The fight over the federal debt ceiling has already done permanent damage to the country’s reputation, and even his own party’s preferred spending cuts will hurt the economy, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed warned Friday.

“I’m disappointed,” Reed told WPRI.com. “The stakes are so high. … Even if it can be resolved, there’ll still be this sort of lingering question about the future and the ability of the country to make tough decisions in a timely way.”

“I think there’s been some damage done,” he said. “No party up until this point – up until the Republicans, particularly in the House – has ever tried to use the credit of the Untied States as a point of leverage for policy.”

The House is expected to vote this evening on Speaker John Boehner’s bill to increase the debt ceiling for roughly six months and cut federal spending by $917 billion.

Reed said that plan is a nonstarter for him and his party, and the Senate will reject it this evening and instead send Majority Leader Harry Reid’s alternative proposal to the House. That will also force Senate Republicans to cast a vote saying where they stand, Reed said.

Enacting Reid’s Democratic alternative to Boehner’s plan will still weaken the economy by further reducing demand, Reed said – a particular concern in light of the anemic GDP numbers that were released this morning.

“When you make cuts and lower demand in a fragile economy, that translates not into growth but into what we’ve seen, which is very modest growth,” he said. ”We’re trying to be responsible, and we’re trying to make the best of two very bad options.”

The senator also said he hopes a resolution to the debt ceiling fight will bolster confidence among businesses and consumers, which could give the economy a boost.

Governor Chafee sat down with my colleague Tim White on Tuesday for an extended, one-on-one “Newsmakers” interview that touches on just about every issue impacting Rhode Island at the moment.

With Central Falls potentially filing for bankruptcy as soon as Monday, I thought it would be interesting to excerpt what Chafee told Tim about the situation there:

WHITE: What happens if Central Falls files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy?

CHAFEE: Well, you have lots of leeway in what you do with contracts and that’s one side of it. On the other side, there’s a perception of what’s happening in Rhode Island that’s not positive; one of our communities in bankruptcy. It’s bad enough it’s in receivership. So we’re trying to balance those two interests, what we can achieve on the laws of bankruptcy with the perception of “Who is next?” and what bad things might flow from a bankruptcy in Central Falls. We’re trying to balance those and avoid bankruptcy if we can.

WHITE: Where do you think the needle is moving right now? Do you think Central Falls is closer to bankruptcy than ever before?

CHAFEE: It’s too early right now. We’re really working hard. I’ve been in Central Falls Town Hall twice today already; I was there on Friday. It’s a high priority for the administration.

WHITE: What were the purposes of those visits?

CHAFEE: Meet with the union people – firefighters, municipal employees, Fraternal Order of Police – and just share ideas. Many have worked in the city for many years – 20, 23, 25 years. What happened? What can we do fix it? They’re part of the conversation. These people have worked hard over the years, they know their community well. It’s been very beneficial to be there and hearing their viewpoint.

A lot of it was – Tim, to a person, the FOP, the police, the firefighters and municipal employees – talk [about] a two-year term, the political decisions that were made and the urgency to have a two-year term, and making bad decisions. Not having a little tax increase, not putting the money into the pension fund, because you have a two-year term and you’re up for election. Many of them, over and over again, pointed to that as one of the reasons.

WHITE: You can’t fix that now; that ship has sailed.

CHAFEE: Yeah, but you learn. It’s always good to learn from previous errors.

The full episode of “Newsmakers” will be posted online later today and air at 10 a.m. Sunday on Fox Providence.

Today on Nesi’s Notes:

> All eyes will be on Central Falls come Monday morning as a decision on bankruptcy looms

> Another gloomy, gloomy day for those of us worried about the health of the economy

> The New York Times and The Washington Post both dig into Rhode Island’s Civil War years

> A handy chart comparing the four big deficit-reduction plans Congress has been weighing

> Politico makes me blush – thanks for all the kind words, everyone

from Tim White:

> Watch ‘Newsmakers’ with Gov. Lincoln Chafee

> Chafee will consider cutting retirees’ pension benefits if a Superior Court judge allows it

(photo: Wikipedia/Dennis Mojado)

What is Judge Flanders going to tell us Monday morning?

