for obtaining a draft proposal from Republican governors to revamp Medicaid, which provides insurance to more than 70 million low-income Americans. http://abcn.ws/2maJvV6
for telling the story of the millions of people worldwide whose lives have been turned upside down from the insidious threat of back-bay flooding. http://apne.ws/2s4t9k0
for an exclusive story showing that the problem of theft at VA hospitals is worse than at private hospitals and that the number of criminal cases continues to grow. http://apne.ws/2r6qCkF
for obtaining financial documents that revealed that Minnesota’s two licensed medical marijuana manufacturers had lost a combined $11 million in their first two years. http://bit.ly/2rKYCU3
for an exclusive look at a contractor operating in Iraq with alarming security violations and ethical lapses, based on interviews with former employees and documents. http://apne.ws/2q6CT9v
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 revealing that the U.S. government’s investigation of Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, extended to the island nation of Cyprus. https://yhoo.it/2ocLXvk
AP correspondent Tamara Lush first met renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Erin Kimmerle while reporting on Florida’s Dozier School for Boys – a now-shuttered site where former students accused officials of abuse and dozens of students died. Kimmerle was investigating graves, and local media paid plenty of attention to the positive, bubbly woman with a high-pitched voice – unexpected from someone who jumps in graves and scrubs bones with a toothbrush.
Lush found Kimmerle and her work fascinating – in a state full of colorful characters, she calls the professor one of Florida’s most interesting and brilliant women.
So Lush stayed in touch, and when her sources at the University of South Florida – where Kimmerle teaches and has a lab – offered an exclusive opportunity to follow Kimmerle as she investigated cold cases through a new grant, she jumped at the chance. Lush's all-formats Only on AP package wins this week's Best of States award.
It’s one of the most important lessons of investigative journalism: One good story can lead to another. Don’t give up after the first round. Keep digging.
That’s what Mitch Weiss of the national investigative team did after his explosive first story on the Word of Faith Fellowship. His follow-up story earns the Beat of the Week.
It took Weiss many months to persuade 43 former members of the Fellowship to open up – on the record and identified – with stories of adults and children being slapped, punched, choked and slammed to the floor in the name of the Lord. But getting so many of the reluctant ex-congregants to talk was only the start of his journalistic journey.
It’s no secret that the repeal and replacement of Obamacare could have a significant impact both on those holding insurance and on the finances of states that have embraced the health care law. But over the last few months, few details had emerged on what that precise impact might be.
In an “Only on AP” story, St. Paul, Minnesota, statehouse reporter Kyle Potter revealed that Minnesota officials were bracing for additional costs that could reach $6 billion by 2029 to maintain a low-income health care program that covers more than 900,000 state residents. For providing one of the first concrete glimpses into the possible ramifications states envision, Potter wins this week's Best of States recognition.
for offering a view inside South Sudan’s most notorious prison and also breaking the news that a South Sudanese rebel spokesman who had been deported by Kenya, despite his refugee status, was being held in solitary confinement inside the prison. http://apne.ws/2hb44NT
for examining the Trump family's renewed interest in a luxury resort project in the Dominican Republic and weighing that against the president's promise not to engage in any new foreign business deals while in office. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/re...
for looking beyond the technology industry’s typical explanations for its lack of diversity and finding that the industry’s own hiring practices are a big part of the problem. http://apne.ws/2kVFpjm
for using his data journalism skills to give readers the first look at a proposal to change how the state pays to educate students. http://bit.ly/2jHdKNP
for smart planning, sharp thinking and close teamwork that melded to result in a comprehensive all-formats examination of Barack Obama’s legacy on issues of race as the nation's first black president: https://apnews.com/29b24a7985a442d8b890261da99cad8...
for being first to report the findings of the state of Montana’s investigation into the deaths of 14 children, and how lawmakers missed a chance to fix the problem: http://bit.ly/2iVA9Zd
for reporting exclusively that a failed wind energy project off the coast of New Jersey had burned through $10.6 million in federal money before the U.S. Department of Energy cut off its funding: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2f22bca05…
for securing exclusive, all-format access to the under-construction Trump golf course in Dubai, and reporting the political, economic and security implications of the club opening just weeks after the U.S. inauguration: https://apnews.com/da3e4d047aaa44e8b1b40…
for exclusive reporting that Chinese officials questioned U.S. assertions that China is the top source country for synthetic opioids, and, in a separate story, for taking readers inside a DEA lab and letting them witness the discovery of a new synthetic opioid. http://apne.ws/2i8u4Lm http://apne.ws/2hbt6hv
for a joint investigation that revealed how drugmakers are aggressively pushing a new class of drugs as their answer to the opioid crisis. The formulations are highly profitable for the industry but have not been proven to reduce of overdoses or deaths. http://apne.ws/2hTNQpB