The Los Angeles Times was awarded the Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service for revealing official corruption in Bell and the feature photography award for Barbara Davidson's images of victims struggling to recover in the aftermath of gang violence.In a series of articles beginning last summer, a team of 20 reporters and editors, led by staff writers Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, revealed that Bell officials secretly enriched themselves with extravagant salaries and benefits while illegally raising taxes on the city's residents, who are among the poorest in Los Angeles County.As a result, criminal charges were filed against former Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo, who received an $800,000 salary and hundreds of thousands of dollars more in perks. He and seven other former city officials have been charged with multiple felonies. The revelations also led to millions of dollars in rebates of illegal taxes for Bell residents and tough new disclosure laws for cities and counties in California."The Bell coverage was a classic exercise in gang tackling executed by a newsroom that does this better than anybody," said Times Editor Russ Stanton after the awards were announced Monday.Davidson spent two years photographing victims of violent crime in South Los Angeles, Compton and Watts. Her work, the judges said, told an "intimate story of innocent victims trapped in the city's crossfire of deadly gang violence." Her images — including a uniformed mother visiting the gravesite of her son who was killed while she served in Iraq — illustrated the human cost of crime, even at a time when the violent crime rate is dropping.The Bell coverage also received the Selden Ring Award for investigative reporting from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the American Society of News Editors' distinguished writing award for local accountability reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors' top honor and the George Polk Award for local reporting."The real victors in this are the people of Bell who were able to get rid of — the only way to describe it — a repressive regime and have a real City Council," said Gottlieb, who took a swig from a bottle of champagne as his newsroom colleagues celebrated around him. In March, citizens in the southeast Los Angeles County city voted in a new City Council.Gottlieb, 57, recounted the moment he and Vives discovered Rizzo's inflated salary. They were sitting in a community room in Bell's Little Bear Park, with Rizzo and nine other Bell officials."I said to Rizzo, 'So how much money do you make?' And he coughed out, '$700,000.' And I wasn't sure I heard him right, and I said, 'How much?' And he said, '$700,000.' And Ruben goes, 'Jesus Christ!' "Vives, 32, who has been a reporter for three years, added: "At a time when people say that newspapers are dying, this is a day that I think we can say, no not really. I mean, we gave a small town … the opportunity to speak out. And that's what newspapers do."Davidson, 36, said she was "totally stunned." She thanked the families she photographed "for sharing their private pain and sorrow," and said she was "humbled by the honor" and hoped it would "raise awareness of the issue of gang violence and its impact on innocent victims."The Times has won 41 Pulitzer Prizes. Six of those are public service medals, more than any other newspaper. The New York Times also won two prizes this year. Ellen Barry and Clifford J. Levy won in international reporting for what the Pulitzer judges called their "dogged reporting that put a human face on the faltering justice system in Russia." Economics columnist David Leonhardt won the commentary prize for his "graceful penetration of America's complicated economic questions." The Washington Post was awarded the prize for breaking news photography for its Haiti earthquake coverage. Times photographer Carolyn Cole, a Pulitzer winner in 2004, was a finalist for her "often haunting images" of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.The nonprofit investigative news site ProPublica earned the national reporting prize for coverage of the nation's economic meltdown by reporters Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein. It was the first Pulitzer given for reporting that appeared only online, not in print.The Boston Globe's art critic, Sebastian Smee, won the criticism prize for what the judges called his "vivid and exuberant writing about art." Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly, who won the category in 2007 for his eclectic restaurant reviews, was a finalist.Joseph Rago of the Wall Street Journal earned the editorial writing prize for his "well-crafted, against-the-grain" editorials challenging President Obama's healthcare reform legislation. It was the first Pulitzer Prize for the Journal since it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch 's News Corp. in 2007.Several newspapers had multiple finalists. The New York Times had five, and the Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune each had four.The Pulitzer board did not give an award in the breaking news category."After serious consideration, no entry received the necessary majority [of votes] required for the prize," said prize administrator Sig Gissler, who announced the awards at Columbia University In the letters, drama and music categories, Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad" won for fiction. Siddhartha Mukherjee won in general nonfiction for "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer." Eric Foner won for history for "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery." Ron Chernow won for biography for "Washington: A Life." Kay Ryan won for poetry for "The Best of It: New and Selected Poems." Bruce Norris' "Clybourne Park" won for drama. Zhou Long won in the music category for "Madame White Snake." ||||| This undated photo shows Ryan Kelly, a photojournalist for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va. Kelly won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his photo of a car driving into... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated photo shows Ryan Kelly, a photojournalist for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va. Kelly won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his photo of a car driving into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12,... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the Pulitzer Prizes (all times local): 
 
 5:40 p.m. 
 
