For a distinguished example of local reporting of breaking news, Seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500).

Awarded to the Miami Herald Staff for its balanced and gripping on-the-scene coverage of the pre-dawn raid by federal agents that took the Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives and reunited him with his Cuban father.

Columbia University President George Rupp (left) presents Martin Baron, of The Miami Herald, with the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting.

Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: the Los Angeles Times Staff 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, and the staff of The Star-Ledger, Newark, New Jersey, 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.