Erstwhile Moderate Party candidate for lieutenant governor Jean Ann Guliano is running for a state senate seat instead. From her statement:

Many have pointed out that my running for state office is admirable, but what we really need are committed people in the General Assembly, people who are going to advocate for taxpayers, our students and small businesses.

Media giant AOL is eyeing Rhode Island as part of a larger, nationwide expansion of its prime local news initiative, Patch. As I report in a piece to appear in this week's Phoenix - should be up on the web site later today - AOL is recruiting journalists for hyperlocal news sites in Newport, Portsmouth, and Middletown.

Providence City Councilman Cliff Wood, who has decided not to run for re-election, says he will keep the door open to a return to politics. "I'm hanging 'em up for now," he tells N4N. "I'm 40."

Wood says that if he returned, he'd run for something other than council. Asked whether he'd consider a run for mayor, he demurred. He says he supports Angel Taveras' bid for the mayoralty - and hopes Taveras holds the office for eight years.

N4N was supposed to be out of town this week, but our trip has been postponed. So the blog keeps a-hummin'.

First up today, some detail on WPRI's Congressional debate: it'll be Tuesday, July 13 at the Providence Performing Arts Center, at 7 p.m. Expect an open format, with questions on everything from the economy to health care to taxes.

N4N, dear readers, will be out of town for the rest of the week. The stray inspired musing may show up here from time to time, but the inanities will probably not resume until after the Fourth of July. Until then, be well...and keep an eye out for this week's Phoenix, I've got an interesting bit of media-related news forthcoming.

And the reinvention continues. Close readers will recall that we mentioned in this space, a couple of weeks back, that the ProJo would be offering up a revamped "Lifebeat" section. Well, it's here. Word is the section will be themed by day. Mondays, as we see today, is called "Thrive," with a focus on health and wellness.

Well, the ProJo's Rhode Island version of PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning initiative that checks the truthfulness of politicians' and pundits' statements, is up and running.

The first three pols subject to the Truth-O-Meter: Lincoln Chafee, Frank Caprio and Michael Gardiner. They get a "false," "half true," and "pants on fire" - reserved for the biggest whoppers - respectively.

The Phoenix broke the news that the ProJo would launch a Rhode Island version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact service, which rates the truthfulness of politicians' and pundits' statements. Ian Donnis, over at WRNI, reported today that the launch should come this week.

Well, the Rhode Island page on the PolitiFact web site is not yet accessible, but a Google search reveals fragmentary evidence that one of the first ratings will find Republican Congressional candidate Marc Zaccaria made a "half-true" statement when he said incumbent Congressman James Langevin votes "the party line about 98 percent of the time."

Former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino has just announced on Buddy Cianci's talk show that he will not run for mayor. The decision should have a significant impact on the mayor's race. Paolino, who was to run as an independent, could have played the elder statesman - a man with experience in government and business who could provide a steady hand in tough times.

The debate over the state's education funding formula, signed into law by Governor Carcieri yesterday, has focused largely on winners and losers: which communities get more state aid and which get less. By that measure, the state's large, urban districts - shortchanged in the past - do quite well. Providence gets almost $30 million more, Pawtucket gets a $7.

Governor Carcieri today vetoed a bill that would give voters the chance to decide whether the Twin River and Newport Grand slot parlors should be expanded to full-scale casinos. The General Assembly may yet override that veto and place the matter on the ballot. And voters may be amenable to a gambling expansion, given Massachusetts' strong moves toward casino gambling.

Ernest Greco, the latest Democratic entry in the other Congressional race - you know the race for Representative James Langevin's seat - will probably have a hard time gaining traction against his better known primary foes: the incumbent, who is pro-life, and former State Representative Betsy Dennigan, who is pro-choice.

N4N is a touch obsessed with the World Cup, so forgive this temporary divergence from Rhode Island politics and media matters.

ESPN has received a bit of guff for employing Brits as its announcers-in-chief after Dave O'Brien, now the Red Sox radio announcer, did a less than stellar job with the 2006 Cup. But it has ever so graciously added former US soccer standout John Harkes to the announcing team for broadcasts of the US squad's matches.

A couple of days ago, I noted in this space that Peter Kilmartin, Democratic candidate for attorney general, is making a labor-friendly play to crack down on employers who classify full-time workers as contractors in order to cut costs. Democratic rival Steve Archambault's campaign notes that their candidate put forth a similar proposal last month.