Jeff Brazil is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, writer, and editor who received, along with fellow journalist Steve Berry, the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism in 1993 for a series of articles published in the Orlando Sentinel on unjust and racially motivated traffic stops and money seizures by a Florida Sheriff's drug task force. [1] Brazil was a staff writer for the Orlando Sentinel from 1989 to 1993.
The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American (Hungarian-born) Joseph Pulitzer who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher, and is administered by Columbia University in New York City. Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a US$15,000 cash award. The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal.
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital.
Brazil also won a Scripps Howard award for environmental journalism in 1991 for a year-long examination of the then-failing efforts to save the endangered manatee in Florida.
Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species in the order Sirenia: the Amazonian manatee, the West Indian manatee, and the West African manatee. They measure up to 4.0 metres (13.1 ft) long, weigh as much as 590 kilograms (1,300 lb), and have paddle-like flippers. The etymology of the name is dubious, with connections having been made to Latin "manus" (hand), and to a word sometimes cited as "manati" used by the Taíno, a pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean, meaning "breast". Manatees are occasionally called sea cows, as they are slow plant-eaters, peaceful and similar to cows on land. They often graze on water plants in tropical seas.
From 1993 to 2000, Brazil worked as a writer and editor with the Los Angeles Times . In 1994 he won the Worth Bingham Prize for a series of stories exposing lapses within the Federal Aviation Administration on safety issues following a fatal crash at John Wayne Airport that killed five people, including the president of In-N-Out Burger. The award was presented to him by President Bill Clinton.
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper which has been published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It has the fourth-largest circulation among United States newspapers, and is the largest U.S. newspaper not headquartered on the East Coast. The paper is known for its coverage of issues particularly salient to the U.S. West Coast, such as immigration trends and natural disasters. It has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of these and other issues. As of June 18, 2018, ownership of the paper is controlled by Patrick Soon-Shiong, and the executive editor is Norman Pearlstine.
The Worth Bingham Prize, also referred to as the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Reporting, is an annual journalism award which honors: "newspaper or magazine investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is being ill-served."
In-N-Out Burger is an American regional chain of fast food restaurants with locations primarily in the Southwest and the Pacific coast. It was founded in Baldwin Park, California, in 1948 by Harry Snyder and Esther Snyder. The chain is currently headquartered in Irvine, California and has expanded outside Southern California into the rest of California, as well as into Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Oregon. The current owner is Lynsi Snyder, the Snyders' only grandchild.
Brazil has also written for magazines on the subjects of technology, sports, culture, finance, politics, criminal justice, and social innovation.
He currently is part of a MacArthur Foundation-funded research effort at the University of California's Humanities Research Institute that is analyzing the impact of the Internet and digital media on education, participatory politics, and youth culture. As Communication Director for the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, he directs editorial, media production, and strategic communication.
Brazil is married to Louanne Champagne-Brazil, M.B.A.and Exec. Masters of Arts Administration, Chief Development & Marketing Officer at Bowers Museum, has four children, and resides in Southern California.
