A Senate bill introduced last month (the cosponsors include Senate Finance chairman Daniel DaPonte) resurrects the possiiblity of gambling on the Providence waterfront, among other places:

While most elements of the Tea Party movement seem to favor remaining outside of party politics, local Tea Party activist Doreen Costa of North Kingstown is running for the legislative seat currently held by Democratic state Representative Kenneth Carter.

House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, is the featured guest on WRNI's Political Roundtable, which runs at 5:40 and 7:40 a.m. during Friday's Morning Edition. Fox talks with Ian Donnis and Scott MacKay of WRNI and URI political science Prof. Maureen Moakley about the Assembly, taxes, the state budget, the Central Falls teacher firings and what the House plans to do to help move the state out of the recession.

Governor Carcieri has backed away from his plan to withhold $33 million in quarterly car tax payments due this month to the city's 39 cities and towns. The governor's action came after General Assembly leaders opposed the move and the governor's lawyers told him there was little chance he would prevail in court, said Daniel Beardsley, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, which lobbies on behalf of the state's municipalities.

Via Channel 10:

PROVIDENCE—The planned hand-off of power in the state House of Representatives has been postponed to Thursday.

The House has canceled Wednesday’s session because of an expected snowstorm.

NBC 10 reported that Speaker of the House William Murphy plans to step down from the speaker’s position and that Gordon Fox will be nominated as the next speaker.

Rep. Ray Sullivan, a leader among young Rhode Island House Democrats, is leaving the House and taking a job as deputy district director of government affairs for U.S. Rep. James Langevin.

Sullivan, 33, is well-respected among Democrats for his political savvy; he was campaign director for Barack Obama's campaign in Rhode Island. Before that he worked for Myrth York's 2002 campaign for governor. Sullivan is also a former journalist.

As expected, the January 2011 departure of Governor Carcieri -- and Gordon Fox's anticipated move this week into the speakership -- will change the dynamic around long-stalled gay marriage legislation in Rhode Island. Here's further evidence, via Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD):

WPRI-TV (Channel 12) is getting ready to release some early indicators on this big political year (disclosure: I'm a weekly panelist on the station's Newsmakers show). The poll, billed as the station's largest, includes the following questions:

The Moderate Party of RI has said it's waiting until April to unveil its gubernatorial candidate, but some hopefuls will be announced later this month:

After only five months of official recognition as a political party, the Moderate Party of Rhode Island is proud to announce we have recruited great candidates for local city councils, the General Assembly, and several state wide offices, including the office of the Governor.

Don Carcieri rode his white horse from the business world into the governor's office in the 2002 election. His pitch to voters was simple, in retrospect too simple: He was the no-nonsense businessman from the real world ready to slay the entrenched State House interests.

In his bespoke suits and prosiac language he cut a figure as an earnest outsider who would bring good jobs to a state that needed more of them.