for analysis of tax filings and data made available by the Foundation Center to detail how money from billionaires has flowed through state support organizations to promote policies favorable to charter schools. https://bit.ly/2mF5QZo
for the first account of how the federal government has allowed four groups at the forefront of the white nationalist movement to raise more than $7.8 million in tax-deductible donations through tax-exempt charities recognized by the IRS. http://apne.ws/2jcK77p
teamed up with PBS âFrontlineâ on a deeply reported all-formats investigative package revealing how retired lieutenant general and former national security adviser Michael Flynn has used public appearances, endorsements and a network of well-funded groups to build a movement centered on Christian nationalist ideas.Smith spoke with more than 60 people, from Flynnâs family and friends to his opponents, examined dozens of Flynnâs speeches, interviews and other appearances, reviewed campaign finance records, corporate and charity filings, social media posts, as well as attending Flynn events. She also landed a rare interview with the retired three-star general â the footage edited by AP investigative video journalist Roosblad â and spent two days reporting on the ReAwaken America tour in upstate New York, along with photographer Kaster and a âFrontlineâ crew.The joint AP/âFrontlineâ reporting found Flynn deliberately and systematically driving a far-right political narrative with the goal of influencing elections this year and beyond.Read more
for the 11th installment of the âWhat Can be Saved?â series, profiling a small marine sanctuary off the coast of Georgia, established nearly 40 years ago, that helped give rise to one of the most critical conservation priorities in the world: How to protect the two-thirds of our planet that is covered by ocean.https://bit.ly/2s0QAMghttps://bit.ly/33SZbOv
delivered an all-formats package revealing a startling truth: U.S. law enforcement agencies have used a smartphone tracking tool called âFog Revealâ â made by a company that has no website or public information â to track peopleâs movements going back months, if not years, sometimes without search warrants.A tip to AP early this year launched the in-depth investigation of Fog Data Science, a company whose marketing materials said it drew from data generated by thousands of popular apps. Police have used the companyâs Fog Reveal to search hundreds of billions of records from some 250 million mobile devices, according to documents reviewed by AP.The exclusive package, with an engaging presentation of illustrations, video and photos, attracted a global audience online, in broadcast and in print.Read more
When heavily-armored police stormed protesters occupying Hong Kongâs Polytechnic University, AP journalists were there to comprehensively document the violent confrontation that ensued.
The effort to retake the school and arrest protesters trapped on the campus was beamed to customers around the globe in real-time, putting AP ahead of the competition with photos and live video of a dramatic escalation in the struggle between authorities and those protesting Beijingâs tightening policies toward Hong Kong.
The scoops were the result of months of protest coverage by AP visual journalists in Hong Kong, careful planning of how to report the siege, and wise use of AP resources around the world.
The team on the ground â photographers Vincent Yu and Kin Cheung of Hong Kong; Han Guan Ng, Beijing; and Achmad Ibrahim, Jakarta; and video journalists Raf Wober, Hong Kong; Johnson Lai, Taipei; Dake Kang, Beijing; Andi Jatmiko, Jakarta; and freelancers Katie Tam and Alice Fung â delivered days of impressive coverage around the siege.
For smart planning and outstanding execution to document a chaotic story with breathtaking speed and depth, the visuals team covering the Hong Kong protests wins APâs Best of the Week.
shed light on one of the worldâs most obscure conflicts with all-formats coverage of the fighting between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which seeks independence for the Sahrawi people in the disputed territory of Western Sahara. The flare-up in the conflict, after nearly 30 years of cease-fire, is fueled by new generations of Sahrawi refugees who believe that the wait for a referendum on self-determination, as promised by the United Nations, has only worked to Morocco's benefit while they languished in unforgiving desert camps.AP photographer Armangue and his Madrid colleague, chief correspondent Parra, spent a week with the rebel movement, providing a rare glimpse of rebel rocket and artillery positions, as well as life inside Polisario refugee camps in neighboring Algeria.https://aplink.news/a4whttps://aplink.video/gf6https://aplink.photos/w8p
has built a strong source relationship with the very private Anita Hill over the course of 15 years, interviewing her many times. The national writer has also developed ties with other high-profile figures in the #MeToo movement, earning a reputation of trust and respect.That source building resulted in a series of three recent interviews with women of color, all advocates for victims of sexual harassment and abuse:â #MeToo founder Tarana Burkeâ the first interview in any format with Monifa Bandele the new head of the embattled organization Timeâs Upâ Hill, who gave Noveck one of just two on-camera interviews to mark the release of her new book on sexual violence, which comes 30 years after her testimony in Congress against Clarence Thomas.All three appeared on camera, speaking of their experiences facing sexual misconduct and how American society must deal simultaneously with its race and gender struggles, because one cannot be solved without the other.https://aplink.news/okmhttps://aplink.video/wn9https://aplink.news/x3chttps://aplink.news/vqq
Among the toughest obits to write on the fly are those for people who were hugely influential but rarely heard from in their later years. APâs Brian Witte, however, was fully prepared when he got an exclusive tip on a Friday evening that prominent civil rights figure Gloria Richardson had died at 99.
