Regular readers of Julie Mason's Beltway Confidential Blog may have noticed her October 3 post, in which she cryptically declared: "The blog fades to black, Beltway Confidential is no more -- this rodeo is up."

So what's the deal? Turns out Mason, the Chronicle's White House correspondent, and Bennett Roth, the paper's national political correspondent, were laid off this week by the paper as part of a larger buyout/layoff program that has trimmed the paper by approximately 80 people.

The loss of Mason and Roth means that the Chronicle's DC bureau now only has three people: Bureau chief Rick Dunham, congressional correspondent Stewart Powell and business reporter David Ivanovich. This is down from 10 just a few years ago.