Many of you were fans of Jim Hagengruber (shown at left of former photographer Brian Plonka on a C-130 en route to Baghdad to interview Hauser's Tripp twins in May 2008), the stellar former SR environmental reporter who was laid off with about half the CdA newsroom on Nov. 1, 2007. You know who went to work for the Christian Science Monitor. Now, as of yesterday, he's going to work for President Barack Obama -- as a diplomat. I'll let him tell you about it: "I accepted an offer to become a diplomat for the US State Department. My training begins Aug. 3 in Washington, D.C. Getting to this point took a lot of work and I should be excited. Mostly, though, I’m thinking about my past 12 years as a journalist." More here.