Witte, APâs Annapolis, Maryland, correspondent, used carefully crafted, detailed prep and source work to break news of the death of the first Black woman to lead a sustained desegregation movement outside the South. Thanks in part to a striking 1963 AP photo of Richardson pushing away the bayonet of a National Guardsman, she came to symbolize fearlessness among civil rights activists.
Witteâs prep included an interview with Richardsonâs biographer, building enough trust for the author to email him with first word of her death. He persuaded the biographer to share family contacts, scoring quotes that forced many outlets to cite AP. Witteâs story, linked with archival photos, hit the wire early Friday evening, beating all competition and receiving strong play.
For insightful, resourceful reporting that puts Richardson's significant legacy back in the public eye, Witte earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
Comedian Bill Cosby had been in a Pennsylvania prison for more than two years last December when the stateâs high court took on his appeal of his sexual assault conviction.
As seven months went by without a decision, Philadelphia-based legal affairs reporter Maryclaire Dale â who had been instrumental in breaking the original Cosby story â thought there might be something newsy in the works. Her instincts led to deep preparation that put AP ahead on one of the biggest news stories of the summer, one that almost no one but Dale had anticipated.
When the court tweeted out its opinion Wednesday, APâs news alert moved within minutes, followed less than one minute later with a short breaking news story that Cosby's conviction was overturned, and that he would be released from prison. Both alerts beat all the competition; a full story moved less than two minutes later. Dale and colleagues followed up with full coverage throughout the day, with Cosby later appearing before cameras at his home, as the original news story drew heavy engagement online and maintained the top spot in Googleâs news carousel.
For sharp anticipation and flawless execution that put AP ahead on a story that dominated the news cycle, Dale earns APâs Best of the Week award.
delivered standout photo coverage of the Surfside, Florida, condo collapse, anchoring an impressive AP response in all formats.Lee was at home a few blocks away when the tragic, catastrophic story broke early Thursday morning. He quickly made his way to the scene to make some of the first images the world would see of the pancaked Champlain Towers South. His fast work on the ground also earned him a text byline, with customers and readers across the country waking up to a comprehensive AP story with his images. More AP journalists were soon on the scene digging into spot developments as well as the history of the building, churning out urgent series after urgent series and sensitively reporting the human toll, finding names and details of the missing to round out a well-received vignettes package. Early video also scored heavily with AP customers. Throughout the coverage, the photo team, led by Lavandier and South regional photo editor Mike Stewart, fought restricted access and had to innovate visually. Herbert first chartered a plane, then a helicopter, making handheld aerial photos with an 800mm lens from as much as two miles offshore as flight restrictions tightened. Then the team hit on the idea of using a boat. That allowed closer access but still required long lenses from a moving craft, with the photographers effectively timing their shots to coincide with the peaks and troughs of the waves to minimize movement. Competitors scrambled to emulate AP's strategy with their own vessels. AP wins on visuals included powerful photos by Sladky and Lavandier of people comforting each other, and three different AP photos rotating as the lead photo on Saturdayâs New York Times home page â images showing the destruction, the rescue operation and the emotional toll. The Miami Herald praised APâs visuals and has used much of the work, even as its own photographers produced strong content. The Herald and other members have shared some of their best images in APâs photo report. In addition to APâs photography, members have praised the all-formats coverage, including the âmicrostoriesâ AP published practically in real time, showcasing good nuggets of information throughout the news cycles. Coverage of the collapse topped APâs measures of readership and reader engagement for the month. https://apnews.com/hub/buildin...
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
The moment opposition leader Alexei Navalny was arrested upon his return to Moscow, APâs Russia team knew the weekendâs protests would be big.
Working in sub-zero temperatures, AP teams in every format, from the Russian Far East to the big cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, delivered exceptional work capturing the scale and intensity of the protests — and the violent crackdown by police.
Excellent planning, experience and a wide network of freelancers across the countryâs 11 time zones were among the factors that gave AP the edge over the competition.
For determined, insightful coverage that captured the scope and political significance of the movement, the team of Tanya Titova, Alexander Zemlianichenko, Mstyslav Chernov, Kostya Manenkov, Dmitri Lovetsky, Pavel Golovkin, Daria Litvinova, Jim Heintz, Kirill Zarubin and Yulia Alekseyeva wins APâs Best of the Week honors.
Through 78 days at Walt Disney World, basketball writer Tim Reynolds proved himself virtually unstoppable, turning out game stories on deadline while also spinning insightful pieces that examined the major topics of 2020, from coronavirus concerns to racial injustice issues and the presidential election â not to mention the leagueâs work stoppage. The so-called bubble may have confined him to an arena in central Florida, but Reynoldsâ relentless NBA coverage reminded readers that sports illuminate our lives in ways big and small.
In all, Reynolds wrote an eye-popping 200-plus stories, collecting exclusives along the way. He capped his efforts with his insightful analysis of LeBron Jamesâ legacy after James led the Lakers to their record-tying 17th NBA title.
