Chris Stewart’s Ohio AP contest Best Photographer images
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This image of Rainey Cowgill of Middletown, who was struggling to receive Social Security disability benefits, and his girlfriend Kristine Creager, was among the images made by Dayton Daily News reporter Chris Stewart during 2016. Stewart is a finalist in the Best Photographer category in the Associated Press Media Editor's 2016 newspaper contest.The photograph accompanied a story Stewart wrote that is also a finalist in the Best Explanatory Reporting category in the contest. The investigation examined the nationâs large backlog of Social Security disability cases.Cowgill was taken by ambulance to the hospital in December of 2013 and the next day had triple bypass heart surgery. The Middletown man then got orders from a doctor that he could no longer work the kinds of construction and plant jobs he'd had before and applied for Social Security disability. He's been living through the ordeal with assistance from his girlfriend, Creager. Cowgill was denied benefits in April 2015 during a reconsideration phase and was since waiting for an appeal date in front of a judge. "I feel helpless. I can't work. I've got no income coming in," he said. CHRIS STEWART / STAFF