Like N4N, three of four Boston Globe sportswriters are picking the Sox to win the AL East (and the whole enchilada, as well). Only Dan Shaughnessy thinks otherwise, ticketing the Blue Jays (???) to upset the NY-Boston hegemony.

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has again ruled that Johnny Pesky, due to the number of coaches, can't sit in the Sox dugout during games. I know this is based on a rule, but it still seems wrong and mean-spirited. Pesky, 87, lost his wife last year. He is Mr. Red Sox. As someone who has had the privilege of interviewing him, I can tell you that he is a consummate gentleman.

He should be in the dugout.

Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline is thought to be closing a very strong quarter of fund-raising. And while we know it takes considerable money to run for mayor, it takes a lot more to run for governor.

N4N tends to agree with those who say the 2003 Station fire disaster caused an overreaction in new laws and regulation. Representatives Joseph Trillo (R-Warwick) and Peter Ginaitt (D-Warwick) discuss this topic during an appearance Sunday on Newsmakers, broadcast at 5:30 AM on Channel 12 and at 10 AM on Fox 64. Also, Providence City Councilman Miguel Luna appears on the show to discuss immigration and his proposal for making Providence a sanctuary city.

-- Congratulations to mystery writer/ProJo reporter Mark Arsenault and Jennifer Levitz, ProJo-turned-Wall Street Journal scribe, who are getting married this Sunday in Las Vegas. Arsenault's latest book, Gravewriter, is an excellent read.

-- Speaking of the ProJo, Bob Kerr has a terrific column today about the last night at the Decatur Lounge:

In its closeness, the Decatur reminds me of the old Met Café, under the highway in Providence’s Jewelry District. It was closed to make way for a few parking spaces.

The Decatur’s closing, like the Met’s, is not good. This is not progress. With so many soulless places claiming space in Providence, a good bar, one that comes by its warmth naturally, is something to preserve and protect.

-- Pro athletes like Curt Schilling aren't the only ones getting into blogging. A top Washington, DC-area chef intends to turn the table on food critics by critiquing their work with his blog. Here the details, from the Washington Post:

Bad reviews are an occupational hazard of the restaurant business, and most chefs just bellyache or cry in their soup. Not award-winning Roberto Donna, who's started a high-profile food fight with Washingtonian magazine dining editor Todd Kliman. Donna is so upset about the review in this month's issue that he's starting a blog to critique local restaurant critics. "If you want to write a bad review, that's fine," he told us. "But write it with the truth."

. . . .

Now Donna is rounding up his fellow chefs for a blog on inaccuracies in local food reviews --much like New York's Kobe Club owner Jeffrey Chodorow, who has vowed to start blogging about New York Times food critic Frank Bruni's reviews. Donna's unnamed blog is slated to begin next month . . . .

Angered by recent coverage in the ProJo, Governor Carcieri is slated to fire back with a live interview with Gene Valicenti during WJAR-TV's 5:30 broadcast tonight.

As part of Channel 10's coverage, political reporter Bill Rappleye interviewed me about the friendly relationship between House Speaker William J. Murphy and the ProJo's Mark Ryan.

Relatively few Rhode Islanders would be able to identify the name of the Providence Journal's general manager, but Mark Ryan is a very influential guy on Fountain Street and he's positioned to have a big impact on the newspaper's future. I profile him in this week's Phoenix: 

Some of Ryan’s admirers tab the one-time Irish Catholic kid from Warwick as a born-and-bred Rhode Islander — a description they would never bestow on the Journal’s former Yankee owners, even though they were among the state’s founding Five Families. The irony is that Ryan, who shares more in common with typical Rhode Islanders, is presiding over the ProJo’s transformation from one of American journalism’s medium-sized gems to a thinner, far less vibrant version of its former self.
 
Ranking second only to publisher Howard G. Sutton in the Belo-backed newspaper’s local corporate hierarchy, Ryan is generally considered more actively involved in the daily’s day-to-day management. And though mostly unknown by the public — even many staffers have said little more than “hello” to him — the GM is positioned to have a big influence on the ProJo’s future. This is due in no small part to how executive editor Joel Rawson, a throwback to headier days at the newspaper, is in his early 60s and approaching retirement.
 
As if to underscore the continued power shift from the newsroom to the business side, Sutton wrote in a March 20 internal memo that Tom Heslin, the Journal’s new-media czar, “will have a solid reporting line to Mark Ryan, and a dotted line to Joel Rawson.” Perhaps as a sop, Rawson is gaining oversight of the paper’s investigative team, a role held by Heslin since the early ’90s.

Tomorrow's Phoenix will contain my profile of Mark T. Ryan, general manager and executive vice president of the Providence Journal, whose influence has steadily ascended during Howard Sutton's eight-year tenure as publisher.  

As Anchor Rising's Marc Comtois astutely pointed out, the fate of the Journal should concern all Rhode Islanders since, as the state's largest and most important news organization, it has a dramatic impact in determining which stories do (and don't) get covered. An emaciated ProJo is not good for anyone.

However, institutional memory is among the casualties of the ongoing cuts on Fountain Street. I write about this in a sidebar to my profile of Ryan:

When former Dodgers pitcher Clem Labine, a Woonsocket native who played a key role in the Brooklyn Bums’ 1955 World Series triumph, died at age 80 on March 2, his death barely got a mention in the next day’s Providence Journal.

