Press Release

Former Chicago Sun-Times editor joins 2022 Pulitzer-winning newsroom.

The Costly Toll of Dead-end Drug Arrests, published in December, examined how thousands of Chicagoans — mostly Black men — are arrested on drug possession charges judges, police and prosecutors all know will never stick.

The Better Government Association has hired veteran Chicago journalist Alex Nitkin as its newest member to its newsroom team.

Reporting on thousands of drug-possession cases in Cook County that were quickly dismissed at great cost to many received a best non-deadline reporting award from the Society for Professional Journalists. This was a USC Annenberg National Health Reporting Fellowship project as part of The Circuit, a multi-newsroom collaboration.

Among the prizes are “Best News Website,” podcast honors for “The Madigan Rule,” and investigative awards for two projects “Failures Before the Fires” in collaboration with the Chicago Tribune and “The Costly Toll of Dead-end Drug Arrests” with the Chicago Sun-Times.

The BGA/Chicago Tribune investigation “Failures Before the Fires” was named a finalist for the national award for Local Reporting. The Livingston Award is meant to honor journalists under 35 for excellence in journalism. Winner will be announced in June.

Two projects, including “Cabrini-Green: A History of Broken Promises” and “Failures Before the Fires,” were awarded second place in two categories for online journalism. The Fires project, with the Chicago Tribune, was honored for the collaboration. The Cabrini Project was named in a category for online only journalism.

The nominations from the Chicago Headline Club recognize the Better Government Association and its journalism partners for several stories exposing corruption, government mismanagement and neglect of Chicago’s underserved residents.

Block Club’s reports about unfair COVID-19 vaccine distribution led to a collaboration with the BGA that exposed mismanagement, clouted contracts and extravagance at the West Side hospital. The reports prompted an FBI probe.