The fifteen mid-career journalists selected for a one-week Ochberg fellowship at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, designed to hone their reporting of traumatic events, is an impressive one. It includes Angelina Fusco (BBC Northern Ireland), Maria Rosa Meneses (Spain’s El Mundo) and
Jeremy Young (Al Jazeera English, Washington D.C.)

There’s also Ashley Powers (pictured), recently transferred from the national/Las Vegas beat to Orange County LA for the LA Times. Here’s what she will have to look forward in October, courtesy of Columbia’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma:

Fellows attend seminars with leading experts in trauma science and journalism practice, and participate in the annual conference of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. The fellowship program is named in honor of Frank Ochberg, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University and a pioneering figure in the definition and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, Stockholm Syndrome and other responses to violence, trauma and terror.

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Last week, while we were apparently busy doing our pre-Valentine’s Day stretching regimen, the LA Times announced a series of hires and staff moves. First, Chad Terhune joined the paper as its newest healthcare reporter. Terhune’s most recent gigs were at Businessweek and SmartMoney; he also spent nearly a decade at the Wall Street Journal covering healthcare, among other beats.

The Times announced some major internal moves as well. First, David Meeks has been named the new assistant political editor for online. Meeks has been with the Washington Bureau since 2010. His new job will bring him to LA in the spring.

Seoul bureau chief John Glionna is coming back to America to become the new Las Vegas Bureau chief. He takes over for Ashley Powers who will now be on the LA civil courts beat.

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Ashley Powers, Nevada bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, is used to covering the news, not making it. Yesterday however, she garnered personal headlines after being mistakenly expelled from Republican caucus location Precinct 1721 in the Vegas suburb of Sun City Anthem. Before she was shown the door, one elderly attendee screamed out that she was a spy.

Powers tweeted and reported about the incident. The story was quickly picked up by AP and, of course, her Twitter feed became the repository for all kinds of intriguing follow-up.

David Montero, a reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, commiserated that the same sort of thing had happened to him in 2008. Other journalist reactions re-tweeted by Powers were more lighthearted:

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Britney Spears To Pee In a Cup: An LA court commissioner said there was evidence that Britney Spears was “a habitual, frequent and continuous” user of drugs and alcohol and ordered random twice-weekly drug tests. This should bode well for her custody case.

Phil Spector Jury Is Hung: So he might not be. The judge is expected to give the jurors more instructions today, and officials are holding out hope for a verdict.

OJ Simpson Could Face Life In Prison: Which really would be something now, wouldn’t it? But as the kicker quote in this Ashley Powers piece says, “O.J. cases have a way of taking on a life of their own. It’s way too early to handicap this one.”