            On March 4, sports editor Art Martone, a graceful and knowledgeable baseball writer, got up to speed with a column, albeit one that ran on page C-10, about Hall of Famer Stan Musial’s abysmal hitting record against Labine. So it wasn’t until sports columnist Bill Reynolds offered a section-front appreciation on March 6 that the venerable old hurler got his due.

            Although the ProJo still offers a lot of important reporting, staffers and outside observers cite such lapses in drawing a sharp distinction between the paper’s surefooted past and its more elliptical present.

            The Journal hasn’t had a buyout since 2001, when more than 90 staffers (and 52 Providence Newspaper Guild members) -- representing 1603 cumulative years of experience -- elected to leave the paper. Yet some key players, including executive editor Joel Rawson and political columnist M. Charles Bakst, are approaching retirement. Metro columnist Bob Kerr isn't that far behind.

            Kerr hit on these concerns himself with a column on April 5, 2006, noting how the March 27 passing of the longtime former owner of a downtown bar-deli frequented by ProJo staffers initially went unnoticed, and “many people learned of his death from a paid obituary in the Journal.”

            “There was a time when news of Greg Karambelas’s death would have reached the Journal and worked its way quickly from editor to reporter to photographer to sportswriter to pressman,” Kerr wrote. “We would have gathered to mourn one of the last of the great saloonkeepers, a generous man who would occasionally point out, with relish, that he was a Greek running a Jewish-style deli in a bar called Murphy’s.

            “There’s a very good chance we would have headed across the street to raise a glass in his memory. But that time is gone. Vital connections have been broken. In the best of newspaper worlds, someone who regularly traveled the 75 yards from the Journal’s front door to Murphy’s would have heard the news last week and come back to make sure that Karambelas was given his well-deserved place in the pages of a paper so richly influenced by lessons at the bar.”

            Things didn’t go much better for Don Murray, who died at age 82 on December 31, 2006, and whose death the ProJo covered with a five-paragraph Associated Press obit -- even though he had played an instrumental role in helping to establish the paper’s in-house writing program.

            Rawson remarked on the oversight in a memo sent to staffers next day, calling it “not adequate notice of his passing. Don Murray had a tremendous impact on this newspaper, and on many of us who heard him and wrote for him, for he always made us write, editors as well as reporters.” 

            Ultimately, Rawson wrote, “What I learned was that an individual with a pencil and a notebook determines the quality of the work he or she produces, not the institution they work for. It is a lesson I hold close as our industry changes around us.”

Having had unprecedened access while preparing his excellent book about the Sox, Seth Mnookin knows of what he speaks when he writes about the team. He offers an upbeat take on the Sox in Boston magazine.

One day after tabbing the boys to win the AL East, my ingrained New England pessimism is creeping back. Varitek is showing worrisome signs of having forgotten how to hit. Coco has the fugue. But Julian Tavarez promises to be entertaining, climbing the hill every fifth day.

SI's Tom Verducci takes on Matsuzaka-san's famed gyro-ball. (h/t Bruce Allen's Boston Sports Media.)

Here's a timely guest blog item from the Phoenix's Phillipe & Jorge:

Thanks to the Pat Tillman charade, we know we can trust our military to deliver the hard, honest facts about deaths in combat. P&J now wish to alert you to a presentation pointing out that while the body count of US troops has climbed above 3200 (never mind those malingering wounded in action, more than 200,000 of our best and bravest), there is a local chance to get a tally on Iraqi casualties. That’s what they get for not inviting America into their country.

East Bay Citizens for Peace is sponsoring a presentation, “War and Health: The Casualty Total in Iraq,” by Dr. Les Roberts, who on Wednesday, April 4, at 7 PM, will present his study on mortality following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This will take place at Salomon Hall, Room 101, on the Main Green at Brown University.

Dr. Roberts and his team evaluated deaths in Iraq before and after the invasion, in a Johns Hopkins study published last October in the Lancet, a peer-reviewed British medical journal.

The US government and media have tried to ignore the resulting estimate of 655,000 Iraqi war deaths. A recent survey of Americans found that they generally believe -- correctly -- that about 3000 US soldiers have died. The survey also found, however, that Americans think a similar number of Iraqis have died. In fact, this study estimates that the real number if probably 200 times higher. Dr. Roberts will explain the study and compare it with other published estimates of Iraqi war deaths.

For more info, contact Joanne DeVoe, of East Bay Citizens for Peace at 401.247.3004, or e-mail: sene@afsc.org.

Hard to believe, but there are only eight days until the Sox open their 2007 campaign in K.C. And what's to explain the seeming recent petulance of Coco Crisp, who I've tabbed to have a big season?

Sports Illustrated's baseball preview predicts the Sox will finish second to the Yankees, unlike some other prognosticators. Boston faces a number of questions, but my crystal ball says they will take the AL East this season. It would be nice to see what Papelbon could do as a starter, but the team is stronger with him in the 'pen.

