I've spent the last several days talking with some of Rhode Island's brightest minds on where we are 10 years after 9/11. It was quite an undertaking - and helps to explain my spotty blogging of late. The interviews will appear in this week's Phoenix. But I'll offer one, here, that we weren't able to include in the paper.

Eric Hirsch, a sociology professor at Providence College, is best known for his work tracking the state's homeless population.

My cover story in this week's Phoenix on City Year, the urban peace corps, was an unusually personal project. I was a City Year corps member myself in Boston, fresh out of high school, in 1993-1994 - working in a day care center in a public housing project in the mornings and in an afterschool program in the afternoons.

It was an impactful experience - working with the kids, but also with my team - composed of 10 other people of enormously different backgrounds: a Wesleyan graduate from Hawaii, a high school dropout, a young man struggling with a drug problem.

With Rhode Island still in the depths of an economic crisis, social issues got little attention during the gubernatorial contest. But the pro-life blogosphere is aflutter about governor-elect Lincoln Chafee's decision to name Dr. Pablo Rodriguez to his Transition Advisory Committee - a group, as the name suggests, that advises the transition team.

Turns out Josh Marshall of the high-profile lefty political blog Talking Points Memo used to be a historian-in-training at Brown University, specializing in 17th Century southern New England - who knew? So he's got a particularly well-informed take on the ballot question that would change Rhode Island's official name.

Rhode Island is often labeled a socially conservative state. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the claim. The state is solidly pro-choice and a new poll on same-sex marriage suggests ever-growing support for the idea. Commissioned by GLAD, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the poll found 59 percent of voters in favor and 31 percent opposed.

The Hartford Business News reports that a merger of the Rhode Island and Connecticut branches of Planned Parenthood could be complete as early as next month:

Planned Parenthood organizations in Connecticut and Rhode Island are merging to more efficiently meet growing demand for health-screening and education services in both states.

Updating a post from earlier today, Maine Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, signed a same-sex marriage bill into law today, making Maine the fifth state in the country to allow gay nuptials.

That leaves just two New England states - New Hampshire and Rhode Island - without a gay marriage law. And New Hampshire's governor should have the opportunity to pull his state of that short list in a matter of days - or even hours - with same-sex marriage legislation working its way to his desk.

Rhode Island's foot-dragging on same-sex marriage is all the more pronounced today as Maine's state Senate prepares to approve a bill that would legalize gay nuptials in Vacationland.

The New Hampshire legislature is also close to approving a same-sex marriage bill. And both states are waiting to see if Democratic governors, who have opposed gay marriage in the past but signaled they may be reconsidering, will sign the legislation.

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."

Jason DeParle, who has long covered the welfare beat at the NYT, had some interesting findings yesterday: that even with (or perhaps because of) a severe national economic crisis, "18 states cut their welfare rolls last year, and nationally the number of people receiving cash assistance remained at or near the lowest in more than 40 years."

Word of the Congressional delegation's expression of concern yesterday to Governor Carcieri -- first reported here -- blew up on TV and in today's ProJo.

Meanwhile, gov spokeswoman Amy Kempe got back to me late yesterday. Here's part of what she wrote in response to the delegation's concerns:

The Governor has offered to brief the delegation, here in RI or to fly to DC, on the waiver and has extended the offer for his staff to brief their staff.

According to a note on this letter to Governor Carcieri, from Senators Reed and Whitehouse and Representatives Langevin and Kennedy, it was electronically transmitted today to the governor's office.

As noted in my previous post, the delegation's first such letter on this topic seems to have been sent in August.

We write in regard to the Medicaid Global Waiver.

Rhode Island's Congressional delegation has expressed its "deep concern" to Governor Carcieri about the possibly adverse impact of the federal Medicaid wavier, says US Representative Jim Langevin.

Speaking with me earlier today, Langevin says he "has been concerned with the lack of transparency and specifics about the whole plan."

One school of thought holds that poverty will always be with us. Perhaps, but that overlooks the fact that government, however flawed, can make an important difference for the better on important issues.

Two examples:

1) The federal government, through the Democratic administration of LBJ and the Republican one of Richard Nixon, dramatically diminished the prevalence of hunger in America.