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Jim Romenesko passes along the news that Vernon Loeb, currently a deputy managing editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, will be returning to the Washington Post to serve as its new Local Editor. It sounds like a good move for the Post — Loeb’s got plenty of experience dealing with the ins and outs of D.C., having previously covered Marion Barry’s fourth term as mayor for the Post’s B section. Loeb also spent a fair amount of time manning the paper’s national coverage of the Department of Defense. In a memo circulated to staff at the paper today, the Post’s executive editor Marcus Brauchli announced that Loeb’s arrival will also see Senior Web Editor Jane Elizabeth move to the Local staff in an attempt at “ramping up our Local efforts across all platforms.” Loeb will start work on February 1; as feverish consumers of the Post’s local coverage, we’ll be interested to see what kind of changes he institutes — Loeb might want to start by breaking his five month-plus Twitter silence.