-- ProJo executive editor Joel Rawson is taking over the paper's investigative team, which has been overseen by Tom Heslin since the early '90s. While this sounds like a good thing for Rawson, it also represents something of a sop because of the growing power being wielded by executive VP and GM Mark Ryan.

-- Props to the ProJo for mentioning, in coverage of the Rhode Island Spelling Bee, how "Rhode Island came close to not having a spelling bee this year when the Providence Journal withdrew as sponsor." Then again, this took place on a Sunday, and the ProJo's pullout was mentioned, as the story indicated, in opening comments by Governor Carcieri, Valley Breeze publisher Tom Ward, and Channel 12 anchor Steve Aveson.

-- WRNI's Nancy Cook today began offering an important series, entitled Doing Life, on the Installment Plan. The Phoenix has reported on some of the related issues.

-- Poignant story yesterday by the NYT's Barry Bearak, about former Chicago Cubs prospect Adam Greenberg, whose life dramatically changed with his first Major League at-bat.

-- Still more props to the ProJo, for Amanda Milkovits's astute followup to her excellent recent takeout on the so-called High Point anti-crime initative in upper South Providence.

The seven had been accused of drug dealing but — instead of being charged — were offered a second chance in a novel initiative that the Providence police and the Urban League of Rhode Island turned to in an effort to clean up drug dealing in the Lockwood neighborhood in upper South Providence.

But in an obscenity-laced rant during a meeting last week, the young men told the police and Urban League officials that the second chance was just an empty promise sold to them by people more interested in publicity than helping them turn their lives around.

“I can honestly say I was doing better selling drugs,” said one 20-year-old man. “At least I was feeding people.”

As Milkovits reported, city officials appear to be taking these concerns seriously. It helps, of course, when the press offers this kind of appropriate scrutiny.

It's not exactly news that Governor Carcieri is a more enthusiastic supporter of President George W. Bush than, say, Linc Chafee. Then again, the governor's backing for the war seemed to noticeably cool a bit over the last year or so. Now, Charlie Bakst tells us that Carcieri [is] higher than ever on Bush.

A recent dinner with the president and his wife seems to have ramped up the governor's outlook about the president.

“This is an immensely talented man whose compassion and caring for this nation is unparalleled, all right,” Carcieri declared. “His heart is so deep and so big in terms of his concern for this country. He’s got one concern … and that’s the safety and security of this country. That’s what his biggest concern is.” (Standing ovation [at the recent RI GOP convention].)

Carcieri continued, “He gave Sue and me and the six other governors and their spouses, a cook’s tour of the Oval Office and the cabinet room. After dinner, we walked down the back stairwell. I’ll never forget it as long as I live. This is the President of the United States. …

“This man is so misunderstood, so badly maligned by the media, it makes me furious at times. You can disagree with his policies, OK, but this man, this man, is dedicated to this country and the protection of this country. …

“Now this is the man that, if you listen to the media: ‘Oh, he’s not very knowledgeable. You know, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, all right, doesn’t know, really, things in depth.’ I spent three hours with this man. If you want to know any issue — any issue — whether it’s Iraq, Iran, Korea, North Korea, anything, the depth of knowledge this man has is staggering.

Besides taking issue with the characterization of Bush as an incurious sort, Carcieri's main point seems to be that the president is very concerned with protecting the nation. Well, isn't that his job? And don't the objective results on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq indicate, at the very least, a strong amount of ineffectiveness in getting the job done?

State Treasurer Frank Caprio faces the politically enviable task of giving away beaucoup bucks in unclaimed property. He stoppped by the set of Newsmakers to talk this up, so I asked if, as many suspect, he will be a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2010. To the surprise of no one, he wouldn't rule anything out or count himself in. Perhaps he can put the arm on Roger Clemens to come to the Sox now that Papelbon is bound for the bullpen.

Next up was Charles Lombardi, mayor-elect Democratic mayoral candidate in North Providence.

Not to be outdone, humorist and courtroom artist Charlie Hall also makes an appearance. The show will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 AM on Channel 12 and at 10 AM on Fox 64.

I also appeared this week on Dan Yorke's favorite TV show, A Lively Experiment, on RI-PBS.

Joann Seddon has apparently decided to close the Decatur rather than face eviction. I spent a fair amount of time there in its early years, playing on the initial kickball team and relishing the polyglot mix of inhabitants, so I'm sorry to see it go. Here are the details, as contained in an e-mail sent out by supporters of the popular West Side bar:

The Decatur is closing. Joann made her desicion last night, and while it was a heart breaking one in many ways, she feels good about this.

It has been an amazing six years, and we will all cherish the memories we built together forever.

The Decatur Lounge is so much more than a building... it is a spirit and a force and we will rise again.

What we need to do now is walk away with our heads held high.

PLEASE, we ask AGAIN, do NOT threaten anyone or take any unsavory actions into your own hands.

We became aware last night that people have been threatening John Ozbeck and even John Lombardi (who was on OUR side!) as well as another man who has absolutley nothing to do with this.

This is unacceptable, guys.

This is not how we want to be remembered, and if this behavior continues, it will make it very difficult for us to reopen in the future.

There is no enemy here. Fight by sending us postive energy and helping Joann keep the good reputation she has worked so hard for these six years. People will associate any bad behavior with Joann and with The Decatur Lounge, and that is something we can not have.

