We've got a pretty good sense, now, for what the pension bill will look like when it comes up for a vote. And most observers expect it to pass. So how did the key players fare in Smith Hill's battle royale? An initial look:

• Gina Raimondo seems a clear winner, here. This bill was her baby. She got loads of local and national press for it.

Providence Journal sister paper, the Dallas Morning News, has laid off 38 employees in the face of declining advertising revenue. Both papers are owned by Dallas-based A. H. Belo. From the Dallas Business Journal:

The Dallas Morning News laid off a reported 38 employees on Tuesday as the paper's parent company, A.

Contract negotiations kick off later today between management at the Providence Journal and the Providence Newspaper Guild, which represents news and advertising staff at the paper.

Management is expected to present a contract offer which the union will mull over in the coming days.

The guild's current, three-year deal expires December 31.

As I've written before, I think the ProJo's Ed Achorn writes a very good column. While N4N might not agree with everything he says, his writing is clean and elegant, imbued with a knowledge of history (and a love of baseball), and his weekly Tuesday piece is generally pointed and provocative -- qualities that are highly desirable in opinion writing.

In remarkable contrast to the acrimony that preceded their current pact, the Providence Journal and the Providence Newspaper Guild reached agreement yesterday on a new three-year contract, intended to run from January 1 through the end of 2010. The deal includes a three percent raise in the first year; two percent or whatever is received by the Teamsters or the Pressmans' Union, whichever is higher, in the second year; and the same raise as the other unions in the final year.