Scott Bauer, correspondent, Madison, Wisconsin, and Eric Tucker, law enforcement reporter, Washington, D.C., for being first to report the details of how a former U.S. attorney for Wisconsin misused a government credit card for personal expenses.
for scooping national media by more than a week on a hunt for the invasive Asian carp in Kentucky. Loller learned of plans for the hunt and along with Flesher worked to tell the broader story of how efforts to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes and other important waterways was proving far more expensive than expected, teaming with visual colleagues to get images of the hunt ahead of a planned media event. https://bit.ly/2v4HujC
Venezuela was one of the least-prepared countries in the world to fight the coronavirus. But it has arguably succeeded on one front: suppressing news of the virus’s true impact on its people. The country has acknowledged only 814 COVID deaths. But this Caracas-based all-formats AP team scored a breakthrough, telling the actual story in a country where contradicting the government’s official narrative can lead to detention.
Documenting two women working to ensure the survival of their fathers, the AP journalists delivered a hard-won, startling and exclusive look at the bleak state of health care and the plight of relatives who risk their own lives to care for loved ones in the COVID-19 wing of a rundown public hospital.
For their determination and courage to report this story and expose Venezuela’s ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Smith, Cubillos and Arraez earn AP’s Best of the Week honors.
for thinking to ask Matthew McConaughey at a red-carpet event about the just-announced death of fellow actor and friend Sam Shepard, and capturing McConaughey’s stunned reaction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHMF4LlWgZI
for breaking the news of the arrest of a caretaker of a desecrated cemetery in Bridgeport, Connecticut – a development that allowed Collins to update a deeply reported story on complaints from relatives about the state of the burial ground. https://bit.ly/2zWdi9M
for breaking the news that a live Asian carp had been caught in a Chicago waterway beyond a fortified electric barrier designed to stop the voracious fish, and about nine miles from Lake Michigan where its presence would threaten the ecosystem. http://wapo.st/2sqcvXU
The AP team of Bernard Condon, Matt Sedensky and Carla K. Johnson assembled the most detailed national look yet at one of the most vexing snags in the coronavirus vaccine rollout: Surprising numbers of health care workers — who have seen firsthand the misery inflicted by COVID-19 — are refusing the shots.
The deep reporting, with contributions from colleagues across the country, found the paradox occurring in nursing homes and hospitals, with some individual facilities seeing a refusal rate as high as 80%. The story, one of AP’s most-read on an extremely busy news week, quoted both health workers expressing fears of vaccine side effects and frustrated facility administrators.
For bringing to light an important part of the stumbling early rollout of the much-anticipated vaccine, Condon, Sedensky and Johnson win this week’s Best of the States award.
As the coronavirus pandemic enters a new phase in a reopening nation, its psychological toll is sinking in for the frontline workers who have cared for the sickest patients.
Writer Jennifer Peltz, video journalists Robert Bumsted and Ted Shaffrey, and photographer John Minchillo went into New York City hospitals to see the impact in person, in real time and on the record. They interviewed health care workers and spent time with them on the job, seeing firsthand the lingering effects of months spent treating COVID-19 patients.
“In my wildest dreams, I never imagined how hard it would be,’’ one doctor said.
For a fully rendered package that takes a close personal look at this important aspect of the pandemic, the team of Peltz, Bumsted, Shaffrey and Minchillo earns this week’s Best of the States award.
for comprehensive, innovative all-formats coverage of the Central American migrant caravan as it moved through Mexico, including strong photo galleries, insightful text narratives and drone video footage.https://bit.ly/2Pg7z8hhttps://bit.ly/2PNUqCV
for being the first to get inside access to hospitals in Caracas for a powerfully reported story about unhealthy conditions. http://apne.ws/2dGMQsa
It could have been a routine follow-up story, but Milwaukee video journalist Carrie Antlfinger found a way to tell that story and break news.
Very little was known last year when Greg Manteufel, a perfectly healthy Wisconsin man, developed a severe blood infection attributed to a bacterium commonly found in the saliva of cats and dogs.
While reporting on Manteufel’s effort to reclaim his life after more than 20 surgeries and the loss of his limbs, Antlfinger discovered an angle that had not been pursued by other outlets: Researchers had identified a genetic factor that appears to make otherwise healthy people susceptible to the disease.
