The L.A. Times has hired a new Metro desk editor to oversee City Hall coverage. It's John Hoeffel, who ran the San Jose Mercury's coverage of the Gray Davis recall and state government. Most recently he was the Mercury's national and foreign editor. In Los Angeles he is reunited with Noam Levey, a recently hired Times City Hall reporter who used to cover state government for the Mercury.

Also, the Los Angeles Business Journal has lost real estate writer Danny King. He's going to Bloomberg News in the Bay Area; Andy Fixmer moves over to cover real estate. In recent months, veterans Darrell Satzman and RiShawn Biddle also departed the Business Journal. And Rick Henderson, the former Washington editor and managing editor of Reason magazine, is headed to the Riverside Press-Enterprise as editorial writer. He had been writing editorials for Las Vegas Review-Journal. Because his new employer required him to, Henderson has shut down his blog, the Deregulator. His final post is here.