National correspondent signs off at LAT

Add Faye Fiore, a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times based in Washington, to the list of those taking the paper up on the offer to leave this week. Her note to the newsroom says she's going to study marriage and family therapy at Virginia Tech. "It isn't such a stretch when you think about it; we listen to people in crisis all the time," Fiore writes. "I'd like to stay around a little longer and try to see them through it." She thanks a long list of editors and colleagues from her couple of decades at the Times, and current Editor Russ Stanton and Managing Editor Davan Maharaj "for keeping a steady hand." Regarding the LAT:

I'm not leaving because I think it's over, only because I think I'm finally too old to stand in the freezing rain and cover another inauguation....

This place is like an orphaned child who rises up and shines, despite a parade of idiot stepparents. The work we do is remarkable and important and I'm glad to have been able to advance that cause, even a little bit.

Previously on LA Observed:
Daragahi, Petruno, Jones latest names to leave L.A. Times
Dean of L.A. Times Washington bureau to retire
Heisler on Tribune, Zell and the L.A. Times
Villaraigosa praises Rutten in Prop. 13 speech
Science writer Tom Maugh retiring from L.A. Times