Antlfinger shot video, photos and wrote the story, which received strong play in all formats.
For a compelling story of recovery that also broke medical news, Antlfinger receives this week’s Best of the States award.
for being first to report how pirates are taking over in the coastal state of Sucre, as the fishing industry and many others collapse across Venezuela. https://apnews.com/tag/VenezuelaUndone
for exclusively obtaining a scathing grand jury report showing how better information-sharing among various agencies could have stopped the alleged abusive actions of a foster parent years before he was arrested. http://apne.ws/2m8RfHo
for turning a tip about a service dog trainer with a troubling track record into an exposé on the shocking lack of regulation in the industry. Breed found several examples around the country that highlight what one expert calls a “lawless” industry with a near complete absence of standards and oversight that leaves needy families vulnerable to incompetence and fraud. https://bit.ly/2J6t1sU
exposed how jeweler Cartier used images of Yanomami, a tribe devastated by gold mining, to cast itself in an environmentally conscious light, an “Only on AP” exclusive that led to Cartier taking down a problematic image and saying it had been a mistake.Read more.
For two years, as COVID-19 ravaged the world, AP health and science reporter Carla Johnson stayed in constant contact with disease modelers who were using careful analysis to predict what the coronavirus would do next.
This time her subject was the omicron wave — millions were infected and millions more had immunity through vaccination and/or past infection. Johnson knew those numbers might answer one of the most vexing questions of the pandemic: How much immunity had Americans developed from omicron?
Johnson leaned on her sources and asked one influential analyst to produce projections for the AP. The result was a key finding that gave the country the earliest and clearest sense yet of how the U.S. is navigating the pandemic: 73% of the country is believed to be protected from omicron.
Her deeply reported but straightforward story, explaining why future waves may be far less disruptive in the U.S., played widely with credit to AP’s exclusive reporting.
For recognizing that the data might hold answers on COVID immunity, and resourceful source work that delivered a unique projection of future infection, Johnson is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
for documenting that despite increases in campus mental health services, growing demand still outpaces the available services. Binkley and Fenn used a data set built with information obtained through Freedom of Information requests; the data was shared with members for localization. https://bit.ly/2OC2xBa
It started with a tip.
When a college student mentioned that fellow unvaccinated students were getting fake COVID-19 vaccine cards in order to attend in-person classes, AP global investigations intern Roselyn Romero remembered that she'd seen an account on Instagram offering fake cards for $25 each.
Romero began searching social media platforms and talked to college students, faculty, administrators and health officials. What she found was a cottage industry offering to accommodate people who refuse to get vaccinated but need documentation saying that they’ve had the shots.
Her deeply reported story had nearly 250,000 pageviews on AP News and was used by hundreds of news outlets, including online and print front pages. She was also interviewed by NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer responded by calling for a multiagency crackdown on the counterfeit cards.
For having a major national impact with her first AP byline, Roselyn Romero wins this week’s Best of the States award.
for being the first to report the discovery of the second-oldest known shipwreck in the Great Lakes. http://on.thestar.com/2bxSGXS
“How quickly can you and your boss get here?”
The curt text message to Andean News Director Joshua Goodman from Venezuela’s normally evasive communications minister promised a tantalizing scoop. It set Goodman and Ian Phillips, vice president for international news, on an intercontinental dash to Caracas to secure embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s first-ever interview with an English-language news agency.
Among the exclusives from the interview, Maduro revealed that his foreign minister had twice met secretly in New York with a Trump administration envoy. It came against a tense backdrop as the U.S. joined other Latin American nations in calling for the leader’s ouster.
The unprecedented access came as the result of Goodman’s years of source development with the Venezuelan government, including cultivating pro-government sources and making sure cabinet ministers saw that AP’s coverage of the nation was fair and balanced.
The package was a dominating all-formats beat for the AP and a massive draw for customers, with video of the interview downloaded more than 840 by clients around the world. And in a surprise first, Venezuelan state TV also carried the 42-minute interview in its entirety in prime time.
For his masterful source development, resourcefulness and quick work to put the AP ahead, Goodman wins AP’s Best of the Week award.