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 5 p.m. 
 
 An Alabama columnist and the Washington Post won a Pulitzer for stories uncovering the past of Republican Roy Moore during Alabama's U.S. Senate campaign last year. 
 
 John Archibald of the Alabama Media Group was awarded journalism's highest honor for commentary on Monday. 
 
 Archibald was recognized for his "lyrical and courageous commentary" and the Post won for investigative reporting for stories revealing allegations that Moore pursued teenage girls sexually decades ago while he was in his 30s in Gadsden. 
 
 The stories upended a race that ended with Doug Jones being the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in decades. 
 
 Moore's wife, Kayla, posted on Facebook Monday that journalism that becomes a political tool to assassinate someone's character isn't worthy of any prize. 
 
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 4:40 p.m. 
 
 A photographer in Charlottesville, Virginia, has won a Pulitzer for capturing the moment a car struck several people protesting against a white nationalist rally. 
 
 Ryan Kelly captured the photo on his last day of worked for The Daily Progress last August. 
 
 One woman, Heather Heyer, died and 19 people were injured. 
 
 Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy said during Monday's announcement that Kelly captured a "chilling image that reflected the photographer's reflexes and concentration." 
 
 Kelly says he is "shocked and amazed." He described the prize as an "incredible honor" and said he was proud of the work "we all did at The Daily Progress." 
 
 But he says he's still heartbroken for Heyer's family and everybody else who was affected by the tragic violence. 
 
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 4:20 p.m. 
 
 A Cincinnati newspaper's weeklong examination of the many ways the heroin crisis is impacting its community has won the Pulitzer for local reporting. 
 
 Cheers, hugs and champagne toasts swept the Cincinnati Enquirer newsroom Monday after the announcements of journalism's most prestigious prizes at Columbia University in New York. 
 
 The Enquirer won for "Seven Days of Heroin," which combined more than 60 journalists to tell stories through the eyes of families, first responders, courtroom officials and other viewpoints. 
 
 Executive Editor Beryl Love calls the ambitious project "a huge accomplishment" that explained thoroughly heroin's impact and showed "this is why journalism matters." He succeeded Peter Bhatia as editor in January. 
 
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 3:20 p.m. 
 
 Andrew Sean Greer's "Less" has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. 
 
 Greer's novel tells the comic story of a middle-aged novelist. The awards were given out Monday at an announcement at New York's Columbia University. 
 
 The drama prize went to Martyna Majok for "Cost of Living," Carolyn Fraser's work on author Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Prairie Fires," won for biography. 
 
 James Forman Jr's "Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America" won for general nonfiction, and Jack E. Davis' The Gulf" for history. 
 
 Frank Bidart's "Half-Light" was the poetry winner. 
 
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 3:10 p.m. 
 
 Rapper Kendrick Lamar's "DAMN." has won the Pulitzer Prize for music. It's the first non-classical or jazz work to win the award. 
 
 The Pulitzer board on Monday called the album a work that captures the complexity of African-American life. 
 
 Lamar has been praised and lauded for his deep lyrical content, remarkable live performances, and his profound mix of hip-hop, spoken word, jazz, soul, funk, poetry and African sounds. 
 
 His major-label albums "good kid, m.A.A.d city," ''To Pimp a Butterfly" and "DAMN." became works of art, with Lamar writing songs about blackness, street life, police brutality, perseverance, survival and self-worth. 
 
 His piercing raps helped him become the voice of the generation, and easily ascend as the leader in hip-hop and cross over to audiences outside of rap, from rock to pop to jazz. 
 
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 3:05 p.m. 
 
 The New York Times and The Washington Post have won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for illuminating the ongoing investigation into possible contacts between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russian officials. 
 
