Mayor Nickels has just announced that Deputy Chief John Diaz will be the acting police chief, as Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske leaves for his new federal job. He is speaking live on Seattle Channel right now and says he has no timetable for choosing a permanent chief. “The reason I accepted this,” Diaz said, “is because I’m a cop .. I’ve been doing this for a long time. … The Seattle Police Department needs to mirror the priorities of its neighborhoods.” Mayor Nickels says he will discuss details of the chief-search process once there’s an official vacancy – in other words, once Kerlikowske is confirmed as federal “drug czar.” Diaz, who’s 51, says he is interested in the permanent job. 1:25 PM NOTE: The news conference is now over; when the archived video is up on the Seattle Channel site, we’ll add a link here. TUESDAY NOTE: Here’s that link.