USC alumnus Michael LaForgia won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for his work at the Tampa Bay Times.
LaForgia, who was the editor-in-chief of The Gamecock in 2005, and Will Hobson won the award for “their relentless investigation into squalid conditions” in housing for the homeless, the Pulitzer committee announced this week.
The series was also edited by Chris Davis, a 1995 USC graduate who is the Tampa Bay Times’ investigations editor, LaForgia said on Twitter.
The Tampa Bay Times says that LaForgia and Hobson’s reporting led to the “most significant” reform of social services in Hillsborough County, Fla., in years. It also led to the resignation of the chairman of the Tampa Port Authority.