"In Broad Daylight"

Recipient of the STAR investigative REPORT of the year award in The Charles E. Green Awards (2024)

Sara DiNatale
San Antonio Express-News

Marvin Pfeiffer/San Antonio Express-News

Judge’s Comments:

This meticulously reported investigative series exposes predatory scams in Texas’ rooftop solar industry, revealing how vulnerable homeowners — many still reeling from the devastating 2021 Winter Storm Uri — became trapped in exploitative contracts with hidden fees and false promises. Through rigorous reporting and intimate victim narratives, Sara DiNatale unraveled a web of aggressive sales tactics, lax regulation and financial traps that locked families in deep debt. She uncovered systemic failures in sales and lending, sparking calls for reform and consumer protections in an emerging energy market, while also demanding justice for those deceived and arming readers with everything they need to know should they find themselves answering their doors to a solar company sales rep. This is accountability journalism at its finest -- and most consequential.

Jamie Stockwell

Judge’s Bio:

Jamie Stockwell is the Executive Local Editor at The Washington Post, responsible for local coverage of the nation’s capital and surrounding region. She rejoined the Post in early 2024, about 17 years after leaving.

Previously, she spent nearly two years at Axios as the first Executive Editor of Local, overseeing the growth of that operation to 30 cities across America. Prior to Axios, Jamie was a deputy national editor at The New York Times, where she oversaw award-winning coverage of the South, Texas and the Southwest, as well as Race/Related, a cross-desk initiative that produced nuanced, provocative stories about race.

Before the Times, Jamie was the managing editor of the San Antonio Express-News, where she led the nationally recognized and award-winning newsroom’s daily operations for print, digital and mobile audiences. Her career began at The Washington Post, where she wrote primarily about criminal justice.

Jamie was raised on the Texas-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley and graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

To read the award-winning coverage from the San Antonio Express-News, click the links below:
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