Amid the unending agita over the pay and benefits for Rhode Island's public workers, Reuters reports:

Local and state governments axed more than 200,000 jobs in 2010, according to U.S. Census data released on Tuesday that showed the growing threat of public employee layoffs to the economic recovery.

According to the Census, local and state governments had 203,321 fewer full-time equivalent employees in 2010 than in 2009 and 27,567 fewer part-time employees.

The New York Times had a piece this weekend on Rhode Island's Medicaid experiment - and the GOP's push to trumpet it in the sale of its Medicaid block grant proposal:

With Republicans pushing to rein in Medicaid costs, an experiment in Rhode Island is drawing the attention of some conservatives who say it has led to substantial savings without reducing care for the state’s poorest patients.

The Phoenix hits the stands today, a day earlier than usual. And we've got a fun cover story. It's our second annual Thanksgiving list of turkeys: people and institutions who committed crimes against the state this year. We've got a couple of gubernatorial candidates, a talk-radio host, an overzealous police department.

And now, guys and dolls, a little brush with Rhody history.

Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis unveiled a portrait at the State House today of John Clarke, co-founder of the nation's Baptist Church, buyer of Aquidneck Island from the Wampanoags and author of the phrase "lively experiment" made famous by the Rhode Island's Royal Charter.

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