Rick Rodriguez (pictured) resigned Thursday after nine years as executive editor of the Sacramento Bee amid a mysterious dispute over the paper’s long-term direction. Rodriguez and Publisher Janis Heaphy wouldn’t elaborate on the dispute, though she denied it involved financial issues. “Those differences are not about resources, they’re not about staffing, they’re not about expenses,” she said, according to a report in the SacBee. To add more intrigue to the situation, Rodriguez said he plans to take the next couple of months off and then return to McClatchy as a consultant to the company’s vice president for news, Howard Weaver. Rodriguez, 53, is a Stanford graduate who has been at the Bee since 1982. Heaphy said his successor will not be a Bee employee but will come from the ranks of the newspaper’s owner, McClatchy. (Photo credit: Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee)