Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, reporter, Washington, D.C., for using cost figures obtained exclusively from Medicare actuaries to describe how the program’s safeguard for consumers with high drug costs had turned into a way for pharmaceutical companies to collect billions ...
Claudia Lauer, reporter, Little Rock, Arkansas, for using FOIA requests to show that Arkansas intended to use a drug for executions made by a company that doesn't want its drugs used for that purpose.
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
revealed how the coronavirus is taking a bite out of the global drug trafficking – everything from severing key supply chains for Chinese precursor drugs to paralyzing the economies upon which drug sales rely. With detailed, on-the-record source work, they reported why drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia are being disrupted and how that is playing out in cities across the U.S., mostly in the form of tight supplies and prices that have risen to crisis-gouging levels. https://bit.ly/355KtWz
for an all-formats effort to tell a little-noticed story of the opioid crisis – how clergy members have become first responders, of sorts, leaving their pulpits to go directly to the streets to help get people into treatment and on a path to recovery. https://bit.ly/2BqB2E6
From a fetid bridge underpass frequented by addicts, to a police station, to a grim drug detoxification ward, this all-formats package driven by powerful visuals takes a stunning look at Afghanistan’s drug underworld and the severe treatment of heavy drug users by the Taliban. The work also bears witness to AP’s robust reporting from Afghanistan, which has continued unabated since the Taliban takeover.
Video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Felipe Dana and correspondent Samya Kullab, all currently on assignment in Kabul, gained rare access to this especially bleak segment of Afghan life, earning the trust of street addicts and, through a combination of persistence and luck, documenting Taliban detention of users, all amid a difficult and dangerous environment for journalists.For a rare exclusive that sets a high standard for coverage while shedding light on a harsh reality in Afghanistan, the team of Chernov, Dana and Kullab is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
for a distinctive and deeply reported legislative story on the so-called “marital rape exemption” or “spousal defense,” a legal loophole in many states that allows spouses to escape criminal prosecution for raping partners who are drugged, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated. Smyth and Karnowski reported that previous state legislative attempts to remove those exemptions have a mixed record, but that’s starting to change. https://bit.ly/2vLmScQ
for scoring a 15-minute beat on the news that the Rolling Stones would postpone their North American tour after doctors told Mick Jagger he needed medical treatment and couldn’t perform. Fekadu was tipped off to the decision ahead of a public announcement. https://bit.ly/2WHGJoX
for an exclusive report on the escalating conflict between drug traffickers and authorities in southern Spain, including unprecedented interviews with gang members operating in one of Europe’s main entry points for hashish from North Africa. https://bit.ly/2HsiEMl
for showing how more colleges are taking video gaming seriously as a varsity sport, in a trend so strong that the NCAA is considering whether it should play a role. http://bit.ly/2jKI6nX
for illustrating the largely underreported problem of discarded needles from the opioid crisis turning up in rivers, on beaches and in public parks across the country. http://bit.ly/2v5VKqX
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
Combine the capabilities of The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity, and this is what you can get: A two-part blockbuster that exposed the efforts of the opioid industry and allied groups to stymie limits on the use of its powerful drugs, and detailed how they spent more than $880 million on lobbying and political contributions over the past decade.
The genesis of the project was a conversation between Tom Verdin, editor of AP’s state government team, and Geoff Mulvihill, a member of that team. Mulvihill, based in Mount Laurel, N.J., has covered the opioid crisis sweeping the nation, and the two hit upon the idea of trying to determine the extent of the pharmaceutical industry’s exerting influence in state legislatures across the country.
for spotting a trend in the nation’s ongoing heroin epidemic: multiple overdoses in libraries around the country. The resulting story, which she reported and wrote while working BNS shifts, was No. 10 on Mobile over the weekend and got strong social media use. http://apne.ws/2cwDYSD
for an exclusive report about a Trump administration proposal under consideration to permit mandatory drug testing of certain food stamp recipients. https://bit.ly/2HCNiW0
for their analysis showing that brand-name prescription prices continue to rise and that the Trump Administration has not delivered on its promises to cut prescription drug price increases. https://bit.ly/2xCVi2M
for an only-on-AP all-formats win in coverage of Hong Kong’s democracy protests, revealing that medics are secretly banding together to privately treat injured protesters who fear arrest if they go to government-run hospitals. The exclusive also showed that government figures significantly underestimate the true extent of injuries. One of the “hidden healers” agreed to go on camera, generating impressive online and broadcast play.https://bit.ly/33EVEDKhttps://bit.ly/32tr5AAhttps://bit.ly/2Mo0gZa
for breaking the news that the U.S. government held a record 69,550 infants, children and teenagers in custody over the past year, published as part of a collaboration with PBS’s “Frontline.” The story and documentary were the result of a collaboration initiated by Burke and led by international investigative editor Ron Nixon. The joint project built on years of Burke’s work with Mendoza and many colleagues on the immigration beat team and in Latin America. Together, they contniued to press for access inside shelters, interview kids who had been detained, document the trauma risks, and garner interviews with officials responsible for the situation.https://bit.ly/35oq9yBhttps://bit.ly/2O5k4kKhttps://to.pbs.org/2s3fStf
spent weeks searching for patients to put faces on two clinical trials testing COVID-19 treatments: One was a coronavirus survivor who opted to donate her blood for research; the other was a doctor turned patient who decided to join a study testing an experimental biotech drug. The stories were part of AP’s ongoing effort to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of people affected by the pandemic.https://bit.ly/2JQKbcwhttps://bit.ly/2XlHOWQ
for using records requests to reveal that Ohio had been loading up on supplies of an execution drug that is at the center of a federal lawsuit. His story came just as arguments in the case were being heard. http://apne.ws/2iDbcVk