Staff changes: New online political editor; new bureau chiefs in Las Vegas, Houston

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Washington Bureau Chief David Lauter and National Editor Roger Smith have announced the following staff changes:

ASSISTANT POLITICAL EDITOR, ONLINE

David Meeks will take on a new assignment as assistant political editor for online. Meeks, who joined the Washington Bureau in 2010, will have responsibility for planning, coordinating and overseeing our online efforts, particularly the Politics Now blog, which is the primary online venue for our political report. He will work closely with political editor Cathy Decker, who oversees all aspects of our coverage online and in print, and assistant national editor Steve Clow. He will report to National Editor Roger Smith. This new job marks a major step in our efforts to fully integrate our online and print coverage of a highly competitive story that will continue to dominate the news for the rest of the year. For the next several weeks, Meeks will also continue his work as an editor in the Washington Bureau. Later this spring, he will move to Los Angeles.

LAS VEGAS BUREAU

John Glionna will become Las Vegas bureau chief, succeeding Ashley Powers, who is taking over the civil courts beat for Metro. Glionna, who joined The Times in 1989, has been bureau chief in Seoul for the past three years. In Las Vegas he will be responsible for coverage in the city, Nevada and other states in the Rocky Mountain region. He will begin reporting from Las Vegas in May.

HOUSTON BUREAU

Molly Hennessy-Fiske has joined the national staff in Houston. She fills the position vacated by Nick Riccardi, who moved from Denver to the Sacramento bureau last year. She will be responsible for coverage in Texas and neighboring states and share reporting duties with other national correspondents in the Midwest. She joined The Times in 2006 and most recently was a general assignment reporter in Metro. She has already relocated to Houston.