What we blurbed about in March is now official. L.A. Times reporter Tina Susman is moving from Baghdad to the paper's national bureau in New York. The memo from national editor Roger Smith notes that Susman grew up in Oakland and was co-editor of her high school paper with LAT political writer Mark Z. Barabak. Before the Times, Susman was kidnapped in Mogadishu by Somali gunmen and held captive for 20 days while on assignment for AP.

Also noted: Bogota correspondent Chris Kraul, who lost the sight in his right eye in the New Year's Eve bombing that injured several Times staffers in Baghdad in 2003, has left the paper's staff after all.