The Yankees should forget about contending this year -- they're just not going to do it -- and focus on rebuilding into a more worthy adversary for the Sox. As it stands, the Evils are still getting distracted by a certain big guy to the north.

From today's NYT:

David Ortiz is a mammoth, powerful and gregarious left-handed hitter, the kind of slugger who would not need acting lessons to imitate Babe Ruth.

Following its publication of a story about a woman who pledged to have sex with her husband every day for a year, the ProJo wants to know whether its readers like the concept (64 percent said, "Yes!"):

Could you handle sex every day?

Yes yes yes

Gosh no

Even better are some of the responses:

May 23, 2008 11:53 a.

Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline also stopped by the Newsmakers' set for a taping of this week's broadcast. The show is broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox Providence.

He denied that his budget revenue projections are overly rosy, asserting that Worcester has enjoyed success in tapping a multi-million dollar cash stream related to trash and recycling.

Michael Lewis, the recently hired director of the state Department of Transportation, seems like a nice guy. But his answers to questions during a taping this morning of WPRI-WNAC's Newsmakers were generally straight out of PR 101.

While preparing yesterday for the show, I reviewed some of the recent controversies that have beset DOT, including the typist with the six-figure salary, and the Federal Highway Administration's demand that the state return $3.

From the gov's office:

Governor Donald L. Carcieri today issued the following response to a television advertisement being run by state employee unions. The attack ad specifically assails four state employees under the Governor’s authority: Deputy Secretary of the Office of Health and Human Services Adelita Orefice; Deputy Chief of Staff and former Department of Administration Director Beverly Najarian; former Director of the Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, Dr.

I take a long view at this question with my cover story in this week's Phoenix:

Once upon a time, there was a very smart man, Ira Magaziner, who devised a 1000-page plan — dubbed the Greenhouse Compact — to reinvent Rhode Island’s flagging economy by using $750 million in public investment to seed the high-tech businesses and high-wage jobs of the future.

When we had Joe Trillo on Newsmakers last week, I wanted to ask him about what it means when the two most prominent Republicans in Warwick -- him and Scott Avedisian -- are battling each other (as well as Robert Manning) for the title of RI GOP National Committeman. We ran out of time, but maybe someone will ask this tonight:

As a media maven, I was rather surprised to learn some time back that TV stations -- and not just newspapers -- are being hard hit by the migration of advertising to the Internet.

As Matt writes, job cuts at WJAR reflect the hand of corporate parent Media General, but the larger environment is certainly a factor as well.

So says Halperin:

Getty

A friend of the former President tells TIME’s Karen Tumulty that he “is pushing real hard for this to happen.”

Though as for what Hillary Clinton wants, a top strategist says it’s hard to tell: “It’s as plain as the nose on your face that this whole thing has shifted to a different mode.

Greg Smith has a lengthy piece in the ProJo today about John Lombardi highlighting some recent setbacks for the City of Providence's Law Department, which is headed up by City Solicitor Joseph M. Fernandez.

City Councilman John J. Lombardi, a critic of City Solicitor Joseph M. Fernandez, brought to light the missteps in the Municipal and Superior courts.

Can an outfit that is most useful perhaps for offering entertaining distractions at work drive forth the cause of citizen journalism? Ars Technica takes a skeptical view (h/t Romenesko):

Elbowing aside the media elite, YouTube wants to grab a seat at the anchor desk with a new channel dubbed "Citizen News." Harnessing the advantages of the burgeoning citizen journalism movement, YouTube aims to aggregate and capitalize on newsworthy content produced by an increasingly well-equipped user base.

Marcia Cone-Tighe from the Women's Fund of RI recently joined us on Newsmakers to talk about the launch of the Women's Policy Institute, and there's a related event, hosted by Phoenix contributor Mary Ann Sorrentino, at Bob Burke's Federal Reserve on Thursday.

Kim recently wrote about this:

• Join the Women's Fund of Rhode Island as they launch the Women's Policy Institute this coming Thursday, May, 22nd! Come meet the 2008 Women's Policy Fellows at the Federal Reserve from 5:30-7:30PM.

From your friendly neighborhood geeks:

Wednesday, May 15, 2008, 5:30 – 9pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI

FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)

Next week’s Geek Dinner will feature a presentation by the Founder and CTO of The Search Agency and Providence Geek regular, Carl Dunham.

As Rhode Island continues to wrestle with massive deficits, we're starting to hear some novel suggestions about how to deal with the situation. Bob Walsh has floated a few concepts, such as privatizing a 10 percent chunk of the state Lottery and putting a one-way (incoming) toll booth at the point where I-95 leads from Connecticut into Rhode Island.