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
for a months-long project by AP Sports to create profiles of many of the athletes who will be starring at the Pyeongchang Olympics, and ended up with an exclusive series giving fans an inside look with more than two dozen videos about what makes an Olympian. https://wintergames.ap.org/the-olympians
for confirming a critical claim in a former business partner’s lawsuit against Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner – that they met at the Executive Mansion in Springfield on May 11, 2015 – because O'Connor has consistently filed monthly FOIA requests for the official calendars and had Rauner’s schedule from that date on file. http://trib.in/2BRQciC
for breaking the news of President Donald Trump’s letter to African leaders that pledged “deep respect” and announced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first Africa visit. http://wapo.st/2DXqtLF
for obtaining an exclusive walkthrough of new procedures by the film academy and accounting firm PwC to avoid another envelope flub like the one that resulted in the incorrect naming of the best picture winner at last year's Oscars. http://bit.ly/2EywzPo
Reporters Christopher Sherman, Martha Mendoza and Garance Burke were weeks into a deep look at police misconduct in Honduras, where public mistrust of law enforcement is among the highest in the world. So when they heard a new national police chief had been appointed, they immediately shifted gears and began asking questions about him.
What they found was explosive – a confidential government security document that detailed a troubling allegation regarding the force. It said the newly named National Police Chief Jose David Aguilar Moran had once helped a drug cartel leader pull off the delivery of nearly a ton of cocaine. The clandestine haul, worth at least $20 million on U.S. streets, was packed inside a tanker truck that, the report said, was escorted by corrupt police officers to the home of Wilter Blanco, a drug trafficker recently convicted in Florida and now serving a 20-year sentence.
For their dogged reporting, Sherman, Mendoza and Burke share the Beat of the Week.
for breaking the news that the Justice Department and FBI were missing five months’ worth of text messages from an agent who had been removed from Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. http://bit.ly/2E8GCNl
In the weeks before New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie left office, a measure quickly advanced through the Legislature that would give PSEG, the state’s largest utility, a $300 million bailout for its nuclear power plants.
That got the curiosity of statehouse reporter Michael Catalini, who started digging.
A records request turned up more than a dozen emails showing that the company had lobbied for the bailout and wrote in a clause itself to prevent the public release of financial information proving it needed the money.
The bill introduced in the Legislature included language to shield the company’s books from the public, but failed to get to Christie’s desk during December’s lame-duck session. It re-emerged after Democrat Phil Murphy took office.
Catalini’s story revealing the lobbying effort was published a day before a committee hearing on the bill. Lawmakers rewrote the measure after the story appeared to clarify that PSEG would be required to submit “any financial information” to the state utility regulator.
For holding the utility and state lawmakers accountable, Catalani receives this week's Best of the States award.
for a detailed and well-written examination of falsehoods, exaggerations and disputed statements in the first year of the Donald Trump presidency. http://abcn.ws/2rCpfQe
for getting exclusive word revealing details of Major League Baseball rules that would pitchers and hitters on a clock to speed up the game. http://apne.ws/mkcQerv
for being first to report that testing of prototypes of Trump’s proposed wall with Mexico found that their imposing heights would likely stop border crossers, a finding that pleased border hawks. http://bit.ly/2n4PUzF
for breaking the news that the U.S. would withhold half of its first scheduled installment of money for the U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees. http://bit.ly/2DAVhkY
for spearheading a successful lawsuit to establish that emails, text messages and other records of state lawmakers in the Washington legislature are subject to public disclosure. http://bit.ly/2Bo804o
for breaking news that Minnesota’s GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan had asked the party leadership to give her a 10 percent commission on major donations she lands for the party. http://trib.in/2DtvmM8
As he geared up to cover Sunday’s AFC championship between the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots, Boston photographer Charlie Krupa knew the biggest national sports story of the week had been the mysterious practice injury to the throwing hand of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Krupa and every other photographer at the game made photos showing the bandaged hand as Brady warmed up, played, and celebrated yet another AFC championship on stage at midfield afterwards.
But after covering countless high-profile sporting events around the globe during his AP career, Krupa knew there was one more picture he needed to make.
When Brady took the podium for the post-game news conference, Krupa watched through the lens for that fleeting moment of Brady’s unbandaged hand. His exclusive pictures, published on ESPN and Boston Globe websites, among others, confirmed Brady had sustained a cut at the base of his right thumb that required several stitches.
For journalistic tenacity and photographic skill that gave AP an exclusive beat, Krupa receives this week’s Best of the States prize.
Holding prominent officials accountable is one of the main missions of journalism, even if it is uncomfortable at times. AP’s Nicole Winfield did just that, politely but firmly pressing Pope Francis on his knowledge of a sexual abuse scandal that has clouded his appointment of a Chilean bishop in 2015 and cast doubt about his commitment to fighting the problem.
AP Santiago correspondent Eva Vergara got the first part of the scoop for AP. She knew a letter she had spent months tracking down was toxic to Francis, to his upcoming trip to Chile, and to the Chilean bishop appointed by Francis and accused of covering up for the country's most notorious pedophile priest.
The letter showed that Francis knew that Bishop Juan Barros was accused of complicity in covering up the sexual abuse by Rev. Fernando Karadima, but appointed Barros bishop anyway. The scandal and Francis' subsequent accusations of slander against abuse victims dominated coverage. It led to Francis trying to explain himself under tough questioning by Winfield on an extraordinary in-flight press conference on his way home.
For Winfield's unflinching questioning of the pope, and Vergara's determined efforts to surface the letter that launched the story, the pair wins Beat of the Week.
for interviews with six more women who charge that maestro Charles Dutoit sexually abused them, including one who alleged rape. http://bit.ly/2Dbc9KM
for revealing that a third of all state legislative chambers do not require sexual harassment training for lawmakers and a majority have no process for independent review of allegations. http://bit.ly/2DMhmtI http://bit.ly/2mnYqtc
for confirming that the warning of a ballistic missile headed for Hawaii was a false alarm. http://bit.ly/2mUtT78
for tracking down nursing home staff who had been told to call the governor’s personal cell phone in hurricane-related emergencies, possibly slowing the overall response. http://bit.ly/2DMp4UJ