We apprecaite your strong feelings and your saddness and your frustrations, but this MUST STOP! Please!

Thank you all so much for your help and amazing support. There is no more need to call the phone numbers we gave you, so we ask that no more phone calls be made.

It has been a good run, folks. And we will take a while to regroup and rejuvinate, and then WE WILL BE BACK!!

Love, peace, and thank you with all our hearts- The Decatur Lounge

Following media writer Andy Smith's reassignment to writing about jobs for an advertising supplement, the Providence Journal is dispatching assistant features editor Alan Rosenberg to oversee the ProJo's South County bureau. Rosenberg, who plays an important role in coordinating the Journal's arts and entertainment coverage, will reportedly not be replaced in his current post.

"He makes arts coverage happen at this newspaper," says one insider. "This is really huge." The internal reaction has been one of "shock, tears, disbelief."

Rosenberg, a veteran of almost 20 years at the ProJo, declined comment. Effective in early April, he will succeed Dave McCarthy, who is retiring, as chief of the South County bureau. The bureau itself is one of two remnants of the Journal's once-vaunted statewide network.

Providence Newspaper Guild administrator Tim Schick was familiar with the news about Rosenberg's reassignment, but was unaware of whether the shift of Smith and Rosenberg portend other changes.

The shifts reflect ongoing cost cuts at the ProJo, which has been spared in recent years the kind of buyout taking place at the Boston Globe. That said, they still represent a downward trend in the substance of Rhode Island's biggest daily.

In an internal March 20 memo, ProJo publisher Howard G. Sutton cited the Providence Journal Company's No. 1 goal for 2007 as: "Achieve the 2007 Financial Plan while fully leveraging product and marketing investments and human and financial resources in order to grow revenues at rates that exceed market growth."

Look for more news on the current course of the Journal in next week's Phoenix.

The Providene Journal's estimable Kathy Gregg had a great story yesterday about the Carcieri administration's growing use of temporary staffers. One suspects that if legislative Democrats offered as few answers on this, the governor would be all over them.

Still, isn't it kind of fascinating that the ProJo's editorial board has been ahead of its reporters in taking Carcieri to task?

WPRI's Tim White reported last night that a Providence police officer faces State Police questioning in connection with a rape that is alleged to have taken place at the district 2 sub-station. The victim is said to be a 19-year-old Massachusetts woman who was turned away from the Platforms nightclub. The most chilling part, if the accusation is indeed accurate, is how the officer in question responded to take a crime report from the victim.

As RI Future has pointed out, Brown grad Joshua Micah Marshall has played a significant role in advancing the national story involving the Bush administration's dismissal of federal prosecutors. I heard Marshall interviewed yesterday on NPR and he outlined a very plausible view of how citizen-journalists can play an important role in moving forward stories and fact-checking others. As he explained it, if people prove themselves reliable over time, and speedy in correcting mistakes, it only enhances their credibility. Kind of like how reporters have worked for a long time, with a new twist. 

This is one of the points that Matt Jerzyk made last week on 10 News Conference, during his steel-cage match with WPRO-AM's Dan Yorke. 

Here in RI, I consider RI Future and its conservative counterpart, Anchor Rising, must reading for political afficionados.

The latest entry to the scene is www.rireport.com, directed by Tom Shevlin, who helmed GOP AG candidate Bill Harsch's 2006 campaign. Tom reports that his site, which is set for a formal launch on April 1, has logged 1000+ hits in its first few days.

And yes, N4N also has a bit of game when it comes to flushing out the news.

UPDATE II: Since the ProJo has gotten up to speed, WRNI GM Joe O'Connor has made an announcement via e-mail. Here's most of the accompanying news release:

(Boston) -WBUR, 90.9 FM, Boston's NPR news station, today announced it will sell WRNI, 1290 AM, to Rhode Island Public Radio (RIPR) for $2 million, fulfilling its commitment to secure the future of public radio in the Ocean State.  This agreement, pending state and federal approvals, provides Rhode Island with its first-ever locally owned and operated National Public Radio (NPR) network.

RIPR also announced that it will purchase WAKX, 102.7 FM in Narragansett, dramatically expanding the station's coverage to include nearly all of southern Rhode Island.  RIPR's purchase of WAKX will be financed through a loan from The Rhode Island Foundation, and the acquisition is expected to be completed within 60 days.    

"Our goal and belief is that public radio in Rhode Island is best served by local ownership and control," said WBUR Group General Manager Paul La Camera.  "This agreement creates that opportunity, and from my perspective, it provides the best of both worlds: The people of Rhode Island own and direct the future of their public radio station while allowing us to provide continuing support through what will be some formative, but exciting years."

Under the terms of the agreement, the Boston University-owned WBUR, which has made a $3.6 million capital investment in its Rhode Island public radio operation since 1998, will receive the $2 million from the non-profit organization over a 10-year period, while continuing to provide programming and engineering support to the new broadcast entity for a period of five years.

 "This historic agreement ensures that Rhode Islanders will control the destiny of this important media outlet," said RIPR President Eugene Mihaly, who acknowledged Boston University for its critical role in incubating WRNI for the past nine years.  "Local NPR stations are the crown jewels of communities across the country.  RIPR is thrilled to bring WRNI home." 

