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New York • Los Angeles Times won a Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for revealing that politicians in a small, working-class California city were paying themselves exorbitant salaries. But for the first time in the Pulitzers' 95-year history, no award was given in the category of breaking news — the bread and butter of daily journalism.

In a year when the big stories included the devastating earthquake in Haiti and the Gulf oil spill, the Pulitzer Board didn't like the entries in the breaking news category enough with "the necessary majority" to honor any of them with the most prestigious award in journalism.

Los Angeles Times won for its series revealing that politicians in Bell, Calif., were drawing salaries well into six figures. The newspaper's reporting that officials in the struggling city of 37,000 people were raising property taxes and other fees in part to cover the huge salaries led to arrests and the ouster of some of Bell's top officials.

The Times won a second Pulitzer for feature photography, and The New York Times was awarded two Pulitzers for international reporting and for commentary.

"The real victors in this are the people of Bell, who were able to get rid of, there's no other way to say it, an oppressive regime," said reporter Jeff Gottlieb, clutching a bottle of champagne before about 100 people in the newsroom.

The Pulitzer Board gave awards in 13 out of 14 categories for journalism and in seven categories for the arts.

Chicago native Jennifer Egan's novel A Visit From the Goon Squad won the prize for fiction, honored for its "big-hearted curiosity about cultural change at warp speed."

Bruce Norris won the drama prize for Clybourne Park, which imagines what might have happened to the family that moved out of the house in the fictitious Chicago neighborhood where Lorraine Hansberry's Younger clan is headed by the end of her 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun.

In other journalism awards, the nonprofit ProPublica won its first outright Pulitzer for national reporting. Reporters Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein were cited for exposing questionable Wall Street practices that contributed to the economic meltdown. The judges cited their use of digital media to help explain the complex subject.

(Last year, ProPublica won the Pulitzer for investigative reporting in collaboration with The New York Times Magazine.)

Graphics and videos also accompanied the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's winning entry in explanatory reporting, an account of the use of genetic technology to save a 4-year-old boy from a mysterious disease.

The competition's rules were changed this year to allow digital media to be considered along with text entries. Media were allowed to enter "any available journalistic tool," including videos, databases and multimedia presentations. In the past, most entries were print-only.

Paige St. John of the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune won for investigative reporting for her examination of the property insurance system for Florida homeowners, which led to regulatory action.

Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim, of the Chicago Sun-Times, received the award in the local reporting category for their documentation of crime-ridden Chicago neighborhoods.

Amy Ellis Nutt, of The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., won for feature writing for her story of the sinking of a commercial fishing boat that drowned six men in the Atlantic Ocean.

The prize for international reporting went to Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry, of The New York Times, for their coverage of the Russian justice system.

The newspaper's David Leonhardt won in commentary for his columns on the economy.

Sebastian Smee, of The Boston Globe, received the award for criticism for his writing about art. Joseph Rago, of The Wall Street Journal, was honored in the editorial writing category for his editorials challenging health care reform bills.

The Washington Post won in breaking news photography for its portraits from the Haiti earthquake. Carol Guzy, who was honored along with Post colleagues Nikki Kahn and Ricky Carioti, became the first journalist to win four Pulitzers.

Los Angeles Times' Barbara Davidson received the award for feature news photography for her portraits of Los Angeles gang violence.

Mike Keefe, of The Denver Post, won for editorial cartooning. —

The 2011 Pulitzer Prize winners:

Journalism

Public service • Los Angeles Times

Breaking news reporting • No award

Investigative reporting • Paige St. John, of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Explanatory reporting • Mark Johnson, Kathleen Gallagher, Gary Porter, Lou Saldivar and Alison Sherwood, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Local reporting • Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim, of the Chicago Sun-Times

National reporting • Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein, of ProPublica

International reporting • Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry, of The New York Times

Feature writing • Amy Ellis Nutt, of The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.

Commentary • David Leonhardt, of The New York Times

Criticism • Sebastian Smee, of The Boston Globe

Editorial writing • Joseph Rago, of The Wall Street Journal

Editorial cartooning • Mike Keefe, of The Denver Post

Breaking news photography • Carol Guzy, Nikki Kahn and Ricky Carioti, of The Washington Post

Feature photography • Barbara Davidson, of Los Angeles Times

Arts

Fiction • A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A. Knopf)

Drama • Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris

History • The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner (W.W. Norton & Co.)

Biography • Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow (The Penguin Press)

Poetry • The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan (Grove Press)

General nonfiction • The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner)

Music • Madame White Snake by Zhou Long, premiered Feb. 26, 2010, by the Boston Opera at the Cutler Majestic Theatre