The Center for Investigative Reporting named the editorial director for its new reporting initiative focusing on California: Mark Katches, the former editor who oversaw prize-winning investigations at the Register in Orange County. Katches has recently been in Milwaukee, where his team at the Journal Sentinel won a Pulitzer and other awards. He'll be guiding a California reporting project with the mission to go deep "on issues of crucial importance to California and its future."

Exit: One of Katches' former colleagues at the Register, William Heisel, recently quit as an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times to take a communications job at the University of Washington. (He also blogs at USC's Reporting on Health website.) Heisel's farewell note to the newsroom is after the jump:

From: Heisel, William
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 3:49 PM
Subject: Thanks for a wonderful three years

I have been incredibly moved by the response to the news of my departure.

When some of you heard I was leaving, you asked me, “Can I have your chair?” Others asked, “Did you write that story about the guy who taught the antelope to dance?” And a few of you asked me why I was leaving in the first place.

In short, my wife and I decided that living in Seattle, closer to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins would be the best environment for us as we raise our daughter. And I decided that working for the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a organization founded by Bill Gates to answer the most vexing public health questions with hard data, would be a logical extension of the work I have been doing for most of my career.

I wish you all the best. You can reach me at xxxxxxx.

Bill