Joe Turner, The News Tribune’s irascible and terrific Capitol reporter, is hanging it up after three decades at his craft, including 20 years at the Statehouse.

Turner, who was once described as a “blue-collar scribe”, has produced hard-hitting, no-nonsense coverage of state government, governors, legislatures and courts with one audience in mind: his legions of readers.  Although all Capitol reporters are generalists, Joe also specialized in unraveling the mysteries of the state budget and covered transportation, prison policy, construction and other significant issues that affect real people. He was dogged, and he will be missed.

In his funny and sad blog farewell announcement today, Turner said it’s come to the point where “the aggravations of the job outweigh the rewards.” He said he was once described as “the most cheerful malcontent I’ve ever met,” and now wants to get reacquainted with the cheerful part of life.

His departure at the end of the month will leave a big, big gap in institutional memory. TNT says they plan on replacing Joe with a new reporter.

The Capitol Press Corps has dwindled by more than half since last year as newspapers fight for economic survival and most electronic news outlets continue to ignore regular coverage of the Statehouse.  Many of the senior reporters have departed for work in government and the private sector.