for getting exclusive word of the impending introduction of a critical bipartisan bill aimed at safeguarding Robert Mueller's role as special counsel. http://bit.ly/2vk73KM
for two news breaks on the same day regarding special counsel Robert Mueller: Heâs taken over a criminal probe involving Paul Manafort, and he may investigate the roles of the attorney general and deputy attorney general in the firing of FBI Director James Comey. http://strib.mn/2qX7XZb
for securing the only interview with a counselor at a Delaware maximum-security prison after she was taken hostage, providing an eyewitness account of a fatal riot. Chase persuaded the counselor to share her story before the final report on the riot was due to be released. https://bit.ly/2LAi7MS
As the ranks of dioceses promising to release lists of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse began to mushroom at the beginning of this year, Philadelphia reporter Claudia Lauer and Washington-based data editor Meghan Hoyer started to strategize: How could they leverage the information on a scale never before accomplished?
After months of systematic, dogged work, the result was âWhere Are They Now,â a blockbuster investigation that found almost 1,700 priests and other clergy members living with little to no oversight, many with positions giving them access to children. Dozens have committed crimes, including sexual assault.
The story received exceptional play online and in print, and AP Managing Editor Brian Carovillano called it, âOne of the most monumental pieces of AP journalism in my memory.â
For a stunning investigation that breaks new ground in the already impressive body of work that is âThe Reckoningâ series, Lauer and Hoyer win this weekâs Best of the States award.
The brief for the project was anything but simple: find a way to cover climate changeâs effects on the planet in a way that avoided turning the audience off with a gloom-and-doom or heavily text-centric approach.
The result was a sprawling environmental series that expanded the boundaries of APâs visual storytelling. The series traveled to 10 countries on five continents, focusing on everything from attempts to bring back Jamaicaâs coral reefs, to the conservation of lions and gorillas in Africa, to Chinaâs ambitious plans to build a national park system, to a trip down one of Europeâs last wild rivers.
It was the work of 33 journalists, 15 editors and four translators throughout APâs global newsroom, reaching millions of people across all formats â and not just because Leonardo DiCaprio touted some of the installments on Instagram and Twitter.
For ambitious storytelling and compelling display on a subject of global significance, the extended team behind the âWhat Can Be Saved?â series wins APâs Best of the Week award. This weekâs cash award will be donated to APâs Employee Relief Fund.
for months of careful relationship building with opioid addicts and their loved ones, resulting in a richly-detailed package about opioid addiction in Australia, where stigma around addiction remains high. The stories revealed how drug companies and the Australian government have contributed to the crisis, and an intimate narrative provided striking detail about the pain and impact of opioid dependency on addicts and their families. To find the right subjects, Gelineau contacted countless rehab centers, doctors, pain groups, nonprofits and addiction specialists, combed through online forums and social media and read through thousands of signatures on petitions related to opioid abuse. Putting the pieces together also required painstaking sifting through data from Australiaâs de-centralized health system and 12 years of coronersâ reports to find early warnings about the opioid crisis. The work resonated with readers, and the director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, which funded the stories, called them âstellar journalism ... so well told and presented,â while the mother profiled in the teamâs narrative piece wrote to Gelineau, âIâm so grateful for having met you, Sam and Goldie. You have given me a voice.âhttps://bit.ly/2kebqV7https://bit.ly/2lKn9ez
The death of the Islamic State group âcaliphâ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was one of the most competitive stories in the world in recent weeks. Journalists scrambled to uncover details of the U.S. operation and how the Islamic State leader ended up in a hideout in Syria.
Beirut-based Middle East reporter Sarah El Deeb put the AP out front with a story based on exclusive interviews recounting al-Baghdadiâs final days, as he was shuttled furtively around Syria by a dwindling circle of confidants.
Enhancing the narrative were dramatic details from a teenage girl who had been enslaved by al-Baghdadi as he sought refuge. El Deeb elicited the previously untold details through sensitive and dogged reporting.
The story stood out from the many accounts that simply echoed the official account of al-Baghdadiâs death, demonstrating not only the APâs dominance on a global story but also its trusted ability to provide facts-based reporting from the ground in the region.
