Dominic Holden—our fearless news editor for the last four and a half years and a staff writer before that—has written some of the most influential features in Stranger history. His feature about infighting among pot activists changed the conversation about legalization. His feature about Tim Burgess's aggressive solicitation bill clearly prevented that bill from becoming law. His feature about the deep-bore tunnel called "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" predicted exactly this mess we're in with Bertha right now long before construction ever started. His piece about the King County cop who threatened to arrest him for something that was not actually illegal resulted in that bad cop finally losing his job. And he's been writing these while managing the news department and the Stranger Election Control Board.

For a few months, Dom has wanted to move into a position that would free him up to do more long-form features like these. The associate editor role will allow him to do just that. Dom will still be in our newsroom full time, he will still walk around singing Disney songs constantly, he will probably keep on drinking room-temperature Vitamin Zero, and he will probably still be getting kicked out of meetings and calling up people who hate him and investigating right-wing pastors here on Slog. While occasionally editing special issues like our pot guide.

Who will be the new news editor? We're not ready to announce anything. But The Stranger's editorial department is growing and will be adding several new staffers over the next month. Those announcements will come in due time. For now, some congratulations are in order.