NEW YORK — The Las Vegas Sun has won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for exposing a high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip.
The New York Times took five Pulitzers on Monday, including one for breaking the call-girl scandal that destroyed Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s political career.
And the Detroit Free Press won in the local reporting category for obtaining a trove of sexually explicit text messages that brought down the city’s mayor.
The judges also awarded a Pulitzer in local reporting to the East Valley Tribune of Mesa, for revealing how a sheriff’s focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigations of other crimes.
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2009 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists
JOURNALISM:
Public Service: The Las Vegas Sun.
Breaking News Reporting: The New York Times staff.
Investigative Reporting: David Barstow of The New York Times.
Explanatory Reporting: Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times.
Local Reporting: Jim Schaefer, M.L. Elrick and staff of the Detroit Free Press; and Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz.
National Reporting: St. Petersburg Times staff.
International Reporting: The New York Times staff.
Feature Writing: Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times.
Commentary: Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post.
Criticism: Holland Cotter of The New York Times.
Editorial Writing: Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y.
Editorial Cartooning: Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Breaking News Photography: Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald.
Feature Photography: Damon Winter of The New York Times.
ARTS:
Fiction: “Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout.
Drama: “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage.
History: “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” by Annette Gordon-Reed.
Biography: “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House” by Jon Meacham.
Poetry: “The Shadow of Sirius” by W. S. Merwin.
General Nonfiction: “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II” by Douglas A. Blackmon.
MUSIC:
Double Sextet by Steve Reich, premiered March 26, 2008 in Richmond, VA (Boosey & Hawkes).