broke the news of the first confirmed US cases of coronavirus in pets, notching a beat on one of the most widely used stories of the day.https://bit.ly/3bRYxW8https://bit.ly/3bQsx4X
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged across the world last week, and the confirmed U.S. death toll approached 100,000, AP photographers on two continents found unusual and meaningful ways to bring home the tragedy of lives lost. They were:
ā Photographer David Goldman, who met with the families of COVID-19 victims at a Massachusetts soldiersā home, literally projecting veteransā images onto the exterior of the familiesā homes for a series of arresting, ghostly and emotion-laden scenes.
ā And Rodrigo Abd, who spent weeks with Venezuelan migrants collecting bodies in a poor area of Lima, Peru, showing the abject desperation of that cityās victims. Also honored is Lima reporter Franklin BriceƱo who accompanied Abd, documenting for text and video the funeral home workers on their grueling rounds.
Both projects had immense impact online and in print, drawing praise from readers and editors. For intrepid and creative multiformat storytelling emphasized by unforgettable images, Goldman, Abd and BriceƱo share APās Best of the Week honors.
secured exclusive access to take a camera into an ICU in a working class city north of Rio. With Brazil suffering the most COVID-19 cases and deaths in Latin America, media outlets have clamored for access to hospitals, without success. Fisch worked associates and contacts, finally convincing a city health secretary to grant access to the Sao Jose municipal hospital. She made the most of an hour inside the unit on Saturday, working among medical staff to produce all-formats content that was well-received by clients. Her video was the most-used on AP Video Hub for the weekend.https://bit.ly/2AQ81Uqhttps://bit.ly/3e8tRRc
used rare, exclusive access to one of the nation's busiest morgues, the Cook County Medical Examinerās Office, to document the facility as it coped with the surge of COVID-19 deaths while still handling its usual number of homicides. The AP team expected to find employees overwhelmed by the unprecedented number of bodies that more than tripled their workload. Instead they found a well-organized, efficient operation and employees who, while putting in seven-day weeks in some cases, spoke of their determination to provide dignity to the dead.https://bit.ly/2Tqx5I1https://bit.ly/3e5PzW1
If the Navajo Nation were its own state, it would have the second highest per-capita rate of coronavirus cases in the United States, trailing only New York.
APās Felicia Fonseca, one of the preeminent reporters covering Native issues for any news organization, and photographer Carolyn Kaster reported from the heart of the crisis. Donning full protective gear and a healthy measure of courage, they documented families, doctors and volunteers, while national writer Tim Sullivan added further reporting and masterful writing assistance from afar.
The story and photos capture the vast beauty of the land and the intimate grief of the people, including one family that has lost four members to the virus. The package played heavily in the Southwest U.S. and was among APās most downloaded and viewed for several days.
For a revealing look at a Native community in the midst of the health crisis, Fonseca, Kaster and Sullivan share this weekās Best of the States honors.
scooped everyone with news that the Justice Department was moving for dismissal of the case against Michael Flynn, President Donald Trumpās former national security adviser who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Balsamo, acting on a tip, worked sources and obtained exclusive access to court documents showing the case was being dropped, before they were even filed in court. Tucker, APās Mueller investigation expert, drafted the story, pulling together details and information from other sources on how this case could have ended in such a spectacular and unusual way.The AP exclusive forced virtually every major news outlet to use the story, including CNN. Even Trump proclaimed he didnāt know it was coming ā and heād been railing for weeks about the case, mulling whether to pardon Flynn.https://bit.ly/2ArlBNRhttps://bit.ly/2WRm8Ae
obtained data revealing that more than 85% of the 93,000 people who signed up for the California Health Corps either didn't have the required medical license or failed to fill out an application. Gov. Gavin Newsom had described the program as an army of volunteers to accommodate the expected massive surge of COVID-19 cases. Thompson found only about 5% of the sign-up total had been cleared to participate, and that 233 were being paid to staff an emergency hospital established in a vacant arena with no patients.https://bit.ly/2WyP53Khttps://bit.ly/3fkJvKV
In a gripping exclusive that reads like the plot of a Hollywood film, Latin America correspondent Josh Goodman revealed the failed plot to oust Venezuelan President NicolĆ”s Maduro by a ragtag group of 300 volunteers led by a former U.S. Green Beret. The ill-conceived plan called for the group to invade Venezuela from Colombia and ignite a popular rebellion that would end in Maduroās arrest.
The plot was uncovered and dismantled with barely a whisper, but a cryptic tip to the well-sourced Goodman planted the seed of the story. Over the next several months he reviewed documents and interviewed more than 30 Maduro opponents and aspiring freedom fighters with knowledge of the plot, piecing together the narrative with a strong assist from investigative researcher Randy Herschaft.
Goodmanās story broke and reaction was strong: International media struggled to catch up and authorities in the U.S. and Colombia launched investigations. Senate Democrats have sent a letter to the Trump administration demanding answers.
