Edelson, Beam and Shotzbarger earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
captured in a poignant story what thousands of people around the world are living with â the guilt and remorse of believing they inadvertently infected a loved one who died of COVID-19.One of those feeling responsibility is Michelle Pepe, traveled from Boston to Florida for her motherâs 80th birthday In March 2020, just as the pandemic bloomed in the U.S. Pepe believes she gave the coronavirus to her father, Bernie Rubin, who died weeks later.The intimate story, eloquently told in all formats by New Yorkâs Henao and Wardarski, members of APâs Religion team, resonated with AP customers and readers at home and abroad, with many sharing their own stories and fears on social media. Pepe, featured in the story, thanked the pair in an email and said she was inundated with requests from broadcasters to tell her story, which might help people in similar circumstances. But she hadn't watched the whole AP video yet, saying: âI need to prep myself.âhttps://bit.ly/3uRcpcbhttps://bit.ly/3gb16WK
As the western U.S. finds itself in the grips of one of the worst droughts in recent history, the AP West region staff has delved into every aspect of the droughtâs impact across the region. In one of the hardest-hit areas, the Salt Lake City-based team of Rick Bowmer, Lindsay Whitehurst and Brady McCombs documented that Utahâs Great Salt Lake may be headed to the lowest water levels in 170 years.
Reporting ahead of other news outlets, they delivered an all-formats package with stunning visuals showing readers how the dying lake is impacting people and wildlife and is a harbinger of worrisome drought-related consequences ahead. Decades of drought and water diversion in the booming region have hurt bird habitats, forced boats from shallow water and exposed dry lakebed that could send arsenic-laced dust into the air that millions breathe.
The result was a compelling package that had the highest engagement of all AP stories on July 6 and fourth-most for the week.
For distinctive work that expands APâs ongoing coverage of climate and drought in the West, the team of Bowmer, Whitehurst and McCombs wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
Coal-burning generating plants are closing in the U.S., and coal mines are shutting down amid worries of climate change and the new economies of renewable energy.
Against that backdrop, correspondents Felicia Fonseca and Susan Montoya Bryan traveled to Arizonaâs remote Navajo Generating Station to the tell the story of workers, their families, a community and the tribal nations who have depended on coal and are feeling the profound effects of the plantâs impending closure.
In their all-formats package, the pair let workers explain what they were losing, and how the local economy is taking a massive hit with millions of dollars of revenue no longer flowing to the Hopi and Navajo tribes.
For a comprehensive, compelling look at the impact of coalâs decline on a community and a culture, Fonseca and Montoya earn this weekâs Best of the States award.
for breaking news leading up to the 2020 U.S. headcount. Starting with a smart follow-up by Schneider showing that federal governmentâs attempts to get states to surrender driverâs license information have been a bust so far, and concluding with a weekend spotlight story by Seitz and Lerman showing how new concerns about misinformation and fraud could cause major problems for the Census Bureau.https://bit.ly/36mZDqShttps://bit.ly/2N0gbgI
for linking tainted vapes blamed for clusters of illnesses to a CBD pioneer who was a major drug wholesaler of synthetic marijuana. Mohr traced the vapes back to a woman who had remained unknown for nearly two years â and whose product had sickened dozens of people in Utah and other states. https://bit.ly/31UieXG
broke new ground on a competitive and fast-evolving national story: Amid accelerating efforts to pay reparations to Blacks and Indigenous Americans for injustices suffered over centuries, some of the most strident arguments for amends were coming from U.S. college campuses.Boston reporter Marcelo found that nearly a year after the killing of George Floyd sparked the latest national reckoning on racism, student and community activists from New England to the Deep South are demanding institutions take more ambitious steps to atone for past sins â from colonial-era slavery to more recent campus expansion projects that have pushed out entire communities of color.Marcelo anchored the project from Providence, Rhode Island, home to Brown University. The Ivy League school released an exhaustive historical report in 2006 and dedicated a slavery memorial in 2014, among continuing efforts to promote racial equity.Marceloâs reporting was powerfully illustrated with visuals from Boston video journalist Rodrique Ngowi, photographer Steven Senne, as well as work from photographers Jacquelyn Martin in Washington, John Bazemore in Atlanta and Steve Helber in Richmond, Virginia.https://aplink.news/bdxhttps://aplink.video/p00
When the Helena Police Department cited the statute of limitations in declining to bring charges against Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton for misuse of a state-owned vehicle, Helena reporter Amy Hanson dug deeper.
After multiple public-records requests Hanson found that Secretary of State Corey Stapleton traveled tens of thousands of miles more than what had been previously reported, including many times when he had no official events on his calendar. And she found that the misuse continued until he turned in the vehicle in March, well within the statute of limitations.
For determined reporting that resulted in a textbook example of accountability journalism, Amy Hanson wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
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.
teamed up to deliver a vivid and memorable account of a new migration trend: Venezuelan migrants appearing at the U.S. border with Mexico, particularly in Del Rio, Texas. Goodman, APâs Miami-based Latin America correspondent, noticed the development and chased down the data showing that asylum-seekers are increasingly from Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil. Among the thousands of Venezuelans who have crossed the border illegally since January are many professionals, and many who had been living for years in other South American countries, part of an exodus of nearly six million Venezuelans since President NicolĂĄs Maduro took power in 2013.With deep reporting on both sides of the border and compelling visuals from both San Antonio photographer Eric Gay and New York video journalist David Martin, the all-formats package adds new insight into the long-running political and economic crisis in Venezuela, the coronavirusâs impact on migration and the large increase in asylum-seekers encountered at the U.S. border under President Joe Biden. âIt is better to wash toilets here than be an engineer over there,â one migrant told AP on camera.https://aplink.news/xdjhttps://aplink.video/pxe
An AP Best of States mention in February about the hundreds of companies avoiding President Donald Trumpâs steel tariffs raised questions about Trumpâs $12 billion aid package to farmers hurt by the tariffs. What happened next shows how states can produce sharp, data-driven journalism â simply by calling on the data team for help.
AP filed Freedom of Information Act requests for U.S. Department of Agriculture data that was analyzed by Balint Szalai, a Hungarian investigative reporter embedded with APâs data team, and Washington data team intern Riin Aljas.
Among their findings: Many big farming operations were legally collecting far more than the supposed caps on aid.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis reporter Steve Karnowski spoke to longtime USDA critics and interviewed farmers who defended taking the big checks, saying they didnât even cover their losses under Trumpâs trade war.
The Only-on-AP story ran on dozens of sites, and because the data and analysis were released to AP members in advance, many chose to localize their stories.
For sophisticated data analysis and on-the-ground reporting that shed light on a key consequences of trade policy, Karnowski, Szalai and Aljas share this weekâs Best of the States award.
found a way to take readers beyond the eye-glazing phrase âsupply chain economicsâ by illustrating the current U.S. economy â the reasons behind its strengths and vulnerabilities â through the very relatable lens of patio furniture shortages.The story angle grew from a shopping trip with his wife to a couple of stores to look for a flowerpot. Boak, a White House reporter who specializes in the economy, noticed the paucity of patio furniture in the showrooms and began pulling up inflation reports. He then talked to managers at garden supply companies about their travails and emerged with a story that told the tale of the U.S. economy through this small slice of it. âThere is the paradox of the fastest growth in generations at more than 6% yet also persistent delays for anyone trying to buy furniture, autos and a wide mix of other goods,â he wrote.Boakâs story, anchored at a garden supply store in Cockeysville, Maryland, and accompanied by Julio Cortezâs photos, was among APâs top stories in pageviews for the day and continued to attract interest days later. https://aplink.news/cdy
