GoLocalProv, the feisty web-based news site, has signed a one-year content-sharing partnership with WJAR-TV.

"We're excited about it, obviously," says Josh Fenton, co-founder of GoLocal. "Channel 10 has been the number one station in the market for 40-plus years."

News consumers got their first look at the partnership last week when WJAR piggybacked on a GoLocal review of Department of Environmental Management fines - what's actually collected by the state, and what's not.

With the tide quickly turning on a pair of anti-Internet piracy bills before Congress - the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate - Senator Jack Reed has come out in opposition to the legislation. In a statement just released to the Phoenix:

“I am opposed to passage of this legislation as currently drafted.

Representative David Cicilline has announced his opposition to the anti-Internet piracy bills, too, leaving Senator Sheldon Whitehouse as the lone supporter in the Rhode Island delegation. Cicilline's statement:

“After careful review of the proposed legislation and reflecting on the concerns expressed to me by Rhode Islanders, I have decided to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act as it is currently drafted.

I've got a cover story in today's Phoenix about the suddenly white hot debate over Internet piracy - a debate that has fired up the netroots and split Rhode Island's Congressional delegation.

The opposition to a pair of anti-piracy bills in Congress, aimed at blocking the illegal distribution of music, film, and pharmaceuticals, was already bubbling.

Congressman James Langevin has signed on to an alternative to the controversial Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) legislation in the House of Representatives.

Langevin is now a co-sponsor of the OPEN Act, introduced by California Republican Darrell Issa, which aims to move piracy disputes to the International Trade Commission (ITC) and address some of the Internet companies' concerns about SOPA and its Senate corollary, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Last week, I wrote in this space about a letter a coalition of seven liberal advocacy groups wrote to Treasurer Gina Raimondo, asking her to return an award she recently accepted from the right-leaning Manhattan Institute for shepherding pension reform through the General Assembly.

The letter cited Manhattan Institute-sponsored writings attacking gay marriage and feminism and suggesting claims about racial profiling are "promoting racial paranoia."

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."

Occupy Providence can claim a big win with the opening of a day shelter for the homeless.

The group's General Assembly had demanded a day center in exchange for leaving Burnside Park - a clever push to turn the city's concerns about Occupyers' health and safety, as the weather grew colder, into a focus on the health and safety of the homeless.

WPRO talk radio personalities Dan Yorke, John DePetro, and Ron St. Pierre, all facing expiring contracts, are in talks to sign new contracts with the station, the Phoenix has learned.

There has been uncertainty at the station since last winter, when news broke that Atlanta-based Cumulus Media was moving to buy WPRO's old parent company, Citadel Broadcasting.

Yours truly was on WPRI's "Newsmakers" panel that taped this morning, with Congressman James Langevin as featured guest (thanks to WPRI's Tim White and Ted Nesi for having me on). Among the interesting tidbits: as Nesi has already tweeted, Langevin spoke in support of the prayer banner at Cranston High School West.

I pushed the Congressman a bit on whether the cybersecurity threat he's warned about is as significant as he would have us believe.

From Greg Sargent at the Washington Post (I've fixed a coupla typos):

Picture this scenario. The Senate holds a high-profile vote on a proposal focused directly on implementing the Buffett Rule, one that would bring the current tax rate for millionaires paying lower rates on investments up to 30 percent. This, at at exactly the moment when the GOP is picking a nominee who is worth $250 million and is personally benefitting to an enormous degree from the current rate — one that’s lower than many middle class taxpayers pay.

Mediapeel, run by possible Congressional candidate Anthony Gemma, has apparently negotiated its way out of a contract with several local radio stations to do traffic reports.

A source says the stations affected include those owned by Atlanta-based Cumulus in Providence and parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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.

A subcommittee of the House's Homeland Security Committee is marking up its cybersecurity bill today and has just signed off on an amendment, proposed by Congressman Jim Langevin, that would require the Department of Homeland Security to work with regional cybersecurity collaboratives, like the one he has helped launch in Rhode Island.

For years, WJAR-TV was one of the only local television stations in the country - perhaps the only one - to employ an ombudsman, an independent arbiter of journalistic practices who weighs in on fairness in coverage, conflicts of interest for journalists and the like.

But no more. Back in July, the station dropped the position.

There are, clearly, rewards for bold, blunt leadership in times of crisis.

Last year, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras declared a "category 5 hurricane" on the city's books and was able to wrangle significant savings from municipal unions and push through a tax hike.

Treasurer Gina Raimondo, meanwhile, made a very methodical case for an unsustainable state pension system and won an overhaul that landed her breathless national press.

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling will be at a Game Stop in Bellingham, Massachusetts at midnight tonight for the release of his video game company 38 Studios' highly anticipated first title, "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning."

The game has won positive early reviews and, as the Providence Journal reported this weekend, industry analysts are expecting sales of at least 1 million, which would make the game a moderate success.

A long-awaited piece in the New Republic on Rhode Island's voter ID law has landed. The story, by Simon van Zuylen-Wood, asks why black liberal politicians here supported the bill and suggests anxiety over growing Latino political power - among elected officials black and white - is to blame.

The story recounts several "tales of corruption" - anecdotal stories of voter fraud cited by the bill's supporters - and concludes:

My colleague at the Boston Phoenix, Carly Carioli, lights into New York Times columnist Bill Keller over copyright law and an apparent Times violation of the Phoenix's copyright. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here's a wee taste:

Bill Keller: I heard you like copyright. You wrote one provocative print column about it on Sunday, one blistering blog followup on Monday, and pointed to a third Times op-ed piece from Sunday (headline: "Perpetual War: Digital Pirates amd Creators") that says basically the same thing.