The latest addition to what has become an extensive list of former newspaper reporters who now work for the people they once covered in Jim O'Neil, who reported on the Middlesex County Prosecutor while for the Star-Ledger, has taken a job as a public information aide to Bruce Kaplan, the Middlesex County Prosecutor.

O'Neil's colleague, Diane Walsh, who covered Middlesex County government and politics for the Star-Ledger, is now the communications director to Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield).  Bramnick is actively seeking the Republican nomination for Lt. Governor on a ticket with Christopher Christie.

Jeff Whelan, the Star-Ledger reporter who covered Christie at the U.S. Attorney's office until late last year, will head the opposition research team for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.

Sources familiar with the Star-Ledger newsroom say that Robert Schwaneberg, Joe Donohue, Rick Hepp, Dunstan McNichol, Kate Coscarelli, Matt Reilly and Tom Hester Sr. are among the veteran reporters who have accepted a buyout agreement.   Josh Margolin, Claire Heininger, Susan Livio and Tom Martello are part of the group that will stay on.

Tom Hester, Jr. has joined the Assembly Majority Staff as Associate Executive Director.Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts has picked Tom Hester, Jr., a veteran state house reporter, to serve as the new Associate Executive Director for Communications in the Assembly Majority Office. Hester replaces Mike Muller, who left this month to run the coordinated Democratic campaign. Hester has covered the Legislature and the Governor’s office for the Associated Press and the Trenton Times, and worked for the Express Times and the Hunterdon County Democrat. His father, Tom Hester, Sr., was also a well-known statehouse reporter.

Veteran reporter Jim Goodman will be among the casualties of a plan by the Newhouse Newspapers to combine some business functions of The Trenton Times and The Star-Ledger. Goodman, a fixture at the Statehouse for more than thirty years, will be out of a job at the end of February. The Trenton Times will also close its Statehouse Bureau and reassign reporter/columnist Tom Hester, Jr. to the local news division. Yesterday, the Trenton Times reported that publisher Richard Bilotti said: "Except for improved color printing capacity, the changes should be invisible to readers and advertisers. The Times will continue to publish just as it does now, and the paper will be strengthened by the back-office efficiencies that are contemplated."