While Bay Area newspapers have been cutting staff and shrinking coverage, the Orange County Register has been hiring reporters. And now the Register is reopening its Washington bureau. The Register announced Wednesday that one of its longtime staffers, Cathy Taylor, will head the bureau starting April 2. The bureau will also have three graduate-level assistants and a team of freelance reporters. The Register closed the bureau in 2010. The Register’s new owner, Aaron Kushner, is hiring reporters and expanding coverage, betting that improved news coverage will result in increased circulation.