The word is already out. Pilot reporter Brian Varela is leaving Petersburg this week. His 3-year Petersburg career is drawing to a close. He's moving up in the world and will write for the 45,000 circulation Ventura County Star, a DAILY newspaper in Camarillo, California, just a stone's throw from his hometown of Oxnard. As a matter of fact, his beat will be his hometown.

When Brian arrived three years ago, we had some problems. Not with him, but the education he received from a university journalism program. Somewhere along the way, they skipped the Journalism 101 curriculum, or Brian slep...