Los Angeles Times Metro staff writers Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart won the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting, announced today in New York. The prize is for their Big Burn series, called by the Pulitzer committee "their fresh and painstaking exploration into the cost and effectiveness of attempts to combat the growing menace of wildfires across the western United States." The LAT's Paul Pringle was one of two finalists in investigative reporting for his stories on corruption in the SEIU here in Los Angeles, and photographer Carolyn Cole was a finalist in breaking news photography for "her valorous on-the-spot coverage of political violence in Kenya, capturing the terror as rebellion and reprisals jolted the nation."

Also of note, Steve Breen of the San Diego Union-Tribune won the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning. The New York Times won five Pulitzers today, and the Las Vegas Sun won the public service medal, "notably the courageous reporting by Alexandra Berzon." The St. Petersburg Times' online PolitiFact service won the national reporting Pulitzer.

* 12:40 update: Times' blog post is now up, with a photo of Cart being congratulated.

Updated from original with additional information

List of journalism and letters, drama and music winners after the jump:

JOURNALISM:

Public Service - Las Vegas Sun

Breaking News Reporting - The New York Times Staff

Investigative Reporting - David Barstow of The New York Times

Explanatory Reporting - Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times

Local Reporting -
Detroit Free Press Staff
and
Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribune, Mesa, AZ

National Reporting - St. Petersburg Times Staff

International Reporting - The New York Times Staff

Feature Writing - Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times

Commentary - Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post

Criticism - Holland Cotter of The New York Times

Editorial Writing - Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, NY

Editorial Cartooning - Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune

Breaking News Photography - Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald

Feature Photography - Damon Winter of The New York Times

LETTERS, DRAMA and MUSIC:

Fiction - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)

Drama - Ruined by Lynn Nottage

History - The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company)

Biography - American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House)

Poetry - The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press)

General Nonfiction - Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday)

Music - Double Sextet by Steve Reich, premiered March 26, 2008 in Richmond, VA (Boosey & Hawkes)