That’s the question everyone is asking this afternoon after most of Central Falls’ retirees failed to agree to the reductions in their pensions proposed by Flanders, the city’s state-appointed receiver.

Flanders is now “deciding upon the best possible course of action to put the City of Central Falls on solid financial footing,” according to a statement issued earlier today. “An announcement is expected Monday morning.”

That announcement will presumably take the form of a press conference in the cash-strapped city. The Chafee administration has put in place a news blackout until then, and spokesman Christian Vareika declined to break it when I called him. “We expect speculation,” he said.

You don’t need a crystal ball to know most of that speculation revolves around whether Flanders plans to pull the trigger and have Central Falls file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy early Monday. Governor Chafee briefed lawmakers about the situation on Thursday, the Projo’s Kathy Gregg reports.

Bankruptcy would help by giving the city more leeway in renegotiating contracts, but a Chapter 9 filing could also do further damage to the state’s image, Chafee said Tuesday during a taping of WPRI 12′s “Newsmakers.”

“So we’re trying to balance those two interests – what we can achieve in the laws of bankruptcy, with the perception of who is next and what bad things might flow from a bankruptcy in Central Falls,” the governor said. “We’re trying to balance those and avoid bankruptcy if we can.”

“It’s a high priority for the administration,” he added.

After the meeting with retirees earlier this month, Flanders emphasized that bankruptcy would be all but inevitable if he did not get most of them to agree to pension concessions. “If a substantial number say no, then bankruptcy becomes a much more likely option,” he said. “Then it’ll be up to the bankruptcy judge.”

Asked if there was another way to avoid Chapter 9 without the pension concessions, Flanders replied: “I don’t know of one right now.”

Not that Flanders has ever minced words about the situation in Central Falls.

Last month, he told me bankruptcy was “more likely than not” and that a decision would be made “certainly no later than the end of August … and perhaps much sooner.” In May, he said “the bankruptcy option looms much larger” unless state lawmakers provided a bailout (which they didn’t) or workers and retirees agreed to major concessions.

That doesn’t mean a bankruptcy filing is a certainty come Monday. Deadlines have a way of clarifying things in people’s minds, and sometimes a deal gets reached that wouldn’t have been possibly until the eleventh hour. And Flanders could decide Chapter 9 still isn’t the best solution there. But a filing does seem more likely than not.

If Central Falls does file for bankruptcy – which happens in federal court, not state court – the judge for the case will be appointed by Chief Judge Sandra Lynch of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, according to Flanders’ office. It won’t necessarily be Judge Arthur Votolato, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge for the District of Rhode Island.

For more on what would happen next, read my May Q&A with Chapter 9 attorney James Spiotto. “It is not a pleasurable experience,” he said. “It’s difficult and hard, and it’s stressful for everyone.” It’s also expensive – Vallejo, Calif., has spent more than $10 million since filing for Chapter 9 in 2008 and is still trying to get out.

More coverage of the Central Falls crisis on Nesi’s Notes:

• More than half of Central Falls pensions worth under $30K (July 21)
• Why Central Falls owes its retirees $80 million in benefits (July 19)
• What Chapter 9 bankruptcy would mean for Central Falls (May 11)
• Justice Flaherty rewrites history in Central Falls (March 31)

From The New York Times:

Roughly four years since the start of the financial crisis, and two years since the official end of the resulting recession, what has taken hold in their wake is a new kind of great moderation — an era of slow growth.

“The problem is that some persistent and deep currents are restraining our progress,” John C. Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said on Thursday.

Perhaps the most important is the closely linked combination of housing and consumer spending. It is a longstanding pattern that … Americans recover from recessions by building more homes and filling them with things. But there is no need to build homes while millions sit empty.

Combine that with the anemic GDP numbers and the debt ceiling stalemate, and it’s hard not to get a flashback to September 2008 this morning.

My colleague John Perry sent me this nice Associated Press chart comparing and contrasting the four big proposals for reducing the federal deficit that have been put forward as Congress tries to resolve the debt-limit crisis. Take a look:

Right now all eyes are on the Boehner plan, which Bloomberg says would now cut spending by $917 billion. The Republican leadership is now saying the House will take a vote today after last night’s was canceled.

Thanks, guys. I’m honored and kind of stunned.

While I’m at it, let me just take a moment to thank my boss, WPRI 12 GM Jay Howell, who gave me this opportunity. He has a real vision for how media is changing circa 2011, and I think it shows on air and online.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Sullivan Ballou

I’m a little hesitant to wade back into Rhode Island’s Civil War history after the experience Claire Peracchio and I last spring, but I thought this was worth the risk: Both The New York Times and The Washington Post highlighted the Ocean State’s experience during the conflict last week.

The Post went first, with an article relating the sad tale of doomed soldier Sullivan Ballou’s heartbreaking letter to his wife, written a few days before he died at the Battle of Bull Run. It played a key role in Ken Burns’ famous PBS documentary:

Later read to the haunting theme song of Burns’s 1990 “The Civil War,” the letter summarized the sacrifice made by the Civil War generation, and struck an emotional note with Americans far removed from the struggle and sentiment of the 1860s. …

At least one newspaper printed transcripts and quickly ran out. A record label reportedly sold tens of thousands of soundtrack CDs from the series, which included a reading of the letter.

It was read at weddings, funerals and memorial services, Burns said. …

After Burns finished reading the letter aloud, he made two photocopies. He gave one to his staff, for inclusion in the film. He folded the other and put it in his wallet.

Twenty-five years later, as the country marks the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Bull Run, the now-tattered copy of the letter is still in Burns’s beat-up wallet.

NYTimes.com was next, with a guest blog post by Civil War News columnist Ronald Coddington about Col. Ambrose Everett Burnside, who led Sullivan and his First Rhode Island Infantry compatriots into battle at Bull Run. (Burnside is buried at Swan Point Cemetery on the East Side of Providence.)

Specifically, Coddington looked at the story of Burnside’s black valet, Robert Holloway, who’d was his servant and bodyguard in Bristol for about a decade before he was captured at Bull Run. They were later reunited, and stuck together, Coddington writes:

After the war, Burnside entered politics and won elections as Rhode Island governor, and later as a senator. Holloway remained at his side through it all. The men separated forever in 1877 after Holloway died at about 63 years old. Buried in Jupiter Cemetery in Bristol, his stone marker was engraved “30 years a faithful servant to Gen. Burnside, at Home and in the Field.” …

In 1886, former federal soldiers who belonged to the Bristol post of the Grand Army of the Republic, the leading veteran’s organization, commemorated Decoration Day, known today as Memorial Day, with a procession to town hall, followed by music and a speech. The final tribute, a recital of the Roll of Honor, included the names of 125 deceased comrades who served Rhode Island and the Union. Among those honored that day were Burnside and Holloway.

(lithograph: U.S. Army Military History Institute via Hal Jespersen/Wikipedia)

Like a lot of people, I was a Twitter skeptic once upon a time. What can you say in 140 characters? Do we really need another way of broadcasting our thoughts online? Isn’t it a fad?

I’ve changed my mind. Twitter is terrific. There’s no better way to follow breaking news as it happens or get a peek at the zeitgeist. And if you’re smart about who you follow, it’s a great way to harness others’ good taste and knowledge to help guide you through the fire hydrant of information on the Internet. Plus, if you’re somebody like me who churns out content for a living, Twitter is an invaluable way of helping people find your work.

A while back, somebody suggested Twitter had replaced a lot of short-form blogging. A few years ago, if a blogger came across an interesting article or something, you’d put up a post with a quick introduction to flag it for people. But a tweet is a more natural way to point out something interesting when you don’t have something to add to it, so that’s much more common now.

I mention this because it occurred to me earlier today that if you’re a Nesi’s Notes reader who doesn’t follow my Twitter feed, you’re missing some of how I do my job here at WPRI.com. Example: This morning I tweeted a link to news about Jefferson County, Ala., voting today on whether to file for Chapter 9 – an interesting story for anyone following the Central Falls crisis, but not really something worth a whole blog post for me at the moment.

Basically, this has been one long commercial for my Twitter feed masking as a thoughtful reflection on the media. You don’t have to sign up for anything if you want to check it out – just point your browser to twitter.com/tednesi and you’re there.

