for a quickly turned AP data analysis that found that the vast majority of people who will be affected by President Donald Trump’s decision to end a key health insurance subsidy are in states he won. http://bit.ly/2gnjqB2
for two stories on how the Trump administration is dealing with the surge of migrant families at the border and a claimed lack of detention space. Merchant spotted a solicitation for contractors to build tents near the U.S.-Mexico border to temporarily detain immigrant families, and he followed up with an accountability story revealing that thousands of beds for detained families are empty at a time when President Trump was calling the country “full,” and threatening to send migrants to sanctuary cities as political retribution.https://bit.ly/2GuBJxmhttps://bit.ly/2L4OQuG
for a powerful and sensitively executed photo-driven project that captures the spirit and resilience of a desperately poor family, keeping their 7-year-old son in school against all odds.https://bit.ly/2J9gmWhttps://bit.ly/2JaTRB3
for their extensive all-format coverage in Hanoi of the second Trump-Kim summit, capped with an agency exclusive on the North Korean foreign minister’s rare press briefing. Staffers scrambled on short notice to cover the near-midnight briefing in which the North Koreans disputed President Donald Trump’s claims on why the summit ended abruptly without an agreement. https://bit.ly/2UtHfGshttps://apnews.com/Trump-KimSummit
for three investigative stories looking at the Trump administration’s new Opportunity Zone program, including one exclusive that found President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in law pushed for the program to become law, and could now benefit from it.https://bit.ly/2T2guaZhttps://bit.ly/2LpPsaQhttps://bit.ly/2PLckSN
for a report that the Trump administration is considering using military bases as other federal properties on the West Coast to export coal and natural gas to Asia after several major port proposals have been blocked by coastal states. https://bit.ly/2J2Xzca
Calif., for showing how President Trump’s trade war affected local communities, delaying plans for a paper mill in Arkansas and landing California wildfire victims with higher rebuilding costs. http://bit.ly/2nyYIhK https://bit.ly/2Mihc4Q
The low-key, secretive trip by senior official Kim Yong Chol from North Korea to the U.S., carrying a letter for President Donald Trump, could have gone undocumented were it not for clever, enterprising work by staffers on two continents.
Senior video producer Raf Wober, based in Hong Kong, noticed high security in Beijing's airport, recognized Kim, and used his cellphone to capture video as the North Korean walked through the airport. Wober's video and his alert to the Asia Desk set off a worldwide scramble as Trump later announced that Kim was heading to the U.S. for talks about the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit.
In New York, the team of video journalists Sara Gillesby, Joseph Frederick, Luke Sheridan, Ted Shaffrey, David Martin and Robert Bumsted picked up Wober’s efforts, using technology and street smarts to get exclusive live shots that included Kim’s plane arriving at John F. Kennedy airport, Kim walking on the tarmac to a motorcade, and his arrival at a Manhattan hotel.
All of which was unmatched by the competition, resulting in strong play in the U.S. and internationally.
For their quick and creative thinking to net AP worldwide exclusives, Wober and the New York video team share the Beat of the Week award.
for exclusively reporting that the state will pay $2.25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a disabled man who choked to death while the group home aide who was supposed to be watching him was in a bathroom texting her boyfriend. http://bit.ly/2DKg9T1
Associated Press reporter Elliot Spagat has spent years covering the U.S.-Mexico border, building sources within the federal agencies that enforce the nation’s immigration laws and earning the respect of senior officials.
That source work paid off when Spagat scored an exclusive ride-along as federal agents executed what officials called the largest immigration action against an employer under Donald Trump’s presidency: An early-morning sweep of nearly 100 7-Eleven stories that targeted the stores’ owners, rather than the workers.
One U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the operation was “a harbinger of what’s to come” for employers.
For his efforts to put AP ahead of the competition (some news organizations cited AP while their own reporters rushed to confirm the story), Spagat wins this week’s Beat of the Week prize.
for two news breaks on the same day regarding special counsel Robert Mueller: He’s 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
Resolving cold cases can be thankless work for law enforcement – and an endless emotional journey for the families affected. Tamara Lush used the lens of one Florida cold case, and the relatives of a long-missing woman, to give life to the backlog of such cases nationwide.
After the publication of her first big takeout on an exhumation in a cold case, Lush turned her attention to two sisters who played just a small role in that piece. Lush met with the family numerous times – she was with them every step of the way through the drawn-out process of DNA tests, results, periods of silence from police, the day they finally got some answers about their missing family member, and the moment they shared that news with the woman's mother. The narrative story, teeming with emotion and details, can't be matched by any competitor.
For her Only on AP story that gave a face to the national backlog of cold cases, Lush wins this week’s Best of the States award.
for her photos that captured presidential chief of staff John F. Kelly putting his head in his hands and staring at the ground as he listened to his boss, Donald Trump, delivering a speech to the UN General Assembly in which he threatened to “totally destroy North Korea.” The photo received massive play worldwide. https://yhoo.it/2xQgy5Z
for his exclusive, wide-ranging interview with George Clooney, in which the actor commented on fatherhood, his new film about racism in America, and Donald Trump’s fitness to be president. http://bit.ly/2w84vNe
for their story revealing that executive orders signed by President Trump just two weeks before Harvey struck Texas could make it more difficult for communities to rebuild infrastructure to make it better able to withstand another megastorm. http://bit.ly/2xPBZSB
for their collaboration across continents to tell the story of a 93-year-old Oregon vet’s mission to travel to Japan to return a flag he’d taken from a fallen soldier 70 years ago. http://bit.ly/2wy1Wss
for being first to report that Republican Congressman Lou Barletta, an early Trump supporter, will try to win the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Bob Casey. http://bit.ly/2uzDQI9
for source development work that resulted in AP obtaining exclusive reaction from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the week in which Sessions received scathing, public criticism from President Donald Trump. Gurman was the only text reporter accompanying Sessions on a trip to El Salvador. http://bit.ly/2vxEvxX http://bit.ly/2vxuVex
for getting exclusive details and photos in the story of a young man’s murder of four other men – including that he had an accomplice and burned three out of four bodies. http://bit.ly/2u2cAVD
for being first to report that President Donald Trump, in a private White House meeting with 15 Republicans senators, criticized the House GOP health care bill as "mean." It was the same bill he had praised in a Rose Garden ceremony last month. http://abcn.ws/2tzM0ky