Rob Hotakainen

Rob Hotakainen writes for McClatchy’s Washington state newspapers. He joined the McClatchy Washington Bureau as a correspondent for the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1999 and became the Minneapolis team leader in 2000, a position he held until 2007. A native of Minnesota, Rob worked as a reporter for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis for 12 years before moving to Washington. And he was a Washington correspondent for the Kansas City Star and the Sacramento Bee from 2007 to 2010, before moving to his current beat in January 2011. Hotakainen was named Washington’s top regional reporter in 2010 by the Washington Press Club Foundation, winning the David Lynch Regional Reporting Award.