Special reports

Winner of the 2009 Education Writers Association award for investigative reporting. Winner of the 2010 second-place Best of the West award for investigative reporting. Winner of the 2009 Arizona Press Club's second-place trophy for the Don Bolles Award for Investigative Reporting. Winner of the 2009 second-place award for multimedia package in the Arizona Press Club's metro division. Arizona's tax credit law is touted as a tool to make private education more accessible to families who could not otherwise afford it. Instead, it has fostered a rigged system that keeps private education a privilege for the already privileged.

2009 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has garnered international media attention for his illegal immigration enforcement effort, one of the most aggressive in U.S. history. But it comes with a price – slower response times on emergency calls, a dropping arrest rate and, for a time, excessive overtime costs. A five-part Tribune investigation examines the enforcement effort including its hidden costs.