Updated

Hannah Dreier, a temporary legislative and political writer in Sacramento, Calif., has been hired as a gambling and tourism reporter for The Associated Press in Las Vegas.

The appointment was announced Friday by West Editor Traci Carl.

Dreier has been the reporter on several stories while at the AP in California, including coverage of the 2012 election, Gov. Jerry Brown and municipal bankruptcies. She also wrote a story that exposed how money for a Sept. 11 scholarship fund was being misspent.

Dreier, 26, previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, a Spanish-language weekly in San Francisco and the nonprofit news site Washington Independent. Among her notable accomplishments at the Mercury News was a series of stories about hospital policies involving illegal immigrant patients and organ transplants. The coverage prompted policy changes and helped a man get a life-saving transplant.

"Hannah has a stellar track record in producing hard-hitting journalism, and we are thrilled to have her join the AP's team in Las Vegas," Carl said.

She graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. She also received a fellowship in criminal justice reporting this year from The John Jay/H.F. Guggenheim Foundation.