Mihaly noted that the Rhode Island Foundation has "stood by" the NPR station since its inception.

 "The foundation has been a staunch supporter of the effort to create a locally directed and controlled NPR station since WRNI arrived in Rhode Island," said Ronald V. Gallo Ed.D, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation. "The establishment of Rhode Island Public Radio assures the development of local programs bringing fresh perspectives to the tough challenges facing our communities, and connecting Rhode Islanders from Westerly to Woonsocket.  We are delighted to be a partner in this important venture."

Once WAKX is on the air throughout the region, said La Camera, the university will sell WXNI, 1230 AM, the Westerly-based station which currently carries WRNI programming but will no longer be needed.  He said the proceeds of that sale will be credited towards the $2 million RIPR is paying for WRNI.  WBUR also will facilitate and support in the transition and assist with regulatory and related licensing matters in the coming months.

"I am appreciative of the strong support of Boston University, The Rhode Island Foundation, and the Board of Rhode Island Public Radio for their willingness to create Rhode Island's first locally owned NPR network," said WRNI General Manager Joe O'Connor, who has been asked to remain in his post.  "I must also thank the growing number of listeners and the dedicated WRNI staff who have contributed significantly to the station since its inception.

 "Once the purchase and approval are complete, RIPR will need to sustain this exciting community resource.  I'm confident we Rhode Islanders will enthusiastically support these stations that are uniquely and now truly Rhode Island's NPR stations.  Stay tuned!"

. . . .

N4N has learned that a Rhode Island-based group of public radio supporters, led by Gene Mihaly, are buying WRNI (1290 AM), the public radio station whose license is held by Boston University.

[UPDATE: Mihaly confirmed that his group is acquiring WRNI, saying, "That's true," although he declined further comment until Sunday, when the ProJo plans to publish a story about this.]

WRNI has had an up-and-down history since being established in 1998, eliminating Rhode Island's dubious status as one of only two states without its own public radio station.

Mihaly has led the Foundation for Ocean State Public Radio, which worked with Boston-based WBUR (90.9 FM) to create WRNI. After steadily beefing up the Providence-based station, in part by hiring talented journalists (Jon Saltzman, now with the Boston Globe; Pam Watts, now with WPRI-TV; Ellen Liberman, now a contributor to RI Monthly), WBUR made continued cuts to WRNI after 9-11. Although the need to cover the news at hand was obvious, the reductions signaled an abrupt change in course and WRNI has yet to return to its former strength.

After an outcry when BU planned to sell WRNI's license, the university backtracked and said in June 2005 that it would continue to operate the station indefinitely. Mihaly reacted skeptically at the time, telling me: "I think I will await elaboration. We have heard several reports over several months — the station is for sale, the station is not for sale. Given recent performance, I do not think that Rhode Island would be optimally served by the continuation of WBUR management. I would be delighted to be proved wrong in my concern."

WRNI has been on an upward trend in the time since, with the hiring of GM Joe O'Connor, an experienced news veteran, and reporter Nancy Cook, and the continued presence of longtime stalwart Mark Degon.

Now, as it turns out, Mihaly and his fellow public radio boosters will have the opportunity to operate the station themselves.

The Sunday Providence Journal will have a story about this (unless Fountain Street decides to move a little faster).

UPDATE: John Lombardi calls the Decatur's pending eviction "a personal matter between a tenant and a landlord. It's a business issue. What's behind it . . . that's a question that really needs to be directed at him [Jon Ozbek]."

I have a call in to Ozbek and will post additional details if and when I hear back.

Lombardi, who credits the Decatur with improving the surrounding neighborhood, says he has never heard the police or licensing board complain about the establishment. While the Decatur's lease is due to expire over the next week, he says, formal eviction proceedings could take more time.

Lombardi spoke positively about Ozbek and bar operator Joann Seddon. "If I'm asked, I would love to help bridge the gap between the tenant and the landlord," he says. "They're great people."

. . . .

Multiple sources tell N4N that the Decatur Lounge, the popular bar on Providence's West Side that functions more as a community center than a tavern, is facing imminient eviction by its landlord, property owner Jon Ozbek.

Decatur supporters are mobilizing, placing calls to city councilor John Lombardi, whose ward encompasses the bar.

Since opening about five years ago, the Decatur has been the scene of countless benefits, as well as a vibrant watering hole for an eclectic mix of locals.

I have a call in to Joann Seddon, the nightlife veteran who operates the bar, and will try to post additional details later today.

Joel Rawson, executive editor of the Providence Journal, recently offered his view that the full details of the February 2003 Station fire disaster in West Warwick will never be told. Brian C. Jones has the details.

As Brian notes, it's a stunning declaration:

Rawson’s comments came during a session sponsored by Access/Rhode Island, an open-government coalition, and URI’s journalism department. It was a striking assessment, given that Rawson led a journalistic inquiry unprecedented in Rhode Island. The ProJo assigned more than 60 reporters to interview Station survivors, designed computer models, commissioned laboratory tests and wrote hundreds of stories, with its database now showing 1830 items with the words “Station nightclub.”
 
