for an exclusive one-on-one interview in which former NBA star Kevin Garnett gave AP exclusive details about his anger with the Minnesota Timberwolves owner and described his foray into TV, leading to a pair of widely used and credited stories. https://apnews.com/bcd39c3988a84e288bda5c7b7ae5c5c...
for risking gunfire, tear gas and police arrest to bring to the world images of the anti-government unrest roiling Venezuela for the past three weeks. https://www.apnews.com/95fa53c88382410da… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/arti…
for digging into campaign finance records to reveal how the liquor industry contributes to powerful politicians in the state, who in turn protect an arcane system of laws about who can sell beer and even how cold or warm it is. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/mid...
In February, Arkansas announced a series of April executions that, if carried out, would make history in the United States: Over an 11-day period, the state would put to death eight inmates – two each on four days. No state had performed so many executions in such a short time since the Supreme Court re-instated the death penalty in 1976.
And Arkansas, which had not carried out an execution since 2005, had a curious justification for the expedited timetable: the supply of one of its three execution drugs was expiring at the end of the month. Officials were not confident they could obtain more.
Weeks before the first planned execution, a team of AP journalists in Arkansas and beyond set out to both chronicle the executions and offer deep and varied enterprise that broke news. Their work earns this week's Best of States award.
It was supposed to be a 15-minute interview. Instead, Associated Press Chief White House Correspondent Julie Pace kept President Donald Trump talking for an hour in a wide-ranging Oval Office discussion that was exclusive, illuminating and full of news.
Pace's sit-down with the president – resulting in multiple stories that others scrambled to follow and a transcript that readers devoured despite its 8,000-word length – earns the Beat of the Week.
for strapping into his cross-country skis and venturing into the snow-covered California backcountry with veteran state contractors who measure the depth and water content of snow. Melley wrote a first-person account of the trip, produced a voiced video piece and shot 360 stills and traditional photos. http://apne.ws/2pqEYPQ
for breaking the news that a firm headed by Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, received more than $1.2 million in payments that match a Ukrainian ledger that investigators say reflect off-the-books payments from a pro-Russia political party. They also broke the news that Manafort will register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for lobbying work he did years ago on behalf of political interests in Ukraine. http://abcn.ws/2otpOWd
for beating local and international media with news that Philippines authorities had killed a key Abu Sayyaf commander. He also broke news that Abu Sayyaf militants were the gunmen troops clashed with in the central Bohol province, where there had been no known Abu Sayyaf presence before. http://apne.ws/2othjuf
for breaking the result of the Trump administration's two-month review on North Korea, which established the new U.S. policy of "maximum pressure and engagement." http://apne.ws/2oxebNm
for getting word of a highly classified and highly sensitive U.S. intelligence conclusion that Russia had foreknowledge of Syria's chemical weapons attack. http://apne.ws/2o1Cjs3
for breaking the news that controversial former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had unexpectedly registered to run again. His candidacy was later nixed by election regulators. http://abcn.ws/2p2ThcH
for scoring an all-formats exclusive interview with a senior North Korea official amid high tension on the Korean peninsula. http://apne.ws/2ox5a6X
for seizing upon an 11th-hour addition to New York’s first-in-the-nation free college initiative _ a requirement that students who accept the support must stay in the state after graduation or pay back the benefit. http://wapo.st/2pLyo6K
for a compelling exclusive about the odd, awful downfall of the one-time school librarian of the year, who ended up getting slashed to death in a New York City homeless shelter, detailing how his self-destructive behavior in the last three years of his life may actually have been due to an undiagnosed brain disorder. http://wapo.st/2otl6YO
for snagging video of two of the NBA’s top shooters, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, engaging in a competitive 3-point shootout and getting Durant to discuss it. http://foxs.pt/2obvsjR
for capturing emotional images of Gov. Dannel Malloy announcing unexpectedly that he would not seek reelection. The photos widely used on members’ front pages and websites http://bit.ly/2obtW1i
for using FOIA to reveal the details of a public records/confidentiality bill that had received no attention. Because of their reporting, the Legislature dropped the measure. http://bit.ly/2pa6kqF
Baton Rouge-based reporter Michael Kunzelman was reporting on the police killing of a black man outside a convenience store last summer when a source called to encourage him to look into a case in front of a federal judge that had been mysteriously reassigned. It wasn’t the easiest time to be chasing down tips: the Alton Sterling shooting was swiftly followed by the killings of three law enforcement officials and then catastrophic flooding in Louisiana’s capital.
But Kunzelman didn’t forget about it.
When he was free, he began an investigation into the performance of U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi, work that would take months and aggressive use of public records. It culminated with the discovery last week she’d been ordered to seek treatment for alcoholism so severe that a colleague believed she couldn’t take care of herself. For his work Kunzelman wins this week’s Best of the States award.
The stories could not be more different. One revealed that United Nations peacekeepers had been accused of thousands of instances of sexual abuse over 12 years. The other recounted the last hours of a doomed freighter and its crew, as they sailed into a hurricane.
But both of these AP stories – by Paisley Dodds and Jason Dearen, respectively – drew extraordinary notice, captivating readers in a busy news week. And in a departure from usual practice, the two contrasting stories, a hard-hitting investigation and a powerful narrative, are being recognized as co-winners of the Beat of the Week.
for getting exclusive access to Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as he visited a South Sudanese refugee camp and defended foreign aid in the face of President Trump’s proposal to make deep cuts to U.S. humanitarian aid. http://apne.ws/2oVi945