Four SNPA members win Pulitzer Prizes

The Associated Press and three SNPA members from Florida were among the winners of Pulitzer Prizes awarded yesterday.

Well-deserved honors were awarded for:

Public Service - The Associated Press for an investigation of severe labor abuses tied to the supply of seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants.  This reporting freed 2,000 slaves, brought perpetrators to justice and inspired reforms. (read more)

Investigative Reporting - Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier of the Tampa Bay Times and Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for a stellar example of collaborative reporting by two news organizations that revealed escalating violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals and laid the blame at the door of state officials.  (read more)

Local Reporting - Michael LaForgia, Cara Fitzpatrick and Lisa Gartner of the Tampa Bay Times for exposing a local school board's culpability in turning some county schools into failure factories, with tragic consequences for the community. (read more)

Editorial Writing - John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers, Charlotte Harbor, Fla., for fierce, indignant editorials that demanded truth and change after the deadly assault of an inmate by corrections officers. (read more, including a column by David Dunn-Rankin about what this would have meant to his Dad)