Shane Goldmacher joins Times staff in the Sacramento bureau

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Here’s the memo to the staff from Assistant Managing Editor David Lauter:

I’m extremely happy to announce that we’ve filled a vacancy in our Sacramento bureau with an outstanding reporter who will start work on Monday.

Shane Goldmacher, our new colleague, is someone we’ve had our eyes on for a couple of years. He has been working in Sacramento since 2005, most recently for the Bee, and has quickly developed a reputation as one of the smartest, hardest-working and best-sourced reporters in the Capitol. For the last couple of years, Shane has run the Bee’s online Capitol Alert web portal, while at the same time producing a large number of page-one enterprise stories. His story ideas are excellent, his contacts are terrific, and, in all, he’ll be an extremely welcome addition to our bureau. Before working at the Bee, Shane worked for Capitol Weekly. He’s a graduate of UC Berkeley.

In a difficult budget year, Shane’s hiring is a reminder of the very high priority that we continue to place on being ahead of the story in Sacramento. Cutbacks at other news organizations have meant that fewer and fewer eyes are keeping watch over the governor, the Legislature and the vast state bureaucracy. At the same time, the headlines of the past couple of weeks have vividly reminded us of why those folks need to be watched. Our bureau has been ahead of the story on the state budget all year, despite serious staff shortages, and we intend to stay ahead of it. Hiring Shane will be an important first step.