Last year at this time, Brent Hopkins was a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News and the guild shop steward/blogger called upon to keep the staff informed through waves of cutbacks. Watching the paper discard so many good people and diminish its coverage became so morale-sapping that he quietly made plans for a new career. After taking a buyout in February, Hopkins started at the Los Angeles Police Department academy. He graduated in October and now he's patrolling in Harbor Divison, a rookie cop at the start of a new life. I never met Hopkins until after he was already mid-training; I wish him all the best. That's him with his wife Rebecca at graduation.

Blogger spins off: Julia Scott writes the Bargain Hunter shopping blog for the Daily News and will continue to do so, but posts that she has "created my own personal finance blog that is edgier and more personal than the Bargain Hunter. I'm going to use it for posts that are not appropriate for the LA Daily News. It's called Bargain Hunter Babe."