Lost in much of the attention to devoted to Twin River's lien issues is how Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan has been soundly defeated. It remains to be seen where this issue goes from here in our neighbor to the north (Patrick is continuing related studies), but at least for now, there's less immediate worry for competition for one of RI's leading revenue sources.

Also joining us for today's taping was Pat Crowley, Bob Walsh's right-hand man at the National Education Association Rhode Island, and a peripatetic union-media figure in the Ocean State.

Taking issue with statements made by Governor Carcieri during his recent Newsmakers' appearance, Crowley asserts that rejiggering the state's tax structure is a needed fix for improving the budget.

Rhode Island teeters on the economic brink, as Governor Carcieri told us last night.

In Connecticut, they're looking to fill jobs at the MGM Grand hotel at Foxwoods.

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, where Dan Kennedy has kept a close eye on the casino issue, he think it's getting less likely that the Bay State will move forward with a series of casinos.

When Matthew Thomas, chief sachem of the Narragansett Indians, recently asked the Carcieri administration to disclose any relationships that the governor or his advisers had with the two principals of BLB Investors, the owner of Twin River, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal told the Providence Journal, in a story published January 8, “There are no relationships.

Today's Boston Globe looks at how the renovations at Twin River are said to be drawing lots of visitors from north of the border.

The makeover at Lincoln Park, now known as Twin River, cost $220 million. Investors doubled the size of the complex, which now stretches the length of three football fields, and boosted the number of slot machines from 3,200 to 4,750.

Fresh from an appearance yesterday with Bill Rappleye on 10 News Conference, Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas this morning released a statement, asserting that it is time "for the governor to stop his schizophrenic posturing on the issue of full-scale casino gaming and bring together the various gaming interests to design a comprehensive strategy for the State of Rhode Island."

Before coming to the Phoenix, N4N once wrote an analysis of the Massachusetts lottery (which produces $900 million a year in state revenue) showing how the per-capita play ranged from about $300 to $500 in working class communities, and from about $20 to $50 in affluent suburbs. While the results were eye-popping, it's not exactly a shocker that gambling tends to be a regressive source of revenue.

URI's Maureen Moakley and I discuss "casino creep" in Rhode Island, the gov's privatization push, the Burrillville teachers' strike, a drop in childhood poverty, Peter Ginaitt's departure, and the imminent release of Steve Laffey's book. The segment will be broadcast tomorrow morning, at 5:35 and 7:35, on WRNI (1290 AM).

Two days after the Sunday ProJo outlined how the advent of casinos in Massachusetts would devastate one of Rhode Island's top sources of revenue, we learn that "virtual blackjack" has been proposed for Twin River.

You didn't have to be a genius to see things heading in this direction. As I wrote back in June, it seems to be just a matter of time before Twin River and Newport Grand are expanded into full-fledged casinos.

We're all waiting for the next shoe to drop. RI Report wonders aloud about what might be happening.

Local talk radio has gotten more interesting, IMHO, with the return of John DePetro. I don't agree with everything he says, but John is smart, he knows the terrain, and he regularly does some strong shows.

The same is true of Dan Yorke, and yesterday was a case in point.

Providence Schools Superintendent Donnie W. Evans, fresh from his first State of the Schools Address, appears on Newsmakers this Sunday. The show is broadcast at 5:30 am on Channel 12 (CBS) and at 10 am on Fox 64. Also appearing this week is UMass/Dartmouth professor Clyde Barrow, a close observer of the changing casino landscape in RI and Massachusetts.

Today's Boston Globe has the details of how the town of Middleboro, Massachusetts, appears to be closing in on a deal to host a casino:

The Middleborough Board of Selectmen has agreed to support an Indian-owned casino in exchange for a promise from developers to pay the town $7 million a year in compensation for accommodating the millions of expected visitors, according to town officials.

UPDATE: The growth of the blogosphere is leading to greater discussion of hyper-local coverage as an alternative or addition to the waning newspaper industry. I learned of Dr. Denny's interesting proposal -- an offer to pay someone to cover his community for the same amount that he gives to a newspaper -- through Dan Kennedy's Media Nation

While Rhode Island voters last year overwhelmingly rejected a Harrah's Entertainment-Narragansett Indian casino, it increasingly seems a matter of time before the gambling parlors in Lincoln and Newport are converted into full-fledged casinos. In large measure, this is due to how, as the ProJo's John Kostrzewa pointed out yesterday, it's a good bet that Massachusetts will soon get casinos: