In a state not known for its ethical governance, a rare distinction - from the Associated Press:

Lawmakers in at least 15 states backed stripping governors of their power to fill U.S. Senate vacancies after former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was accused of trying to sell President Barack Obama's seat, but only Connecticut and Rhode Island have done so.

N4N is taking the day off, so expect limited blogging today . . .

Last week, Brassband, writing at RI's Future, took note of a Politico list in which Rhode Island didn't place among the 35 most corrupt states.

Yesterday, the NYT Week in Review went a little deeper:

Graphic

Number of Guilty Officials

Graphic

The Guilty, per Capita

Graphic

A Survey of Journalists

Last week, Brassband made a post over at RI's Future, showing a Politico list of most-corrupt states from which Rhode Island was absent.

Today, the NYT Week in Review digs a little deeper:

Multimedia

Graphic

Number of Guilty Officials

Graphic

The Guilty, per Capita

Graphic

A Survey of Journalists

Speaking of Blagojevich . . .

Some RI officials have maintained our reputation for corruption is overstated and inflated by our small size.

I looked at the issue, and the significance of prosecutors examining the private sector (something that hasn't panned out much) in 2006, with the question, Is RI still a state for sale?

While we Rhode Islanders are well-versed in the typical one degree of separation hereabout, Boston, our big city neighbor to the north, is also a very small town when you get down to it.

Case in point is how No. 9 Park, a lovely upscale restaurant in the shadow of the Massachusetts State House, is among the places where evidence was collected against state Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who was arrested this week on federal corruption charges.

US Attorney Robert Clark Corrente scored a win with this week's conviction of Robert Urciuoli. Yet given the relative lack of forward public momentum on Operation Dollar Bill -- which Corrente himself once identified as an active investigation of seven politicians and an equal number of companies -- the probe has thus far failed to meet its expectations.

From the US attorney's office:

A federal jury today found Robert A. Urciuoli, the former president of Roger Williams Medical Center, guilty of corruptly employing former Rhode Island Senator John Celona to advance the Medical Center’s interests in the General Assembly. The jury acquitted former hospital vice president Frances P.

The speed with which a US District Court jury arrived at its acquittal last week of Jack Kramer and Carlos Ortiz marked a sharp rebuke to the case assembled by US Attorney Robert Clark Corrente's team of federal prosecutors. And as Mike Stanton reported yesterday, there could well be broader consequences:

Will prosecutors put [John] Celona on the stand again? And can they prosecute more corruption cases in Operation Dollar Bill without him?

Both via BeloBlog:

PROVIDENCE -- Former House Majority Leader Gerard M. Martineau this morning was sentenced to 37 months in prison on corruption charges.

Judge Mary M. Lisi also ordered him to pay a $100,000 fine and serve two years of supervised probation following his release.

He will have to report to a prison to be determined by 2 p.

Bill Harsch, a two-time loser in his runs for AG against Patrick Lynch, has been appointed by Governor Carcieri to the state Ethics Commission.

Deborah Cerullo, who matches Arlene Violet in having a religious (nun) and prosecutor background, has also been appointed.

From the Gov:

Cerullo, a Catholic nun who served as an Assistant District Attorney in both Massachusetts and New York, replaces George Weavill, Jr.

This just in from the US attorney:

United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced today that his office intends to retry the case of U.S. v. Robert Urciuoli and Frances Driscoll, two former hospital officials accused of corruptly employing a state senator to advance the hospital’s agenda. On January 18, the U.

From BeloBlog:

In a major decision announced this afternoon, a federal appeals court has vacated the corruption convictions of two former top Roger Williams Medical Center executives and ordered a new trial.

Robert A. Urciuoli, the former president of the medical center, and Frances Driscoll, former senior vice president, had appealed their convictions for paying former state Sen.

While most everyone was focused yesterday afternoon on New Hampshire, the office of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch released a statement about a proposal to counter public corruption.

Although it seems a bit unusual for this kind of thing to drop shortly before 5 pm on the day of the primary, it also marks a retort of sorts to gripes about the feds typically taking the lead in corruption prosecutions.