Regardless of how one viewed the march to war with Iraq in 2003, it was clear that the conflict would exact a harsh legacy of death and injury, including soldiers and civilians scarred by post-traumatic stress disorder and other terrible maladies.

Now, while the White House continues to conflate opposition to its approach with support for Al Qaeda, we're learning more about how many American veterans are receiving grossly substandard government care

Besides being a valuable resource for Sox fans, Bruce Allen's Boston Sports Media Watch does a good job of critiquing the periodic overblown, media-driven Manny Ramirez controversies. Yesterday was no exception:

The power of the press to slant opinion was evident this morning, as Manny Ramirez reported to camp. The accounts on blogs such as the Globe's Extra Bases, described things as "terse" and that Manny spoke "sharply" to Jackie MacMullan.

An intriguing drama is playing out in North Providence today -- the special election battle between interim mayor John Sisto, an ally of his predecessor, Secretary of State Ralph Mollis, and challenger Charles Lombardi. While the mayoral runoff is interesting in and of itself, another compelling element is how the Providence Journal has taken a backseat to other media in covering the story.

The New England mob is a pale imitation of its former self, as we know from recent reports by the ProJo's Bill Malinowski and WPRI's Tim White. Public interest in organized crime seems to remain high, though, so curious observers might want to check out Bringing Down The Mob, which received a positive review in yesterday's New York Times Book Review.

A few weeks after my report on the City of Providence's dramatically expanded use of parking meters and heightened collection efforts, the ProJo's Daniel Barbarisi followed up yesterday with more details on the City's consideration of so-called SmartBoots.

This raises the specter of an intensifying and confiscatory nanny state, as seen with this detail:

Despite the rightward lurch of GOP presidential candidates John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani, the Christian right has yet to find a hopeful to its liking. The best part of this story was a quote from Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform:

He argued that with the right promises, any of the [candidates who recently spoke to the Council for National Policy, a conservative group] could redeem themselves in the eyes of the conservative movement despite their past records, just as some high school students take abstinence pledges even after having had sex.

As predicted here, Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts turned out to be the Mystery Guest during the 34th Providence Newspaper Guild Follies. She did a bravura job, offering a scheming alter-ego version of herself, joined by chief of staff, 26-year-old "Paul Tencher," superbly played by Evan Kinnane, a lad of 11 or so, from Second Story Theatre.

-- Following up on my recent dispatch about the Buddy Cianci-Bruce Sundlun correspondence, WPRI's Tim White sat down with the former governor to get more of the details. In an 11 PM report last night, White detailed how Cianci's approximate day of release from the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey, will be July 28 (unless he has an earlier departure for a halfway house or some similar destination).

Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline has won plaudits for putting city government on a more ethical footing and for overseeing a construction boom, among other achievements. Yet two recent developments -- the consideration of selling the main downtown branch of the Providence Public Library, and the closing of the West Broadway School, over the wishes of a number of parents -- are stripping at least some of the shine from the Renaissance City.

Scott Mayerowitz, a smart, politically savvy standout among the young reporters at the Providence Journal, will be leaving to take a job with ABC News.

Mayerowitz, a 28-year-old Wesleyan grad who started at the ProJo as a two-year reporter-intern shortly after his graduation in 2000, says his new assignment will be doing Web-based reporting for the national business desk of ABC News

While the social networking site Facebook is popular with today's college students, using it can come back to haunt them in unexpected and alarming ways. In this week's Phoenix, lawyers Greg Lukianoff and Will Creeley, of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, write about the collision between Facebook, free speech, and university-based speech codes

The Rhode Island Republican Party has announced a March 2 deadline for those interested in competing for a leadership position with the party for the next two years. While the 14-person nominating committee (which includes such Carcieri loyalists as Jim Rosati and J.R. Pagliarini) is slated to meet prior to the March 15 state committee gathering, Barrington lawyer-activist Giovanni Cicione has already claimed the goveror's support, a key hurdle for any candidate.

As a kid, the appearance on the newstand of Street & Smith's Baseball Yearbook was an encouraging sign that spring -- and baseball -- were steadily creeping closer. I picked up the latest annual of S&S, now in its 66th year, last weekend, and was pleased to see how the Sox are ticketed for a first-place berth in the AL East.

Andrew, Justin, Marc, and Don from Anchor Rising, Rhode Island's leading conservative blog, were kind enough to ask me to join them for dinner, and we enjoyed a lively, wide-ranging discussion last night at Hemenway's.

The liberal-leaning Phoenix scribe and conservative bloggers breaking bread (calamari, actually) over beers and banter? Surely, you jest.