TESLA: Reno is a small enough town that when executives from the high-end electric car manufacturer began sniffing around for a place to build its $5 billion battery gigafactory, the whispers started. My blog, Reno Memo, broke the news first that the executives had made site visits in Reno, Stead and Storey County. A few months later, my colleague Jason Hidalgo and I broke the story of the “mystery permit,” which later became known as the Tesla permit.

That early work set the Reno Gazette-Journal on the path to owning the Tesla story. When the announcement finally became official the RGJ team was the go-to source for all news Tesla related. My part in the collaboration included breaking the story on the details of the $1.25 billion tax incentive package— a story that was linked to by news sites across the country.

My work included explaining the arcane details of the complex tax package in an easily accessible format. I tried new story-telling techniques. And took a look at the lighter side of the Tesla special session.

I didn’t stop chasing the Tesla story. In 2019, I spent months investigating the unintended consequences of Tesla’s arrival in Northern Nevada for USA TODAY’s critically-acclaimed podcast The City. I found worker injuries, a chaotic workplace, growing burdens on local emergency responders and additional stress on the region’s housing crisis. The story was picked up by The Verge, Reveal and Reset.

Here’s what the audience had to say about the work:

Reno Gazette-Journal scoops @TechCrunch, @ReCode, everybody, looks like, with Gigafactory deal points:http://t.co/OsxL8qNMjk

— Brian Dear (@brianstorms) September 4, 2014

 

Anyone uncertain about the civic value of local journalism in the Internet age should check out @rgj work on #Tesla in the last 18 hours.

— Ryan Frank (@rfrnk) September 4, 2014

 

I think @AnjeanetteDamon deserves some sort of @twitter pulitzer for tweets and reporting on #tesla#incentives this week. @rgj

— Smart Incentives (@SmartIncentives) September 12, 2014