I'm taking the next step in my career after four fantastic years with the Mercury. I'm sorry to say that I'm moving on.

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This is the best newspaper in Oregon, and I've loved working here. Steve Humphrey has stood up for me when nobody else would, and he's given me room to develop my strengths and interests as a journalist. There really aren't enough editors out there like him, and I'll always be indebted. To publisher Rob Crocker, too, I give my thanks. He believed in my talent and I appreciate it.

So why would anybody quit a job in the newspaper industry in 2010?

My life, so far, has been characterized by taking fairly large calculated risks which have paid enormous dividends, and I don't see why I should stop doing that now. I'm moving to New Orleans because I love the place, period.

I've had very promising conversations with a handful of editors down there, and over the coming months you can expect to see me writing about city politics, criminal justice, and business issues on a freelance basis in the Crescent City. And I'll keep my personal blog going, of course.

News Reporter Sarah Mirk insists that I include a list of all the reasons why it'd be mad to move to Louisiana right now, but I'll save those for another time. Smirk has been a fantastic writer to work with over the last year and a half and I wish her the best of luck in the Mercury news room here without me. She's going to kick the shit out of it, believe me.

I'll be here for two more weeks. And you know that saying: Dance like nobody's watching, love like you've never been hurt? Well, I've always tried my best to live by a motto of my own: Write...like you're about to leave town.