AP, Bloomberg win Polks

The Associated Press and Bloomberg News won George Polk Awards for their business coverage.

The AP was recognized for its recognize the colossal effort in covering last year’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The AP was the first news organization to report that the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig had sank following an explosion. Later, AP investigative reporters detailed how equipment failures and deference to the chain of command helped bring about the disaster.

In response to an AP report that revealed that more than 27,000 abandoned oil wells existed in the Gulf and that their condition was unknown to the industry or the government, President Obama ordered oil companies to permanently plug 3,500 of the neglected wells. The AP’s multimedia coverage of the 206 million-gallon oil spill included a compelling video report that showed how it devastated the natural environment and the local economy.

Bloomberg received a Polk for an array of scathing reports that detailed how the for-profit college industry experienced tremendous growth in 10 years by targeting underprivileged students who qualify for federal financial aid. Reporters Dan Golden, John Hechinger and John Lauerman revealed that federal aid awarded to students enrolled at for-profit colleges skyrocketed to $26.5 billion in 2009 from $4.6 billion in 2000.

These education companies marketed heavily to veterans and active-duty service men and women in order to profit from the GI Bill’s school funding. The for-profit colleges also recruited poor and homeless people in order to gain access to federal loan aid, Bloomberg News found. The “Education Inc.” series set the agenda for reforming an industry that had gone largely unnoticed despite educating 12 percent of all college students in the U.S.

Read about all of the winners here.