For outstanding source work and reporting on a story of intense interest, Sarah El Deeb wins APâs Best of the Week award.
for building on their previous reporting about the Brothers Home, where some of the worst human rights atrocities in modern South Korean history had taken place. Kim and Klug have now revealed that the notorious facility was part of an orphanage pipeline feeding the demand of private adoption agencies. A former U.S. diplomat specializing in the Koreas said the story shows âThe AP continues to be second to none in South Korea-based investigative reporting.â https://bit.ly/2KkAe7C
tells the gripping story of a Miami nurse in the Intensive Care Unit who has dedicated himself to comforting more than a dozen COVID-19 patients in their last moments. Nurse Rublas Ruiz poignantly describes the all-too-common experience of patients far from loved ones as they draw their last breath, scared and alone except for doctors and nurses. https://bit.ly/3lkBKrg
When President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Barrett and her supporters clearly did not want to discuss the nomineeâs reported ties to a religious group called People of Praise.
Enter reporters Michelle Smith and Michael Biesecker. Using on-the-record interviews and an archive of deleted web pages, the pair documented Barrett's deep ties to the charismatic Christian group and painted a detailed picture of the organizationâs beliefs and practices from its early days to the present. And the reporters went on to reveal how the organization had systematically deleted all mentions of Barrett and her family from its website.
For deep, resourceful reporting that sheds new light on the current Supreme Court nominee on the cusp of her confirmation hearings, Smith and Biesecker share this weekâs Best of the States award.
spent a chunk of Election Day documenting George Floydâs brother in New York.With racial justice a central issue in the election, race and ethnicity reporter Morrison thought it fitting to tell a story through the lens of someone who lost a loved one to police violence. He had met Terrence Floyd, the younger sibling of George Floyd, in Minneapolis over the summer at the spot where a white police officer pressed his knee into Floydâs neck for nearly eight minutes. Terrence, who lives in New York, agreed to let Morrison shadow him exclusively as he rode around the city in an SUV calling on a loudspeaker for people to vote, and later while waiting for election results at a watch party. At one point Terrence chanted âDon't forget to vote!â in rhythm with musicians outside a Brooklyn museum, a moment captured by Morrison, photographer Franklin and video journalist Shaffrey.https://bit.ly/38FgXe2https://bit.ly/3kqmQyb
used textbook planning and multiformat coordination to keep AP competitive as Moderna and Pfizer made news about their COVID-19 vaccines three times during the week, causing the markets â and the world â to react. AP medical writers Lauran Neergaard and Linda A. Johnson worked their sources to get the latest developments, while health and science video journalists Kathy Young and Federica Narancio prepped video edits in advance for core customers, followed by spot edits. For AP Horizons clients, video journalist and motion graphics designer Marshall Ritzel made an animation explaining the vaccinesâ brand-new technology. Seattle photographer Ted S. Warren reached out to two original volunteers who received the Moderna vaccine in March, making fresh portraits and reaction for both video and the wire, while Boston-based video journalist Rodrique Ngowi camped out at Modernaâs headquarters for a live shot. In Europe, Frank Jordans and Dorothee Thiesing scored an interview with the head of BioNTech, Pfizerâs German partner.Not to be outdone, the health and science team and the misinformation team published a special edition Viral Questions based on the vaccine news.https://bit.ly/37kHw67https://bit.ly/3q9qyjwhttps://bit.ly/36eo77xhttps://bit.ly/2JhH80ahttps://bit.ly/3fMmBfWhttps://apnews.com/hub/viral-questions
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.
Justice Department reporter Mike Balsamo has spent months cultivating sources at the Department of Justice, earning a reputation as an objective journalist who reports fairly and accurately.
His relationships paid off with an exclusive interview of U.S. Attorney General William Barr, in which Barr said the DOJ could find no evidence of widespread voting fraud, dramatically undercutting President Donald Trumpâs insistence to the contrary.
âI knew ... he had made probably the biggest news he has in his tenure as AG,â said Balsamo. His story topped the news cycle and resonated for days. No other news outlet could match it and AP was widely cited for the scoop.
For persistent, evenhanded reporting on the Justice Department beat resulting in the interview that netted one of APâs most consequential news coups of the year, Balsamo wins APâs Best of the Week honors.
delivered a widely read scoop after working their sources to confirm a curious rumor: An official serving as President Donald Trumpâs eyes and ears at the Department of Justice was banned from the building after pressuring Justice Department staffers to reveal insider information about ongoing cases and the departmentâs work on election fraud.Heidi Stirrup, an ally of top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, had also extended job offers to political allies for positions at some of the highest levels of the DOJ without consulting senior department officials or the White House counselâs office, and also attempted to interfere in the hiring process for career staffers, a violation of the governmentâs human resources policies, a source told the AP. https://bit.ly/374EDaH
Itâs a story of two churches in rural Missouri, only 30 miles apart — and worlds apart.
