The Skinny

More bad news from the world of the Capitol press corps. Dan Morain, one of the deans of state political coverage, is leaving the LA Times. Morain’s departure is not just the type of loss that we have grown to expect among our ranks. Morain consistently dug into corners of state government where nobody else was looking. Morain could always be relied on to dig through public documents, and emerge with stories that no other reporter was writing – and that was back when we had a fully operational press corps.  Morain’s departure comes amid increased layoffs in the media world at large. More cuts are expected to be announced soon at the Times and the Sacramento Bee … Speaking of losing out, we’re hearing it may not just be the Republicans who are going to feel the budget heat. Over in the Assembly, the 27-bill budget package was a carefully choreographed play, with the Democratic leadership essentially telling members which bills they were expected to vote for. But reportedly, not everyone was reading from the same playbook. And unlike the Senate Republicans, Assembly Dems’ leadership will be on the administration end, not the receiving end, of the punishment. Expect some heads to roll, and some committee chairs to be vacated — possibly. We keep hearing the same three names in the crossfire, but nothing has been confirmed — yet…