The Providence Journal had a front page story today on the budget proposal Governor Chafee will unveil, tonight, in his "State of the State" address.

A leaked budget proposal is not unprecedented. But the story has angered some in the State House press corps, who accuse the Journal of breaking what is known, in the biz, as an "embargo" and unfairly beating them to the punch on the story.

Providence Journal education reporter Jennifer Jordan had a fine cover story in Sunday's paper about the controversy over the prayer banner, recently deemed unconstitutional, at Cranston High School West.

She also had a smaller piece that was, in essence, an interview with Charles C. Haynes, a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington who, as the article puts it, "specializes in the intersection of public schools and religion."

There are no reporters or columnists among the nine Providence Journal staffers who took buyouts on Friday, according to John Hill, a reporter and president of the Providence Newspaper Guild.

Hill did not have a complete list in front of him when we spoke this afternoon and declined to release any names because the employees had not yet given him permission to do so.

Nine Providence Journal employees have taken buyouts offered by the newspaper. The official announcement is to come Monday.

The paper was looking to shed eight employees - one reporter, one copy editor, one photographer, one editorial assistant, and four advertising representatives. If fewer than eight had taken the buyouts, the Journal was prepared to lay off staffers.

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.

I've been critical of the Providence Journal's new web site, providencejournal.com - in particular, it's failure to do much in the way of adventurous visual storytelling. Creative use of photography and video is, in many ways, the hallmark of a strong web site. And too many media companies, the Phoenix included, have moved too slowly on this front.

Well, it ain't "60 Minutes." But news site GoLocalProv gets some points for ambition, if nothing else, with the launch of GoLocalProv TV, a four-week-old television-over-the-Internet newscast.

The production, starring youthful anchors Greg Berman and Laura Marchetti, has a lo-fi feel to it. A brick backdrop - no studio set, here.

The Providence Journal's new website, providencejournal.com, is up and running. And if the aim is to drive people back to the more profitable print product, well, it just might succeed.

As expected, the site offers brief versions of basic news events, some video, reader polls, and other do-dads for free. Full versions of the paper's stories will be available via an e-edition of the Journal, which is free for the moment but will soon reside behind a paywall, available only to those who subscribe to the print product or pay a separate fee for the e-edition.

The Providence Journal's Groupon-style daily deals service, announced a few weeks back, is now operational. The paper is promoting it heavily on its web site, projo.com.

As I've written in this space before, there are some analysts who contend the market for daily deals sites is saturated. But that's not the opnly concern.

ProJo columnist Bob Kerr writes in his column today on the Daniel Gordon drama:

...we really do have to ask ourselves how a guy who did really bad stuff and spent time in jail managed to get elected without anyone taking a hard look at a very ugly history.

It is a good question. But I'd ask another. Two actually: who, exactly, should have unearthed Gordon's history? And who should be tasked with the responsibility of vetting candidates going forward?

In this week's Phoenix, I've got a piece suggesting that the looming fight over pension reform will provide a window on one of the most pressing questions in Rhode Island politics: just how much clout does organized labor have, circa 2011?

When I began reporting the piece last week, the union campaign to blunt the impacts of the reform wasn't a high-profile affair.

Last week, I wrote in this space about the Providence Journal making its move: a new web site soon to be unveiled, the long-discussed pay wall soon to be erected, a Groupon-style deals service launching.

Today, with a wraparound on the front section of the paper-and-ink version, the ProJo announces some of the changes and adds this tagline: "We Work for the Truth."

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.

The Providence Journal, which has been slow to innovate in recent years, is making moves.

A half-page ad in today's paper trumpets the company's venture into the Groupon-style deals market. And newsroom employees got their first taste of the paper's new web site today over coffee and pastries in the grand Art Deco auditorium on the paper's fourth floor.

I've got a cover story in this week's Phoenix on Colonel Brendan Doherty's nascent Congressional campaign. What struck me in reporting this piece - and I've touched on it some on the blog over the last couple of weeks - is the wildcard that is the GOP primary.

Doherty seems, on paper, to be the strongest candidate the Republican Party could nominate to take on Democratic Congressman David Cicilline.