Breaking News Reporting

For its vivid coverage of a wildfire that destroyed more than 300 homes, combining on-the-ground reporting with imaginative use of digital tools, including a before-and-after interactive feature that helped displaced fire victims determine the fate of their homes before there was official notification.

For its complete and sensitive coverage of the shooting massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and 6 adults, using digital tools as well as traditional reporting to tell the story quickly while portraying the stunned community’s grief.

For its comprehensive coverage of the mass shooting that killed six and wounded 13, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, an exemplary use of journalistic tools, from Twitter to video to written reports and features, to tell an unfolding story.

For its energetic coverage of 27 days of around-the-clock protests in the State Capitol over collective bargaining rights, using an array of journalistic tools to capture one breaking development after another.

For its coverage of the deaths of two Chicago firefighters who were killed while searching for squatters in an abandoned burning building.

For their coverage of a devastating earthquake in Haiti, often working under extreme conditions.

For its coverage of the most devastating flood in Middle Tennessee history.

For its sweeping coverage of 44 arrests in a widespread corruption scandal that snared local officials, several religious leaders and others.

For its compelling coverage of an Army psychiatrist, with long ties to Washington, who killed 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, a Texas military base.

For taking full advantage of online technology and its newsroom expertise to become a lifeline to the city when Hurricane Ike struck, providing vital minute-by-minute updates on the storm, its flood surge and its aftermath.

For its creative and aggressive coverage, both online and in print, of a city hall shooting that left six people dead, displaying an exemplary blend of speed and rigor in its reporting.

For its swift, penetrating coverage of a fire in the Bronx that killed nine persons, eight of them children.

For its tenacious coverage of the twists and turns in the scandal involving the state’s senator, Larry Craig.

For its compelling and notably human coverage of back-to-back blizzards that trapped travelers and paralyzed the region.

For its clear and authoritative reporting on the crash of a Comair commuter jet that killed 49 people.

For its compelling and notably human coverage of back-to-back blizzards that trapped travelers and paralyzed the region.

For its swift and rigorous accounts of a shooting rampage by a prisoner who seized a deputy sheriff's gun and killed a judge and three others.

For its clear, cohesive and enterprising coverage of Hurricane Wilma after it battered a region still recovering from major storms the previous year.

For its enterprising and wideranging coverage, under difficult conditions, of four hurricanes that battered Florida over a six-week span.

For its heroic coverage of Hurricane Charley after it destroyed the homes of employees and cut the paper's power supply and phone service.

For its immediate and distinctive search for the cause of the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

For its enterprising coverage of the summertime blackout that stretched over a vast area of the United States and cut the paper's own power supply as deadlines loomed.

For its compelling and comprehensive coverage of the sniper killings that terrorized the Washington-Baltimore region.

For its enterprising coverage of the many local connections to the ex-soldier and his teenage companion arrested in the sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C. region.

For its vivid and detailed on-scene coverage of the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York City.

For its eloquent and precise coverage of the September 11th terrorist attacks that captured the gravity, drama and historic dimension of the day's events.

For its compelling and resourceful coverage of every aspect of the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 off the California coast, which killed 88 passengers.

For its graphic and highly detailed coverage, despite restricted access, of the dormitory fire at Seton Hall University that killed three students and injured 58 others.

For its comprehensive coverage of an environmental disaster created when a cargo ship carrying heavy fuels ran aground and broke apart, and how fumbling efforts of official agencies failed to contain the far-reaching damage.

For its comprehensive coverage of the destruction in the state caused by Hurricane Floyd.

For its aggressive yet responsible coverage of a shooting at a local middle school in which two boys killed a teacher and four classmates and wounded 10 others.

For its coverage of a 12-year-old boy's electrocution at a county bus shelter and the breaking news developments in the subsequent investigation of the shelter's faulty wiring, which likely caused the boy's death.

For his coverage of a shooting spree that left five dead, including his newspaper's managing editor.

For reporting on the brutalization of a Haitian immigrant by police officers at a Brooklyn stationhouse. (Moved by the Board to the Commentary category.)