The Phoenix sought comment from Governor Carcieri, House Speaker William J. Murphy (who represents West Warwick, the site of the fire), Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano, and Lynch. Only the attorney general responded — and frostily.
 
A trial focused on specific criminal charges might not have answered all questions, says Lynch, who adds that since civil cases are pending, some witnesses might resist an out-of-court forum. Still, 13,000 pages of grand jury documents are public, Lynch says, and the federal government sponsored two reports, on fire safety and the state’s emergency response to the blaze. “The ‘public forum’ that Mr. Rawson is proposing — would it be an inquest?” Lynch asks. “Who would conduct it? Who would have the legal authority to conduct it?”

Back in the '80s, I once met Charles Einstein when my mom was working with him at a New York PR outfit. While he was very personable, my greater appreciation of Einstein came later while delving into The Fireside Book of Baseball, of which he edited four volumes. It's a great book for baseball fans, containing such gems as "Hub fans bid kid adieu," John Updike's classic New Yorker account of Ted Williams's last game (as many of us know, the Splendid Splinter, in poetic form, hit a home run in his last at-bat, in a mostly empty Fenway Park.)

Einstein, who died earlier this month at age 80, was a very accomplished guy: he wrote for the dailies in San Francisco from 1958-1970, and his 1979 book about Willie Mays, Willie's Time: Baseball's Golden Age, about Willie Mays, was a Pulitzer finalist.

Jay Kennedy an editor at King Features Syndicate who helped to revive Prince Valiant, according to his obit in the Times, was only 50 when died last week in a drowning accident in Costa Rica. Kennedy, by all accounts, was a lover of comics -- and we need more people like him, particularly in an era when newspapers keep shrinking their funnies. 

Some ProJo staffers are riled by management's abrupt reassignment of longtime scribe Andy Smith, who in recent years has handled the media beat, reportedly to a slot writing about jobs for an advertising supplement.

Smith didn't immediately return a phone message left earlier today. If he responds, I'll update this post. ,in a voice mail left on my phone, declined to comment.

It's understandable that the reassignment of a veteran staffer to a fluffy advertorial position would cause upset. Any self-respecting scribe targeted for such a move could be expected to seek a different outcome. Yet it also fits with how newspapers reserve the right to make unilateral moves, even if they are unpopular.

"There are always concerns about these types of things," says Providence Newspaper Guild administrator Tim Schick, who confirmed Smith's reassignment away from the media post, "but in general under our contract, the company has a fair amount of latitude in assigning people." In the mid-'90s, he recalls, there was "a massive reassignment of people who worked downtown to the state staff, and many were unhappy about that, but contractually that was the company's right."

Schick was not aware how long Smith, who was previously the ProJo's pop music writer, has been at the paper, but he said it precedes his arrival at the Guild 17 years ago. Asked about what precipitated the move, Schick says, "I don't have any insights at this point into what management's thinking was."

Anyone handling "the media beat" at the ProJo faces considerable constraints since the paper -- which barely printed a word about the contract stalemate that persisted on Fountain Street from 1999 to 2003 -- doesn't cover itself (and the Phoenix, of course, is almost always unmentionable). For his part, Smith has generally reported on the occasional breaking broadcast story, like WHJJ's axing of Arlene Violet last year, so it might make sense for management to steer him to a more productive assignment.

Schick believes that the jobs beat was previously held by Arthur Kimball-Stanley, a reporter-intern who had been hired as a permanent reporter in early 2006, and who has since left the ProJo for a different job. Barring a change, Smith's move is expected to take effect in a few weeks.

Let me get this right.

The Bush White House has presided over a war that, according to US intelligence agencies, has worsened the threat of terrorism. And it has debilitated the readiness of the US military.

And it's the Democrats who have a perception problem?

This seemed a lot more plausible a few years ago, when the national GOP's marketing skill was a lot more apparent.

But now?

Compare this to the reaction when Clinton got a $200 haircut.

The Providence Streetworkers program got some well-deserved kudos in yesterday's ProJo. Andy Rosenzweig didn't say it, but the traditional ethos of crime and punishment is part of what makes it difficult to launch and sustain this kind of effort. In other words, it's hard to document how many shootings and other crimes are prevented through intervention.

Perhaps this kind of recognition, though, and Providence's success in reducing violent crime will build growing support. Considering how Boston has experienced a dramatic increase in homicides, it's hard to argue with the kind of success we've seen locally.

I've known Teny Gross since we were both working in the Boston area, and I have a lot of regard for his efforts. Here's my own story from a few years back on the Streetworkers.

Student activists from Brown were scheduled to stage a protest today outside the headquarters of Providence-based Textron, protesting the conglomerate's role in making and distributing various weapons of war.

Back in 2000, Steve Stycos reported on how Textron was about to cash in with a sale of military helicopters to Turkey, in spite of fears by human-rights activists that they would be used against that country's Kurdish minority. Textron was later chosen outstanding philanthropic corporation for 2001 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

From Michael Janusonis in Friday's ProJo:

Well, maybe [Chris] Rock's Americanized version would seem lighter and brighter and more knowing if it had been performed in French. Despite a scattering of funny bits here and there near the start, I Think I Love My Wife quickly devolves into a tedious exercise that's dead in the water.