For his exhaustive, and exhausting, work that went well beyond the games in the NBA bubble, Reynolds wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
pivoted off the nationwide protests against racial injustice to reveal that families around the country are pushing authorities to reinvestigate police killings of Black men in which no officers were charged.Lavoie had developed a relationship over two years with the family of a man who was killed in 2018 by Richmond, Virginia, police during a mental health crisis. When nightly protests began in Richmond after George Floydâs killing, she noticed that protesters made reopening the local investigation one of their top demands for reform. Additional reporting found at least a dozen calls to reinvestigate such cases around the country. Lavoie focused on three of those in different states, with victims of different backgrounds who were killed under different circumstances. Over the course of two months she convinced the families to talk about their loved ones and their efforts to persuade prosecutors to reopen closed investigations. https://bit.ly/36ZC36d
delivered an all-formats package based on the first joint interview with #MeToo founder Tarana Burke and the organizationâs new CEO Dani Ayers. They told Stafford that the movementâs original intent was to focus on marginalized voices and experiences, and that people have failed to acknowledge that the #MeToo movement was started and led by Black women and people of color.The multiformat project included Ruarkâs portraits of Burke in Baltimore, and Bazemoreâs images of Ayers in Atlanta. New York video producer Vanessa Alvarez created a video piece from the interview and file footage of some key #MeToo moments.https://bit.ly/35drj1ihttps://bit.ly/2FQQyhu
A tweet was the seed for this illuminating story. âMost people in my rural, Appalachian hometown are being radicalized at church by their pastor, which is the person they trust the most,â it read. APâs Global Religion team ran with it.
Reporter Luis Andres Henao and visual journalist Jessie Wardarski visited the parishioners of three churches in Bluefield, West Virginia, including one pastor who had attended the Jan. 6 Washington rally that degenerated into a riot. The AP pair spent weeks convincing him to sit down for an interview. The result was an all-formats package of diverse congregations seeking common ground, even as they are divided on the role of evangelical Christianity in American politics.
For applying gentle persuasion and balanced reporting to produce a nuanced look at religion and politics in one West Virginia town, Henao and Wardarski win this weekâs Best of the States award.
responded quickly Saturday, both in-person and remotely, to reports of a hostage standoff at a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue. Well-sourced reporting and old-fashioned door-knocking led to revelatory journalism as the story unfolded. The standoff ended with the hostage-takerâs death as an FBI SWAT team rushed the building.Dallas reporter Bleiberg was the first staffer on the ground, staying on-scene for more than eight hours, working in official updates and sourcing information that moved the story forward.Washington-based federal law enforcement reporters Tucker and Balsamo quickly jumped in, using their own sources for updates on the hostages, the gunman and the Pakistani neuroscientist he was demanding be freed from a federal prison. In what proved to be a smart decision, the AP used restraint when the gunman referred himself as a âbrotherâ to federal inmate Aafia Siddiqui; other news organizations had to backpedal as that story began to unravel. But AP did produce a first day explainer on Siddiqui and her case.Dallas staffer Jaime Stengle and Austin-based colleague Paul J. Weber made significant contributions to the coverage, and New York photo editor Don King wasted no time picking up early photos from member photographers at the scene, even as Dallas staff photographer Tony Gutierrez hurried to Colleyville.The morning after the final three hostages escaped, Bleiberg knocked on the most important door of the weekend, and it paid off, as he was able to speak briefly with Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who has been praised by other congregants, security specialists and law enforcement with his handling of the ordeal.From Saturday onward, AP reporters around the U.S. and overseas helped to deliver more tips, interviews and sourced information, producing stories that stayed in the AP News top 10 for the three-day weekend.https://aplink.news/ofmhttps://aplink.news/1iwhttps://aplink.news/k5whttps://aplink.news/s07https://aplink.news/gquhttps://aplink.video/oiy
AP legal affairs reporter Michael Tarm witnessed 10 of the unprecedented 13 federal executions in the final months of the Trump administration, diligently taking notes on what he saw in the chamber, from the inmatesâ last words to their last breaths.
But weeks after the last execution in mid-January, something nagged at him: The executionerâs official account did not jibe with what he had observed during the execution. Tarm went back, looking through hundreds of filings and court transcripts. His reporting resulted in a stunning exclusive on how the executioners all used euphemisms like âsnoredâ and âfell asleepâ while Tarm and other witnesses saw inmatesâ stomachs dramatically shuddering and jerking in the minutes after lethal injections.
The sanitized accounts, Tarm realized, raised serious questions about whether officials misled courts to ensure the executions would be completed before Joe Biden, a death penalty foe, took office. His story — the latest exclusive in APâs coverage of the federal executions — received prominent play and reader engagement.
For backing up his own observations with rigorous reporting to hold the federal government accountable for its official accounts of the executions, Tarm earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
used months of diligent reporting and sourcing to gain exclusive access to a financial snapshot of the foundation widely seen as a steward of the Black Lives Matter movement. Morrisonâs story revealed that the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation took in just over $90 million last year, as the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement grew following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.Morrison, a New York-based AP race and ethnicity writer, delved into the tensions between some of the movementâs grassroots organizers and national leaders, showing the full picture of the movement's financial journey â the successes and the growing pains. Morrison's exclusive received many shares on social media and put the AP well ahead of other news organizations. https://bit.ly/389DK0A
