What Happened To David Fried At The North County Times?

I have not seen an article by David Fried at the North County Times in over a week. David Fried is the reporter that broke the story on December 29, 2005, about the concerns SDG&E has with PPH locating a hospital in the ERTC:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/12/29/
news/inland/20_36_1212_28_05.txt

The NCT editor immediately wrote an editorial the next day to rehabilitate the position of PPH:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/12/30/
opinion/editorials/19_12_2112_29_05.txt

That same day I wrote here that the editorial appeared to reveal a division between the news staff and the editorial staff at NCT regarding coverage of the Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) hospital expansion, and that the editorial staff appeared to be very unhappy.

A call to David Fried's number at NCT (760 740-5416) yields a message by David Fried saying that he will be out until January 30th. Is it a coincidence that he is out during the time period that the Escondido Planning Commission and the Escondido City Council are to consider the zoning change for the ERTC that would allow PPH to build the new hospital there?