Last week, I sat down with Governor Chafee for an interview on several topics. I've written, in this space, about his comments on medical marijuana. But there were other quotes of note, too.

Last month in a story on organized labor I reported that reamortizing the state's pension obligation - refinancing and kicking some of the problem down the road - was still part of the behind-the-scenes conversation on pension reform, even if the idea had largely disappeared from the public discourse.

Former Rhode Island GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione is among the consultants retired police Col. Brendan Doherty has named to his campaign team for the Republican primary in the First Congressional District.

Cicione has been talking up Doherty's candidacy for some time now and critiquing former state Representative John J.

Lincoln Chafee's announcement yesterday that he would refuse to license three medical marijuana dispensaries hit pot activists hard. But it was not unexpected.

Some quick background, here. The General Assembly approved a dispensary law in 2009 and the state selected three would-be operators. But then US Attorney Peter Neronha, like several US Attorneys around the country, penned a letter warning that the feds would crack down on largescale distributors authorized by state government.

A fun cover story in this week's Phoenix. The University of Rhode Island's 49th Annual Honors Colloquium, a speakers series and class, is titled "Are You Ready for the Future?" And the speaker who kicked off the event was Ray Kurzweil, a brilliant inventor - and media favorite - who says exponential growth in technological sophistication means we'll all be having sex with robots, running at Olympic speeds and, achieving immortality in the very near future.

A new poll out of Brown's Taubman Center reinforces an ironclad rule of politics: it's the economy.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has received glowing press for attacking the city's budget woes head-on. And that has certainly insulated him, to some degree, from the slings and arrows of economic misfortune. But he still gets middling reviews from voters.

UPDATE: Chip Unruh, spokesman for Senator Reed, sends this comment: "This is an important issue. The senator always appreciates hearing from Rhode Islanders and takes their input into consideration."

---------------------------------------------------------------

A coalition of local and national advocates for same-sex marriage have launched a campaign urging Senator Jack Reed to join the other three members of the Rhode Island delegation in supporting a repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Word on Smith Hill is that Representative Daniel Gordon, despite his extensive legal problems, is unlikely to be booted from the General Assembly.

Minority Leader Brian Newberry and Minority Whip Joseph Trillo have suggested the legislature turn its rarely invoked power to expel against Gordon, a fellow Republican.

Interesting tableau in Washington, today, with Governor Lincoln Chafee and Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, who have clashed in the past, playing witness - together - to President Obama's announcement of changes to the No Child Left Behind regime.

The president is offering states waivers from from NCLB's 2014 deadline for meeting testing targets in exchange for a commitment to tougher teacher evaluation systems and overhauls of low-performing schools - central planks of the Obama education agenda.

Well, we're almost a week into Cumulus' reign at talk-radio station WPRO and John DePetro, Buddy Cianci, Dan Yorke, and Matt Allen were still on the air.

Cumulus' purchase of Citadel Broadcasting, former owner of the station, has been in the works for some time. The deal was finally completed Friday, bringing together two of the largest radio companies in country.

ProJo columnist Bob Kerr writes in his column today on the Daniel Gordon drama:

...we really do have to ask ourselves how a guy who did really bad stuff and spent time in jail managed to get elected without anyone taking a hard look at a very ugly history.

It is a good question. But I'd ask another. Two actually: who, exactly, should have unearthed Gordon's history? And who should be tasked with the responsibility of vetting candidates going forward?

From Brown University:

David Rohde, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, will join the Brown University faculty as an adjunct professor of English for the 2012 spring semester. Rohde will teach a course titled “Advanced Journalism: Investigative and Online Reporting.”

A 1990 graduate of Brown, Rohde covered the conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, and the Balkans.

Republican Senate candidate Barry Hinckley has struggled to get his name in the news to date. Today, a little help: Representative Daniel Gordon, hauled into court on charges of fleeing justice in Massachusetts, had a single word emblazoned on his t-shirt: Hinckley.

It's been a tough few months for the freshman legislator.

In this week's Phoenix, I've got a piece suggesting that the looming fight over pension reform will provide a window on one of the most pressing questions in Rhode Island politics: just how much clout does organized labor have, circa 2011?

When I began reporting the piece last week, the union campaign to blunt the impacts of the reform wasn't a high-profile affair.

The public debate over pension reform has not focused, lately, on reamortization: refinancing the state's pension obligation and pushing some of the pain down the road.

Then-candidate Lincoln Chafee suggested the move during the gubernatorial campaign. But the idea seemed to have faded. Well, in a recent interview with the Phoenix, Chafee's director of administration Richard Licht says reamortization is still alive.

Bob Walsh, executive director of the National Education Association-Rhode Island, called for a "thoughtful pause" on pension reform in the wake of a judge's decision yesterday that cast some doubt on the state's ability to curb retirement benefits for existing employees.

His call, predictably, went unheeded. Treasurer Gina Raimondo and other state leaders declared that the state must move forward with pension reform while the case winds its way throught the courts.