Alexandra Berzon

Reporter/ General Assignment

Alexandra Berzon began working for the Las Vegas Sun as a business reporter in 2007. She has also worked as a reporter for Red Herring, a technology magazine, the Anchorage Daily News and the San Antonio Express-News.

Berzon was the primary reporter for the Las Vegas Sun's Construction Deaths on the Strip series, which was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Berzon, 29, received an undergraduate degree in urban studies from Vassar College in 2001. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2006.

As a student at Berkeley, Berzon reported for Salon.com, NPR’s Living on Earth, and American Public Media’s American Radio Works. Her radio work dealt with a community of South Pacific islanders who had emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, because of fears of sea level rise from global warming. The broadcasts were part of a multi-part series that won the George Polk Award for Radio Reporting in 2007.

Berzon’s stories on construction safety at the Sun were awarded the 2008 Story of the Year, News Feature of the Year and First Amendment awards by the Nevada Press Association.

She grew up in Berkeley, CA, where her parents are lawyers and her mother is a justice on the U.S. Ninth Circuit.

Contact Alexandra via e-mail

Call Alexandra at 702-259-8824.

Recent Stories (view all stories)

Harmon inspector lacked experience: At hearing, he said he read building plans in prior jobs only with help; Wednesday, July 1, 2009; An inspector responsible for monitoring construction at the troubled Harmon hotel in CityCenter last year said he had never read engineering plans without assistance before taking that job, despite earning a civil engineering degree. The revelation by inspector Joseph Glenn Laurente was contained in documents the county released Tuesday after a hearing.
‘Innovative’ move makes NV Energy’s rate hike manageable: Sunday, June 28, 2009; Utility executives and government officials sat calmly Wednesday morning while Nevada Public Utilities Commission members Rebecca Wagner and Sam Thompson said residential electricity rates would rise an average of $10.25 a month under a new order.
Searchlight residents still wary of proposed wind farm: Friday, June 26, 2009; Duke Energy representative Robert Charlebois began Thursday afternoon’s public meeting on the company’s plans to build a large wind farm here by trying to make clear to residents that he had learned from earlier rejections. “I remember the first meeting walking out with the unambiguous understanding that our original proposal was completely unacceptable to the town,” Charlebois said of a meeting in January on the wind project. “We went back to the drawing board.” If Charlebois had hoped to win over residents’ support with a new plan, it didn’t work out that way. In a nearly unanimous chorus, Searchlight residents came out loudly against the latest iteration of a planned wind project near their town at a community meeting held in the town’s community center and museum hall.
NV Energy rate increase gets commission's OK: Wednesday, June 24, 2009; Southern Nevadans will see their monthly electricity bills increase an average of $10.29 over the course of a year following an order adopted by the Public Utilities Commission at a meeting Wednesday morning. That's a slight increase from the proposal in a draft order issued last week from one of the commissioners.
Draft plan would hike NV Energy rates: Thursday, June 18, 2009; Under the draft of a plan released Wednesday evening by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, the average family would end up paying an additional $10 a month on electricity bills averaged out over the year.
Many hands draw maps showing renewable lodes: Tuesday, June 16, 2009; On one map they look like bubbles. On another they’re more like hot dogs.
State thinks big on solar power: As competing states dawdle, Nevada adds incentives for construction; Monday, June 15, 2009; Charged with reworking the state’s renewable energy policy, Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick had one major objective as she entered the legislative session: Don’t give away the farm, er, the desert. Kirkpatrick was criticized after the 2007 session for working to give lucrative tax breaks to casino companies in the guise of “green buildings.”
She didn’t want a repeat. The North Las Vegas Democrat was operating in an environment that was at once friendlier and tougher than ever for renewable energy development.
CityCenter inspectors told: Easy on the paper: It’s not a policy change, official says, to first report flaws verbally to contractor; Thursday, June 11, 2009; County officials have instructed building inspectors at CityCenter to be more selective in using paperwork to document potential flaws in the massive MGM Mirage project.
Harmon flaws haven’t brought big fallout: County hearings on inspections delayed; Wednesday, May 27, 2009; It has been almost a year since an engineer discovered that the Harmon Hotel at CityCenter was riddled with construction problems.
Building a green economy: Eclipsed by rival states in attracting renewable energy manufacturers, Nevada hopes new tax abatements will entice the growing industry. But will the state’s plans work?; Tuesday, May 26, 2009; It rains nearly half of the year in Hillsboro, Ore. So unlike, say, the broiling Nevada desert, that region doesn’t immediately spring to mind during discussions of solar energy. Bills in the Nevada Legislature include incentives for large solar plants and smaller rooftop installations with the assumption that manufacturing facilities will naturally follow those generating facilities.