Rhode Island Tip Sheet: In-between days

STATE OF THE DEFICIT: Is the glass half-full or half-empty? It depends in these days of mixed signals. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, responding to an S&P revision on US credit, says the Obama administration is headed toward considerable progress on deficit-reduction. David Leonhardt, meanwhile, writes that a return to Clinton-era tax rates in 2013 would solve 75 percent of the deficit program over the next five years . . . . . President Obama called a contender for 2012 (for more, see third item), yet 64 percent of respondents say the nation is headed in the wrong direction.

DC IN RI: Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is slated to talk at Brown next Wednesday, April 27.

GOP IN DC: TPM on winners and losers of House Republicans first 100 days in power.

POTUS: Mark Halperin details Obama’s lead in polling over potential GOP rivals: Obama/Sarah Palin 55-38/Obama/Newt Gingrich 54-39/Obama/Mitt Romney 49-45/Obama/Mike Huckabee 50-44/Obama/Tim Pawlenty 53-38/Obama/Donald Trump 52-40/Obama/Michele Bachmann 51.39.

CARCIERI: Former governor Don Carcieri is due to collect a honorary degree from Johnson & Wales University on May 21.

AYN RAND: Cathy Young, “a moderate libertarian conservative” on the objectivist resurgence: “I have mixed feelings about this revival. I believe that Rand is underappreciated and often unfairly maligned. But I also fear that the current Rand vogue often focuses on the worst, not the best, aspects of her legacy — and will widen the gap between Rand acolytes and non-believers who see her as the evil guru of the right.”

CITY HALL: Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has nominated Keith A. Oliveira to the school board. Oliveira worked for 11 years as a senior administrator at the state Department of Education.

CASEWORK: How a detective solved the 1969 slaying of a Massachusetts teenager.

PITCHING THE WOO: Advice for catching the interest of reporters.

MEDIA: J-students revolt against an iPad-buy requirement.

NESI: SCOTUS hears RI-related case involving greenhouse emissions.

TELEPHONE OPERATOR: A Philadelphia company that operates phone-sex lines controls 25 percent of the 1-800 numbers in the US and Canada.

KOREAN BBQ: Beth Comery reports on it coming to a Providence neighborhood near you.

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