Delaware Online/The News Journal won the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism for its reporting revealing hundreds of invalid teacher licenses in Delaware.

The work by reporters Kelly Powers and Esteban Parra led to lawmakers proposing a bill that would tighten licensing requirements for public school employees and penalize districts that retain unlicensed staff.

The judges cited the work for “meticulous and thorough reporting” and “a fair and balanced presentation of the situation.”

The A‑Mark prize honors excellence in watchdog and accountability reporting. It is backed by The A‑Mark Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit supporting investigative and unbiased social‑issue journalism, in partnership with the Maryland‑Delaware‑DC Press Association.

“The reporting from Kelly Powers and Esteban Parra reflects the very best of investigative journalism in Delaware – thorough, fair and impactful,’’ said Mike Feeley, executive editor of The News Journal and Delaware Online. “We are proud to see their work awarded with the inaugural A-Mark Prize in a highly competitive field.

“I congratulate all of Delaware Online’s award winners in this year’s MDDC Awards for their commitment to journalism that strengthens our communities,’’ Feeley said.

Delaware Online/The News Journal won a total of 18 awards May 8 at the MDDC Press Association’s annual conference.

The MDDC Awards recognizes news publications from Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. For each category, a first- and second-place winner is chosen based on circulation divisions. A part of the largest-circulation division, Delaware Online/The News Journal competes against news sites like the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Banner and Washington Post.

Here is the list of winners, with links to the stories that took home the prizes.

Best of Show

• News-Driven Art or Illustration: Luis Solano, “American’s deadliest habit”

First Place

Second Place

• Feature Story: Non-Profile: Xerxes Wilson, “Why this Delaware prison is making tattooing part of its educational programming”
• Sports Feature Story: Brandon Holveck, Martin Frank, “Eagles’ Saquon Barkley’s historic season built on selflessness, generational athleticism”
• Local Column: Critical Thinking: Xerxes Wilson, “Broken bones, brick walls and searching for accountability”
• Sports Photo (Feature): Benjamin Chambers, “Delaware wins 61-31 against UTEP in Conference USA regular season finale”
• Public Service Reporting: Krys’tal Griffin, “While these Delaware riders depend on Paratransit, the service still lags post-pandemic”
• Breaking News: The News Journal staff, “Delaware State trooper killed by shooter prevented other deaths, state officials say”
• News Page Design: Luis Solano, “American’s deadliest habit”
• Page 1 Design: Stephanie Lindholm, “Musical haven in Delaware”
• Continuing Reporting: Kelly Powers, Shane Brennan, “Your property taxes are changing. What Delaware homeowners should know about new laws”
• General Website Excellence, The News Journal

A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death.

In a deposition from November that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply”.

Bryan died after the botched surgery; and in April, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter.

“I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during difficult circumstances”.

The deposition provided Shaknovksy’s first detailed account of the operation that killed Bryan and eventually garnered national news headlines.

According to Shaknovksy’s deposition, after removing Bryan’s liver, the surgeon instructed a nurse to label the organ as a “spleen” – and he also identified it as a spleen in Bryan’s postoperative notes. Shaknovsky later said he had been “mentally compromised” at the time of Bryan’s death, explaining that he was “devastated, demoralized, crying over his passing, felt that I failed him”.

A lawsuit filed by Bryan’s widow, Beverly Bryan, accuses Shaknovsky of medical malpractice. The suit alleges that he “wrongfully omitted any reference to Mr Bryan’s liver being removed in order to ‘cover up’ his gross negligence/recklessness and to hopefully avoid the embarrassment due to such derelict care”, as NBC reported.

In April, the Walton county sheriff’s office said in a statement that Shaknovsky’s actions inflicted on Bryan “catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table”.

Shaknovsky’s deposition testimony described the chaos in the operating room after Bryan began bleeding extensively, causing his heart to stop. Medical staff performed chest compressions, and Shaknovsky attempted to find where the bleeding was coming from.

“I couldn’t tell the difference because I was so upset,” he said, referring to the organ he mistakenly identified.

“It was like a overflown sink that’s clogged up, and I am looking for a fork at the bottom, trying to feel and find the bleed, and I was not able to do so,” Shaknovsky said. He added: “After 20 minutes of struggling – desperately trying – to save his life, that’s when the wrong-site event took place.

“It’s a devastating thing, which I will have to live with the rest of my life,” Shaknovsky said in the eight-hour deposition reviewed by NBC. “I think about it every single day.”

After the medical team was unable to resuscitate Bryan, Shaknovsky said he went to the hospital’s medical library. “I went there to cry because I was devastated,” he said. “I didn’t want the staff to see me like that.”

Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, Shaknovsky said he believed Bryan’s spleen was “double the size of what is normal” because of a mass on it. Beverly Bryan’s lawsuit, however, states that a medical examiner told her that her husband’s spleen was anatomically “nearly normal”, according to NBC.

Shaknovsky would face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if eventually convicted as charged.

COHUTTA, Ga. (AP) — The town council in a small north Georgia mountain community called a special meeting Friday evening to discuss reinstating the police department after the mayor fired the chief and all the officers.

The notice for the meeting, posted outside the Cohutta Town Hall, says the council will also consider a request for the mayor’s “immediate resignation.”

Another sign posted earlier this week in the town of about 930 people announced that the police department had been dissolved “per Mayor Ron Shinnick.” It told people who need help to call a non-emergency county number.

The jobs of the chief and about 10 officers were terminated as of Wednesday morning. Exact reasons haven’t been shared publicly, and townspeople are hoping to get some answers at Friday’s meeting.

Shinnick said he took action because of some comments officers posted on social media. The now-former Sgt. Jeremy May said it involved a complaint that he and other officers had raised about the mayor’s wife Pam Shinnick, who had served as the town clerk.

“This all comes to personal vendetta from the mayor, and I wholeheartedly believe that,” May told WRCB-TV. “We took a stand for transparency, and in result, every one of them has lost their jobs.”

The now-former Cohutta Police Chief Greg Fowler told WRCB that he couldn’t comment in detail as the officers were clearing out the police department and removing equipment from the building this week. The mayor told the station he’s not sure what will happen next.

Phone calls and emails left Friday by The Associated Press for Shinnick and the town’s attorney were not immediately returned.

With no police officers working, the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office said in a brief statement that deputies will help the townspeople if they need it. Cohutta, just south of the Tennessee line, is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta.