Speculation continues to swirl around the sudden resignation of Mercury News editor Carole Leigh Hutton. E&P says that she left a few weeks after she proposed to MediaNews chief executive Dean Singleton reducing the Merc to a three section paper, with all news in the first section, business and technology in the second section, and sports and entertainment in the third. E&P suggests the idea wasn’t well received by either Singleton or his editorial vice president, David Butler, who has now replaced Hutton. Butler seemed to downplay the story, saying “I would be careful listening to other speculation.”