 American journalism's most prestigious awards were announced Monday at Columbia University. 
 
 A string of stories in the two newspapers shined light on connections between Russian officials and Trump's 2016 campaign. The ties fueled Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing probe into alleged Russian attempts to influence the presidential election. 
 
 The Republican president calls the investigation a "witch hunt." 
 
 The New York Times and the New Yorker won the public service prize for sexual misconduct reporting that galvanized the #MeToo movement. 
 
 The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, California, won the breaking news award for coverage of the wildfires that swept through California's wine country last fall. 
 
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 3:05 p.m. 
 
 The New York Times and The New Yorker have won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for their reporting on Harvey Weinstein and sexual misconduct that galvanized the #MeToo movement. 
 
 American journalism's most prestigious awards are being announced Monday at Columbia University. 
 
 In stories that appeared within days of each other in October, The Times and The New Yorker reported that Weinstein had faced allegations of sexual harassment and assault from multiple women in Hollywood going back decades. The movie producer's attorneys have said he denies any non-consensual sexual contact with anyone. 
 
 The stories' impact soon spread beyond Weinstein to allegations against other prominent men. And the #MeToo hashtag quickly became rallying cry for people to speak out about their own experiences of sexual harassment and assault. 
 
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 Midnight 
 
 The winners of the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism and the arts are set to be announced in New York City. 
 
 The winners are being revealed Monday afternoon at Columbia University. 
 
 The Pulitzer Prizes recognize the best journalism of 2017 in newspapers, magazines and websites. There are 14 categories for reporting, photography, criticism and commentary. 
 
 In the arts, prizes are awarded in seven categories, including fiction, drama and music. 
 
 The first journalism prizes were awarded in 1917, including one to the New York Tribune for an editorial on the first anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania. That year, two daughters of abolitionist Julia Ward Howe won for a biography of their mother — at a time when women couldn't vote and the literary world was dominated by men. ||||| This undated photo shows Ryan Kelly, a photojournalist for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va. Kelly won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his photo of a car driving into... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated photo shows Ryan Kelly, a photojournalist for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va. Kelly won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his photo of a car driving into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12,... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times and The New Yorker won the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for breaking the Harvey Weinstein scandal with reporting that galvanized the #MeToo movement and set off a worldwide reckoning over sexual misconduct in the workplace. 
 
 The Times and The Washington Post took the award in the national reporting category for their coverage of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and contacts between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russian officials. 
 
 The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, California, received the breaking news reporting award for coverage of the wildfires that swept through California wine country last fall, killing 44 people and destroying thousands of homes. 
 
 The Washington Post also won the investigative reporting prize for revealing decades-old allegations of sexual misconduct against Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama. The Republican former judge denied the accusations, but they figured heavily in Doug Jones' victory as the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state in decades. 
 
 One of the biggest surprises of the day came in the non-journalism categories when rap star Kendrick Lamar was awarded the Pulitzer for music, becoming the first non-classical or non-jazz artist to win the prize. 
 
 The Pulitzers, American journalism's most prestigious awards, reflected a year of unrelenting news and unprecedented challenges for U.S. media, as Trump repeatedly branded reporting "fake news" and called journalists "the enemy of the people." 
 
 The New York Times won three Pulitzers and The Washington and Reuters received two apiece. 
 
 In announcing the journalism prizes, Pulitzer administrator Dana Canedy said the winners "uphold the highest purpose of a free and independent press, even in the most trying of times." 
 
 "Their work is real news of the highest order, executed nobly, as journalism was always intended, without fear or favor," she said. 
 
 A string of stories in The Times and The Washington Post shined a light on Russian interference in the presidential election and its possible connections to the Trump campaign and transition — ties now under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. The president has called the investigation a "witch hunt." 
 
 The Pulitzer judges commended the two newspapers for "deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest." 
 
 In stories that appeared within days of each other in October, The Times and The New Yorker reported that movie mogul Weinstein faced allegations of sexual harassment and assault from a multitude of women in Hollywood and had secretly paid settlements to keep the claims from becoming public. 
 
 The Pulitzer judges said The Times' Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey and The New Yorker's Ronan Farrow produced "explosive, impactful journalism that exposed powerful and wealthy sexual predators" and forced the issue of sexual abuse into the open. 
 
