Writing in The Washingtonian magazine, Harry Jaffe gives props to the L.A. Times for its investigative reporting. The story leads with former Washington Post writer Vernon Loeb in his new job as California investigations editor for the LAT.

Loeb was hired away from the Post by LA Times editor John Carroll and managing editor Dean Baquet. Both came up through the ranks of investigative reporters and are running the West Coast daily with a mission.

“My goal is to make the LA Times into a great investigative paper,“ says Baquet. “It’s something John and I care about. It’s one of the most important things a paper can do...”

“The LA Times’s work over the last few years has been very good,” says Shawn McIntosh, deputy managing editor at the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and president of the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

The story also reveals what Doug Frantz has been up to since jumping from the NYT's Instanbul bureau to the LAT: he is investigating "nuclear weaponry and proliferation around the world." (via Romenesko)