AP has owned the story since Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark grain distribution deal a year ago that cleared the way for Ukraine to export its grain across the Black Sea to the rest of the world.Read more
In more than 30 stories dating to early May, AP journalists covered all aspects of the trial of Robert Bowers for killing 11 people inside a Pittsburgh synagogue building in 2018.Read more
When former President Donald Trump was indicted on felony charges Aug. 1 for working to overturn the 2020 election results in the run-up to the Jan. 6 violent riot at the U.S. Capitol, the AP team was ready.Read more
On the eve of the first world track championships since Bowie’s passing, AP sportswriters Eddie Pells and Pat Graham teamed up to report exclusively on the mental health struggles of Tori Bowie that led up to the star athlete’s death April 23 from complications during childbirth at the age of 32.
The two had covered Bowie, who won three medals at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Games, for many years and had heard whispers of her difficulties. A few weeks after her death, the autopsy listed the cause as “complications in childbirth.”
While other outlets pursued the angle that Black women suffer disproportionately from pregnancy complications, Pells opted to explore another dimension of her story, her struggles with mental health.
He sought out people at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and within track and field, to find out how a world-famous champion, who was eight months into what would be considered an at-risk pregnancy, came to die alone at home without medical care or anyone to look after her.
For sensitively telling the story of a great athlete who became isolated from her peers and died tragically alone in part because of neglect of her mental health difficulties, Pells and Graham are Best of the Week — First Winner.
AP obtained exclusive body-cam video showing an elite federal prosecutor offering his Justice Department card in a DUI crash arrest. Read more
It was in mid-July when Las Vegas reporters Rio Yamat and Ken Ritter began working their sources, after the police raided the home of a suspect in connection with an investigation into the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. The result months later was a super scoop on a riveting story nearly three decades in the making.
Through their deep and extensive sourcing in law enforcement and criminal justice, Yamat and Ritter sought to penetrate a grand jury case shrouded in secrecy. For months, they regularly contacted everyone who was likely involved. It all paid off when they learned they should prepare for an indictment in mid-September. From there, it was a lesson in patience and persistence.
After months where Yamat and Ritter attended court hearings and drafted prep for a potential break, Yamat began hearing rumblings an indictment was imminent. She and Ritter were able to nail down the next morning from multiple sources with firsthand knowledge that Duane “Keffe D” Davis had been taken into custody on suspicion of murder in Tupac's killing.
They broke the news at 9:27 a.m. PDT. The alert published 93 minutes before the court convened for grand jury returns when the indictment would be made public.
For dogged reporting and deep source work that allowed AP to dominate a story that’s mystified fans for decades, Yamat and Ritter are this week’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
AP revealed that officials cut corners and relied on a pliant Supreme Court to carry out executions even when some — including Trump himself — agreed that there might be valid reasons not to proceed with them all.Read more
AP, cultivating sources on a highly competitive beat, broke two major Statehouse stories: an armed man came to the Wisconsin Capitol twice looking for the governor, and on Friday after 5 p.m. a state Supreme Court justice being targeted for impeachment if she heard a redistricting case decided not to recuse and cast the deciding vote for the court to hear it.
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With a display of lightning-fast collaboration, AP was the first news organization to report that a Maryland judge who was shot to death in his driveway had presided over the divorce case of a man identified as a suspect in his killing.Read more
AP produced a deep all-formats package about a community that serves as a model for what others could do with proceeds from a $50 billion opioids settlement to fight the opioids epidemic.Read more
AP reported for a year on the 2022 fire of the Trinity Spirit, an aging oil tanker that exploded while anchored off the coast of Nigeria — the ship fit a pattern of old oil tankers put to work storing and extracting oil around the world even while on the brink of mechanical breakdowns.Read more
After reporting in June that thieves made off with at least $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funds, AP dug deeper to answer a simple question. What were the most unusual purchases the crooks made with the cash they grabbed?Read more