And from A.O. Scott in Friday's New York Times:

In attempting to synthesize the later French New Wave of the late 1960s and early '70s with the upscale African-American comedies that flourished in Hollywood in the late 1990s, Mr. Rock has not only done his best work as a director and screenwriter but has also made an unusually insightful and funny mainstream American movie about the predicaments of modern marriage.

Here's a timely guest blog item from Brian C. Jones:

There are two nightmares a newspaper writer faces. First, of course, is that nobody will read what he writes. Second, readers will come away completely confused about what the dope was trying to say.

This happened after a short “Rant” of mine appeared in the March 7 Providence Phoenix, headlined: “In the Abu Ghraib era, watching even staged torture is painful.”

The essay was about a series of plays offered by Pawtucket’s excellent Gamm Theater, highlighting government-sponsored torture, and my daydream I was so disturbed by watching the suffering of the play’s characters that I jumped up on the stage to rally other theatergoers to stop the abuse and “rescue” the victims in a gesture suggesting political action we ought to be taking in real life.

Later, one “review” of the article came in from a friend, who e-mailed me that she and other readers divided into two camps: “He hated it and didn't think a theater should be doing plays like that. 2) He was deeply affected by it and thought it was worthwhile theater.”

E-mail not having the space limits of a newspaper, I wrote back this long-winded “clarification,” which I submit here, with apologies, in case others also read and wondered:

I’m feeling terrible about torture these days and have been since 9-11, after which I first started to hear it was up for discussion as a tool in fighting terrorism. I remember hearing this kind of thing on the Steve Kass radio talk show (he's now the governor's communications director). Then it turned out that torture, in fact, had become an official tool of the government. And it's also been a staple on my favorite (this is true) TV program, 24.

 All during this time, I've been sulking, trying to think of what I should be doing about it, because both kinds of torture -- real and imagined -- demand citizen and audience action. But Citizen and Couchpotato Jones both have been doing nothing but fretting. When word came out about the network of CIA prisons offshore, I did think that I should at least be in front of the Federal Building on Friday afternoons, waving signs, with other badly-dressed people, at commuters. But of course . . . .

 More recently, and shortly before the Gamm visit, I read a terrific New Yorker piece which explored the use of torture on 24 and how lots of people -- including some in the government -- are upset about it and have moved to get the producers to tone things down (the government’s interest being that its own interrogators are also 24 fans and had looked to the program for guidance to its techniques, which don’t work in the real gulag). The New Yorker piece reinforced my thought that I should have been writing to the producers of the program myself and maybe hooking up with the fan blogs to campaign against the program’s approval of torture -- and its premise that torture works, every time.

 Fast-forward to the Gamm production. The play in question was so impressively done and so excruciatingly effective -- the theater group is exceptional -- that I really did want to leap onto the stage and carry out my daydream. In my mind, that would not have been a protest against what the theater was doing -- which I appreciated, even if I didn't enjoy. Instead, it would have been an attempt to become part of the play, and to bring the audience with me, in a statement that we could no longer just stay in our seats, waiting to see what would become of that poor family. Instead, we would rescue the three of them, not to halt the play, but to rewrite it.

Perhaps, if we as an audience, protest to the producers of 24 and insert ourselves in that TV program, and if we as an audience, join in the true spirit of the Gamm production and really react to what is going on an arms-length away, and not just applaud at the end of the show, then maybe we also will protest on the streets, write our Congress people, and use the other tools of democracy to make torture an election issue and change the way our country does business.

 Of course, this is the Gamm’s point, and I applaud the courage and commitment involved in the production. And my point certainly wasn’t to tell the theater company it shouldn’t depict this kind of objectionable human behavior. Nor was I saying I just want to go to feel-good plays (even though I'm always hoping they WILL be feel-good plays).

 Still, I am concerned about entertainment violence. The question is this: at what point does the depiction of violence become not a show of disapproval or discussion, but a closet or backdoor way of participating and indulging in it. For example, one of the themes of TV drama and movies is: “Let’s Scare the Girl.” The plot is always the same. A woman is being threatened, menaced, attacked by a monster man. Usually, things turn out okay in the end.

In the old, pre-lib days, after one or two hours of awfulness, the woman would be rescued; nowadays, toward the end of the show, the now-empowered woman herself turns the tables on the bad man. But throughout the process, the audience gets to participate in two kinds of violence: one is to beat up the woman for most of the show; the other is to use the attack on the woman as an excuse for vigilantism, to throw out the rule of law and do really bad things to the attacking man. So I think a lot of unpleasant human behavior in entertainment is vicarious violence, disguised as a morality exercise.

 I do think that there’s a point where the audience should walk out, hit the remote and not indulge itself in the modern version of watching the lions gobble up the Christians at the Coliseum. We should boycott events where boxers inflict brain damage and chickens cut each others’ throats with razor blades.

 But one of the issues I was mulling during my Gamm daydream was that if I and my fellow theatergoers had “stopped the show,” that would have done violence to art. You cannot have people burn books they don't like, prohibit movies they don't agree with, and outlaw TV shows. We can’t have sports fans swarming the field because our team is losing. We can’t go back to the days of throwing rotten tomatoes at the players, or roaring for the hook. There is absolute savagery in an audience getting into the act.

