Radio and billboard giant Clear Channel's latest round of layoffs have apparently hit at least two Rhode Island employees. Chris Duggan - program director for WSNE (93.3 Coast FM), an adult contemporary station, and WWBB (B101), a classic hits station - is out of a job, as is WSNE morning guy Tad Lemire.

The layoffs are just two of 590 jobs the company cut Tuesday.

International peace activist Jeremy Gilley, who successfully lobbied the UN to make September 21 an international day o' peace, will be appearing at Community Preparatory School in Providence tomorrow to promote a film and curriculum he plans to roll out at thousands of schools in the United States. From a press release:

Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is warning believers, in his latest column for Rhode Island Catholic, that same-sex marriage could soon be a reality here if the faithful keep up with their "abysmal apathy" around the issue.

Tobin pulls no punches in the piece, writing that "homosexual activity is unnatural and gravely immoral" and arguing that "those who seek to redefine marriage - with its specific characteristics - and to usurp the title 'marriage' for their morally bankrupt relationships, are committing an act of fraud."

Recent regulatory filings by the ProJo's parent company, A.H. Belo, show that the paper's revenue dropped 13.3 percent last year.

And while insiders have long groused that the company's crown jewel, the Dallas Morning News, has been a drag on the company - and an undue burden on the ProJo - the filings show the Texas paper actually outperformed its Providence cousin - with revenue dropping 11.

Brown political science professor, one-time Congressional candidate and fav Phoenix quote Jennifer Lawless has taken a new job as director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University. From a press release she sent along:

Women & Politics Institute Announces New Director

Brown Professor, Author, and Recent Congressional Candidate Dr.

Lincoln Chafee's seemingly accidental announcement of his gubernatorial candidacy on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show last night has been the stuff of talk radio and blogosphere chatter. Was it a slip? A gaffe?

Certainly might have been. And worth parsing, for sure. Ian Donnis has a good take over at WRNI's blog.

But there was little doubt Chafee was in the race.

The ghost of Senator Lincoln Chafee, it seems, has put a scare into erstwhile Republican Senator Arlen Specter.

Specter, of Pennsylvania, announced today that he is switching to the Democratic Party. The move allows the moderate to avoid a bruising primary battle with conservative Pat Toomey, former head of the anti-tax group Club for Growth.

The Washington Post has a strong profile of US Rep. Patrick Kennedy, focusing on his push to turn his own struggles with mental illness and addiction into legislation requiring that insurance companies provide equal coverage for physical and mental illness.

The irony of Kennedy's situation wasn't lost on him. He'd long considered himself "damaged goods politically" because of his struggles.

The Ocean State's latest bid for a little love from Washington is underway. The US Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee is conducting a hearing this morning on the nomination of Cynthia Giles for the top enforcement post at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Giles, beloved by our own Phillipe and Jorge, is the director of the Conservation Law Foundation's Rhode Island Advocacy Center.

Tired of all that budget chatter? Well, Rhode Island's bizzarely high profile debate over illegal immigration is back again, with a curfuffle over Providence College's decision to block former Congressman, presidential aspirant and anti-illegal-immigration crusader Tom Tancredo from speaking at the school.

News today in the ProJo that the state is working on a system that would allow those receiving unemployment assistance to certify, each week, that they are available and looking for work - and thus, entitled to their benefit checks - on the Interzone.

Yowsas. That it took this long, your humble correspondent would suggest, is as much a commentary on the state of economic development in Rhode Island as any report on the beleagured Economic Development Corporation

My last post included a link to an article from The Hill reporting that Rhode Island Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed are among those backing an independent investigation into Bush-era interrogation techniques.

But Sen. Reed's office says the boss actually prefers a process that relies on the standard judicial and Congressional oversight process.

The travails of The Boston Globe have devoured barrels of ink of late. The New York Times Co., owner of the paper, has threatened to shut the paper down next week if employee unions won't provide $20 million in concessions.

But the print media in the Renaissance City, coping with the same decline in advertising revenue that has swept the entire newspaper industry, is facing trouble of its own.

Lil' Rhody may be a long way from Guantanamo, but the escalating debate over Bush-era interrogation methods is putting a big ol' spotlight on our two fair Senators.

Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed are calling for an independent commission to investigate W's adventures in waterboarding. And things could be getting a little awkward in the Senate hallways.