One congregation is mostly white, while the other offers services in five languages with members from around the world. The pandemic has united them, with pastors meeting to support each other, share ideas and figure out how to continue ministering to this region hit disproportionately by the coronavirus.
The team of national writer David Crary, youth and religion reporter Luis Andres Henao and video journalist Jessie Wardarski earned the trust of residents to produce an intimate all-formats story, revealing diverse Midwestern communities that aren't famous but are integral to the nationâs identity.
For compelling coverage of communities united in adversity and navigating with faith, the team of Crary, Henao and Wardarski wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
unraveled some messy decisions by Dr. Deborah Birx, head of the White House coronavirus task force, that appeared to contradict the governmentâs own COVID-19 safety guidelines.When it was first reported that Birx was angling for some kind of role on the Biden administrationâs COVID-19 response team, one of her relatives reached out to Madhani and suggested he look into Birx, who spent Thanksgiving weekend at a Delaware beach house with extended family, and who also made many visits to a multigenerational family home in Maryland between her widespread travels to coronavirus hotspots for the government.Madhani and Slodysko contrasted Birxâs activity with her warnings to Americans to âbe vigilantâ and limit celebrations to âyour immediate household,â and with CDC guidelines to avoid travel for the holidays. The two Washington reporters also discovered that while Birx was in Delaware, she conducted an interview with CBSâ âFace the Nationâ in which she noted some Americans âwent across the country or even into the next stateâ for the holiday weekend. Birx declined to be interviewed for the story but provided a statement acknowledging she went to her Delaware property, insisting she was there to winterize the property.The story received strong play and reader engagement, and continued to generate discussion on cable TV well beyond its weekend release.Birx has a since said she plans to retire, but is willing to first help President-elect Joe Bidenâs team with its coronavirus response as needed.https://bit.ly/38sWmb7https://politi.co/2WFxDeh
Ever since Hurricane Laura hit southwest Louisiana in August, correspondent Rebecca Santana and photographer Gerald Herbert wanted to follow up with the regionâs residents. But in a busy hurricane season, it wasnât until December that plans finally came together.
Santana researched for weeks, finding subjects and learning about recovery efforts. The pair then spent two days in the Lake Charles area where they saw the devastation firsthand and met storm victims, including a couple whose postponed wedding was finally happening. Herbert, who also shot the video for the stories, went back to Lake Charles eight times, even sleeping in a gutted house on Christmas Eve.
The result was two print stories, three video packages and a photo essay, all of which received prominent play. For uncovering the compelling stories of hurricane victims months after the storms faded from the headlines, Santana and Herbert earn APâs Best of the States award for the week of Dec. 21.
With the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre months away, text and visual journalists from APâs Race and Ethnicity, Central Region and Enterprise teams embarked on a plan to dig deeper into the story of the atrocity, well beyond just covering the centennial events.
The team started arriving in Tulsa weeks ahead of the anniversary to explore the city and meet descendants of massacre survivors, who opened up about the horrific event and how it continues to impact their families and the community. Among those they met was the family of Ernestine Alpha Gibbs, who survived the massacre and died 18 years ago at age 100.
Their efforts resulted in a comprehensive package of enterprise stories, from the lost wealth and racial inequality that Black Tulsans have endured, to the descendants of Black victims preparing to resume a search for mass graves, to an examination of how history books and law enforcement have depicted the massacre, and much more.
The coverage was not without breaking news. In addition to a visit by President Joe Biden, AP learned that the weekendâs headline event was canceled because of a disagreement over payments to three survivors for their appearance at the event.
For sweeping enterprise and spot coverage that raises awareness of this grim milestone in American race relations, this multiformat team earns APâs Best of the States award.
started digging after federal prosecutors in New York took the unusual step last spring of abruptly dismissing all charges against a banker convicted of evading U.S. sanctions by funneling $115 million to his familyâs business in Iran. Goodmanâs curiosity was rewarded with an exclusive.Goodman worked with AP assistant general counsel Brian Barrett to convince a court to release internal communications within the U.S. attorneyâs office for the Southern District of New York detailing how the elite unit tried to conceal their mishandling of evidence in the botched prosecution. A plethora of private correspondence between prosecutors showed a coordinated effort to mislead the court. In one exchange of text messages, supervising prosecutors admitted âwe liedâ to the defense during the trial. âThis is going to be a bloodbath,â one wrote, anticipating the judgeâs reaction to the disclosure. https://bit.ly/30bwLzEhttps://bit.ly/30aQmAf