Baltimore Sun Wins Pulitzer Prize For Coverage Of Pugh, UMMS

BALTIMORE, MD — The Baltimore Sun won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. Staff from the Sun were among the 15 Pulitzer winners for journalism, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced Monday.

Baltimore Sun staff won the award "for illuminating, impactful reporting on a lucrative, undisclosed financial relationship between the city’s mayor and the public hospital system she helped to oversee," according to a news release announcing the Pulitzer Prize winners.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh received $300,000 from the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), of which she was on the board, for copies of three children's books she wrote about a character named "Healthy Holly." She was not the only one on the board to profit from her relationship with UMMS.

Following the Baltimore Sun's publication of an expose on the issuing of no-bid contracts by UMMS to companies connected to board members in March 2019, the CEO, chair and several members of the board of directors from UMMS resigned.

During the 2019 session, Maryland lawmakers in Annapolis passed an ethics reform bill requiring the UMMS board to reconstitute itself, submit to a state audit, adopt a conflict of interest policy and prohibit board members from being elected officials, among other measures.

Read the story about the Pulitzer from the Baltimore Sun, which reports this is its 16th Pulitzer Prize. Its most recent one before 2020 was in 2003, when Diana K. Sugg won a Pulitzer for beat reporting for her health coverage for the Sun.

See Also:

• Ex-Mayor Catherine Pugh Sentenced For Fraud, Tax Evasion
• CEO Resigns From UMMS Amid Baltimore Mayor Scandal
• Chair, More Members Resign From UMMS Board Of Directors