 "People have been saying for decades that this kind of behavior is endemic in society," New Yorker editor David Remnick said Monday, adding that he hoped the stories would "help not only bring it to light but change the culture." 
 
 Weinstein was ousted from the studio he co-founded and now faces criminal investigations in New York and Los Angeles. He has apologized for "the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past" but denied any non-consensual sexual contact. 
 
 The stories' impact spread beyond Weinstein to allegations against other powerful men in entertainment, politics and other fields, toppling such figures as "Today" show host Matt Lauer, actor Kevin Spacey, newsman Charlie Rose and Sen. Al Franken. Men and women, famous or not, have spoken about their own experiences with sexual harassment and assault in what has become known as the #MeToo movement. 
 
 "This moment gets called a reckoning, but we just started telling the truth about old abuses of power," Farrow tweeted Monday. 
 
 Weinstein spokeswoman Holly Baird declined to comment on the Pulitzer except to suggest similar recognition should be given to Tarana Burke, an activist who founded the #MeToo movement on Twitter about a decade ago to raise awareness of sexual violence. 
 
 In other categories, the Arizona Republic and USA Today Network won the explanatory reporting prize for a multi-format look at the challenges and consequences of building the Mexican border wall that was a centerpiece of Trump's campaign. The project included footage from a helicopter flight along the entire 2,000-mile border. 
 
 The local reporting award went to The Cincinnati Enquirer for what the judges called "a riveting and insightful" narrative and video about the heroin epidemic in the area. More than four dozen reporters and photographers dove into the drug's toll over one week. 
 
 Clare Baldwin, Andrew R.C. Marshall and Manuel Mogato of Reuters won the international reporting award for their coverage of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly crackdown on drugs, and the news agency's photographers received the feature photography prize for their images of the plight of Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar. 
 
 The breaking news photography award went to Ryan Kelly of The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Virginia, who captured the moment a car plowed into counter-protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in the college town. The car killed counter-demonstrator Heather Heyer. 
 
 Kelly made the photo on his last day at the newspaper before moving on to a job at a brewery. In a text Monday, Kelly described the prize as an "incredible honor" but added: "Mostly I'm still heartbroken for Heather Heyer's family and everybody else who was affected by that tragic violence." 
 
 Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, a freelance writer for GQ magazine, took the feature writing award for a profile of Dylann Roof, the avowed white supremacist convicted of killing nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. 
 
 The commentary award went to John Archibald of Alabama Media Group in Birmingham, Alabama, for pieces on politics, women's rights and other topics. Art critic Jerry Saltz of New York magazine won the criticism award. 
 
 Andie Dominick of The Des Moines Register received the editorial writing prize for pieces about the consequences of privatizing Iowa's administration of Medicaid. 
 
 Freelance writer Jake Halpern and freelance cartoonist Michael Sloan were awarded the editorial cartooning prize for a graphic narrative in The New York Times about a family of refugees fearing deportation. 
 
 The Pulitzers were announced at Columbia University, which administers the prizes. This is the 102nd year of the contest, established by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. 
 
 Winners of the public service award receive a gold medal; the other awards carry a prize of $15,000 each. 
 
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 Associated Press writers Justin Lynch in New York and Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed to this report.
– With its 1,000th issue (more or less) coming out this week, the Onion isn't just content to be America's top satirical newspaper: It wants a Pulitzer. It's not fussy at all about which Pulitzer—editors have submitted articles to the Pulitzer Board in categories like commentary and public service in the past—but the Onion's editors think its day has finally come, for real this time. “We’re spending all our capital on this,” the Onion's head writer, Seth Reiss, tells the New York Times of the paper's brand-new Pulitzer-focused multimedia campaign. To make its Pulitzer dreams come true, the Onion has enlisted the completely independent and not at all biased nonprofit group Americans for Fairness in Awarding Journalism Prizes, which declares: “Simply put, it’s time for the Pulitzer Board to stop the bias, stop the ignorance, and stop the neglect.” The Onion also claims such diverse supporters as Arianna Huffington (for real) and the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili (maybe not so real). And there's an online petition, if you care to add your voice to the cause.