 So, in my daydream, as I debated a role as either patriot or mouse, I did think that simply walking out that night wouldn’t be enough. So I left a while later and on schedule, having done absolutely nothing, and feeling even more guilty than ever, if that’s possible.

As the snow falls this afternoon in Rhode Island, it's easy for the war in Iraq to seem far away. This is a big part of the problem, of course. In particular, the absence of a draft has made it easy for most Americans to tune out the conflict.

Steve Stycos has a report in this week's Phoenix on one recent local event related to the war, and others are slated for this weekend.

Mark Stahl, event coordinator for the Rhode Island Coommunity Coalition for Peace, sends along the following details:

MARCH 18 RALLY IN PROVIDENCE:

 

The RI Community Coalition for Peace is sponsoring an anti-war march and rally in Providence on Sunday, March 18, the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. The march will start at 1:30 PM at Central High School on Broad Street. We will march downtown to the Federal Building at Kennedy Plaza, then up Westminster Street to the Beneficent church on Weybosset Street for a rally from 3:00 to 5:30 PM. The program for the rally includes:

• The Raging Grannies singing anti-war songs
• Rev. Jon Almond from the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church
• Jacque Amoureux from the RI chapter of Military Families Speak Out
• Elliott Colla, Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University
• Steve Kelly from the Kelly Peace group and RI MFSO
• Chris Murphy from the International Socialist Organization
• Jeff Toste from the Green Party of Rhode Island  

For more information, please contact:  Mark Stahl (401-438-3929) or Chris Murphy (239-896-0336). 

 

ROUNDUP OF MARCH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS:

 

This roundup of upcoming March events is provided as a service to the local peace community.  These events have not necessarily been endorsed by RICCP unless otherwise stated. 

• Barrington, March 18:  The East Bay Citizens for Democracy is planning a forum on Iraq from 2:30 – 6:00 PM at the Barrington Congregational Church.   For more information, please contact:  Pat Smith at sampa@cox.net. 
• Newport, March 18:  The RI Progressive League is planning a peace rally in Newport starting at noon at Washington Square.  For more information, please contact Gracious Audette at graciousaudette@aiconnect.com . 
• Providence, March 18:  The local Declaration of Peace group is sponsoring a Gathering and Planning for Nonviolent Action from 5:30-7:00 PM, Beneficent Church, following the peace rally at the Church.   For more information, please contact the AFSC office at 401-521-3584.
• Providence, March 19:  During the week of March 19,  Declaration of Peace and other groups are planning nonviolent actions in the local area.  For more information, please contact the AFSC office at 401-521-3584.
• Providence, March 19:  Brown Students for a Democratic Society and other groups will be staging a street-theater die-in at the Textron Tower in downtown Providence on Monday.  They are planning to meet at Kennedy Plaza at 1:30 and walk the short distance to their headquarters.  For more information, please contact Jonathan Rogers at Jonathan_Rogers@brown.edu .
• Providence, March 19:  For Move On.org, Christine Lindin is hosting a vigil at the Providence State House on Monday at 7:30 PM.   For more information, please contact:  Pat Smith at sampa@cox.net. 
• Providence, March 20:  The RI chapter of the ACLU is sponsoring a film screening on Tuesday at 7 PM at the Columbus Theatre on Broadway in Providence.  They are showing "Road To Guantanamo", and will be having a panel discussion with Nick Schmader and Carl Kreuger.  For more information, please contact Megan Young at MYoung@riaclu.org .
• Providence, March 20:   Col. Ann Wright, who resigned from the diplomatic service in 2003 in protest of the war with Iraq, will be speaking on "The Coming War with Iran" at 7:00 PM  in Smith-Buonanno 106 at Brown University, located at 100 Brown Street at Cushing Street.  For more information, please contact Randall Rose at Randall_Rose@brown.edu.

You read it first in the Phoenix and here that Giovanni Cicione would be the next chair of the struggling RI GOP. Now, with Governor Carcieri having had his share of stumbles early in his second term, let's see what Gio & Co. can do to bring some fresh life to the party.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani is setting the GOP presidential pace, in the view of some pundits. House Minority Leader Bob Watson was at last night's Republican Convention to carry the flag for John McCain, yet Team Romney was reportedly MIA -- an interesting development considering how Carcieri is supporting his former counterpart from the north.

It should make for riveting television when WPRO-AM talk-show host Dan Yorke and blogger-political activist Matt Jerzyk square off on immigration on 10 News Conference at 6:30 AM this Sunday. (A few disclosures: I'm a weekly guest on Yorke's show, and Jerzyk is an occasional Phoenix contributor.)

Jerzyk and Yorke have been engaged in a tiff since Jerzyk made a recent post responding to some of Yorke's assertions about the New Bedford immigration bust.

Considering how George W. Bush is in his second term, you have to laugh when conservatives blame liberals for shortcomings in the nation's immigration policy. That said, both immigrant advocates and immigration critics seem united in their belief that the staus quo leaves a lot to be desired. Since immigrants have long made for convenient scapegoats, the hard part is stimulating a dialogue that promotes light, rather than just heat (if not outright misinformation).

US Attorney Robert Clark Corrente predictably demurred when asked during a taping this week