The Sacramento Bee reports that Bill Ainsworth, who covers state government in Sacramento for the San Diego Union-Tribune, is taking a buyout and will leave at the end of the month. The Chronicle and Orange County Register are each down to a single reporter, and bureaus from the Bakersfield Californian to the Stockton Record have closed up shop entirely, the Bee notes. The Bee says its own capitol bureau has shrunk in recent months, as well, with John Hill on leave for a fellowship at the University of Michigan, Andy Furillo working from the courthouse and Judy Lin departing for The Associated Press.

Ainsworth has been with the Union-Tribune for the past 11 years and was a writer for The Recorder, a San Francisco-based legal paper, for seven years.