Sierra High graduate Michelle Rindels has been tapped by the Associated Press to serve as the Nevada statehouse reporter in Carson City. 

Rindels, 27, has worked as the AP’s Las Vegas-based breaking news staffer for Nevada and Utah for the past three years. During that time she has played a key role in helping cover several major stories, including the ambush killing of two Las Vegas police officers by a couple espousing anti-government views, the search for a family missing in a snowy northern Nevada canyon and the fatal shooting spree by a student on a Sparks middle school campus.

In her new role she will lead coverage of politics and government in the state capital.

Before joining the AP in Carson City, she worked as a reporter for The Union newspaper in Grass Valley, where she covered local government and schools in Nevada County. She also worked at the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Religion News Service and the Manteca Bulletin.

Rindels graduated from Biola University with degrees in journalism and Spanish and a minor in religious studies. She also studied politics at Georgetown.

She is expected to transfer to Carson City after the general election in November.