PODCAST WORK: I spent two years reporting and writing Season 2 of The City, the USA TODAY Network’s flagship investigative podcast. The six-episode narrative tells the story of the fight over Reno’s strip clubs as the city grapples with its own identity crisis. The series exposes the motivations of those involved in the fight, pulls back the curtains at the strip clubs and lays bare the true consequences of luring tech giants to town. It launched in October and has earned acclaim from The New Yorker, The Verge and Quartz. You can listen at Apple Podcasts or here. You can read my companion pieces in USA TODAY and the RGJ.

2014 RENO MAYOR’S RACE: At first there were 20. Then one dropped out. Another one died. By Election Day, Reno voters had 18 candidates to choose from in the first competitive mayor’s race in more than a decade. Most of them were veritable strangers to the majority of voters. That is where we stepped in.

Within a week of filing, we had gathered critical information on each of the candidates and introduced them to voters. Of all my work this year, this story ranks in the top five for page views, proving that it’s not necessarily the Drudged stories that will drive traffic. Rather, my content is tailored toward what my community and my audience want to read.

We went on to develop several digital interactive features to help voters with their selection, including a short-form Mayor Watch feature, a quiz to help match voters with candidates on the issues and an instant debate rating tool that voters used to rate their candidates during the live broadcast.

LINE OF ATTACK: As political editor at the Las Vegas Sun, I developed a short-form feature that assessed a campaign’s political ad not only on truthfulness, but also fairness. The feature remained conversational in tone, rating the ads as “legit, eye roll, guffaw, laughable or outrageous.” A Nevada Press Association judge described me as exhibiting “fearlessness” in holding politicians accountable for their ads. The Columbia Journalism Review also lauded the feature.