For his impressive scoop on the failed coup that has been dubbed āThe Bay of Piglets,ā Goodman and Herschaft win APās Best of the Week award.
harnessed APās nationwide statehouse presence to report that before the coronavirus outbreak most states had failed to build their own stockpiles of medical supplies, and in many cases the supplies they did have were well past their expiration dates. https://bit.ly/2zFhU6F
produced the most-engaged enterprise story of the week, looking at how families are dealing with schooling from home ā or in some cases, giving up. AP got into familiesā homes to tell emotional stories of parents trying to work full-time and helping their kids with online classes while worrying about the future implications. https://bit.ly/2ySigGH
On the campaign trail, presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar has often cited a case ā a life sentence given to black teen for killing a young girl ā as proof of her tough-on-crime bona fides as a former prosecutor.
Over the course of a year, Minnesota-based investigative reporter Robin McDowell examined the case against Myon Burrell, who was 16 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the 2002 death of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards.
McDowell found major irregularities, including inconsistent evidence and questionable police tactics. The resulting package had impact, forcing new scrutiny of the case and Klobucharās handling of it.
For dogged reported that shed new light and focused attention on the case against a man who has long said he was wrongfully convicted, McDowell wins this weekās Best of the States award.
requested data on racial breakdowns for the COVID-19 disease in states, cities and counties nationwide, ultimately analyzing data from eight states, six major U.S. cities and six of Floridaās largest counties. The result was one of the first and most deeply reported examinations of the racial disparities of U.S. cases and deaths, reviewing more than 4,450 deaths and 52,000 COVID-19 cases across the country. https://bit.ly/2Xy7TSO
On April 6 ā the day when the COVID-19 death toll in New York City exceeded the toll of the Sept. 11 attacks ā a team of AP journalists fanned out to tell the stories of average New Yorkers navigating the pandemic.
From the bodega owner whose remaining customers are often funeral home workers, to a paramedic worried about the way the onslaught of cases was eating away at him and other first responders, the stories provided a vivid account of a city bent, but not broken, by the virus. āThe Fight for New Yorkā was a testament to the AP at its finest: smart planning and collaboration leading to 11 impactful text and video stories, more than two dozen photos and nine social edits, all delivered to customers with remarkable speed.
The package immediately resonated with readers, viewers and customers, winning strong play on the websites of most major news organizations.
For extraordinary teamwork, planning and execution, the team of journalists behind āThe Fight for New Yorkā wins APās Best of the Week award.
created a detailed timeline and cohesive narrative to reveal just what went wrong with the coronavirus tests that led to the crippled U.S. response to the outbreak. The team traced the U.S. testing response since the first cases emerged in China, including the changing government directives about who could be tested and the daily totals for how many patients had been tested during the critical month of February. Other news organizations were days behind APās reporting. https://bit.ly/2UQZKWy
When tornadoes tore through Middle Tennessee in the early-morning hours of Super Tuesday, APās staff deftly pivoted from preparing for the stateās primary to covering a natural disaster.
From first light on Tuesday and throughout the day, Nashville and Memphis staffers delivered compelling all-formats coverage of the devastation that left at least 24 dead statewide. The team also connected the disaster to the primary, monitoring the impact on voting.
Strong aftermath coverage followed, including a presidential visit on Friday and well-received pieces on recovery efforts and a worship service at a damaged church. With out-of-state staffers and the entire South Desk contributing to the coverage, the sustained effort showed the AP at its best.
For proving nimble, responsive and collaborative coverage on a major breaking news story under chaotic conditions, the multiformat Tennessee team of Travis Loller, Kristin Hall, Kimberlee Kruesi, Mark Humphrey, Jonathan Mattise, Adrian Sainz and Teresa Walker shares this weekās Best of the States award.
spent hundreds of hours with the Yeshiva University basketball team as APās religion team looked at how Yeshiva navigates the world of college athletics while facing misperceptions of who they are as Jews ā 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
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 Scoutsā 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 Scoutsā 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 Scoutsā bankruptcy filing, Crary, McCombs and Chase win this weekās Best of the States award.
for first reporting unsealed documents that raised questions about the Trump administrationās reasoning for forcing asylum seekers to remain in Mexico. Spagat closely watched the court file and prodded an official once a deadline had passed, breaking the news that holding cells at most U.S. facilities were no more than half full ā and some were completely empty ā during an unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking families from Central America. The Trump administration claimed that people had to wait in Mexico because it didnāt have the means to accommodate them. https://bit.ly/39PkhAM
for advancing the story he broke a week earlier, now reporting exclusively on court filings claiming that work done for the areaās Roman Catholic archdiocese by the NFLās New Orleans Saints went beyond āminimalā public relations work on sex abuse by clergy, and allegedly included helping to shape a list of credibly accused clergy that appears to be undercounted. Mustain also reported on a judgeās ruling that the AP can move forward with its case to have documents between the Saints and the archdiocese made public. https://bit.ly/3718pK7
āSo long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu,ā sang the lead to APās 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 APās 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.
APās multiformat package captured the emotion and news developments on all sides ā 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 ā one French, the other British ā 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 APās Best of the Week honors.
