The Hill’s New Hire and Staff Shuffle

An internal memo from The Hill‘s Editor Hugo Gurdon to staff Wednesday evening reports a new hire, Andrew Villegas, a blogger at Kaiser Health News. In addition, there has been a small staff shuffle since the departure of House reporter Jared Allen. The moves will ensure that the Healthwatch blog doesn’t “miss a beat” – get it?

The memo:

There are a couple of staff changes coming next month.

Mike Lillis will shift from the Healthwatch blog to the slot vacated by Jared Allen covering the House Democrats. Mike has done an excellent job on Healthwatch with Julian Pacquet, and moving him to a new beat was not an easy decision. But he is a very good, adaptable reporter with a taste and flair for political stories of wider scope.

Taking Mike’s place on Healthwatch will be Andrew Villegas, who is currently a reporter/blogger at Kaiser Health News and before that was a political reporter in Colorado. Andrew, who will join the newsroom on October 27, knows the health beat inside out and I am confident that Healthwatch will not miss a beat.

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