Today on Nesi’s Notes:

> Changes are coming to Projo.com in August, but the Dallas-style paywall is further away

> Patrick Kennedy is planning to host a second fundraiser for Congressman Cicilline this fall

> How Rhode Island’s new voter ID law may change the national debate over those policies

> Congrats to Tiverton’s Boat House Restaurant for having one of the 50 best scenic views

> An NYT op-ed looks at justice, vengeance and the need for both in the Woodmansee case

from Tim White:

> Attorney General Kilmartin drops criminal probe into disabled firefighter and weightlifter

(photo: Wikipedia/Dennis Mojado)

The Providence Journal will take a first step toward charging readers online next month, but the new system won’t look like the one at the Dallas Morning News – yet.

The Journal will roll out a “premium-content-light” system in August, A.H. Belo executive Jim Moroney told investors during a conference call Thursday, without providing further details.

But a full-scale paywall like the Morning News’ will not be put in place until the Projo finishes installing a new content-management system.

“It’s what [The Journal] can do easily without going the full boat that Dallas did, because of this technology issue,” Moroney said.

“Until that gets in place, it really doesn’t make sense for [The Journal or sister paper The Press-Enterprise] to take this step, because they’d have to go through a tremendous amount of work to put it in place, only to turn around do it all over again,” he said.

The paper is also expected to debut a redesigned website and a corporate rebranding soon. The Journal’s executive editor, Thomas Heslin, directed questions about the changes to the paper’s publisher, Howard Sutton. Sutton did not immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

Moroney said the company is pleased with the results so far at the Morning News, which began charging digital readers March 8. Over 73,000 consumers have linked their print and online subscriptions, he said. Unique visitors to the paper’s website have declined about 15% and page views have fallen about 15%.

The Journal’s executives began talking about a paywall publicly more than a year and a half ago. The most recent details came in a report last October that described a sort of “Diet Projo” system, with short summaries of longer print stories posted online. But it’s unclear whether that is still the plan.

A. H. Belo posted a net loss of $6.8 million, or 32 cents a share, for the three months ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $171,000, or a penny a share, a year earlier. Revenue dropped 6% to $114.5 million, with advertising sales down 9%. That was partly offset by a $5.4 million property sale.

There was some good news for The Journal in the earnings report. A.H. Belo said the Projo’s advertising sales didn’t fall by as large a percentage as at its other two papers, the Morning News and The Press-Enterprise, though circulation revenue fell at The Journal and The Press-Enterprise. The company also credited a 7% increase in printing and distribution revenue “primarily to increases … in Providence.”

During the call, A.H. Belo CEO Robert Decherd declined to forecast how the publisher’s sales will be going forward.

“Like all of our peer companies, we hope that revenues are going to stabilize during the second half of the year, but … things have been very uneven insofar as revenue patterns are concerned,” he said. The company benefits from having a healthy balance sheet and dominance in its major markets, he added.

More Providence Journal and A.H. Belo coverage:

• A.H. Belo’s surprising success amid the newspaper storm (May 18)
• Projo falls below $100M mark as half of ads evaporate (March 14)
• Projo union OKs new 3-year contract with AH Belo (Feb. 16)
• No reason for Belo to sell Projo with price at $51m (Dec. 28)
• Why the Projo’s finances are healthier than you think (Nov. 18)

Thane Rosenbaum, a Fordham University professor, has an op-ed in today’s New York Times about the difference between justice and vengeance (“not as great as people think”) and society’s need for both.

Rosenbaum’s jumping-off point is the massacre in Norway, but he offers two more examples – the Casey Anthony trial, and the local controversy over Michael Woodmansee. After quoting John Foreman, the father of a Woodmansee victim who said he “intend[s] to kill this man” if he comes across him, he writes:

Such statements of unvarnished revenge make many uncomfortable. But how different is revenge from justice, really? Every legal system, however dispassionate and procedural, must still pass the gut test of seeming morally just; and revenge must always be just and proportionate. That is what the biblical phrase “eye for an eye” means. …

In threatening the man who slaughtered his son, Mr. Foreman is saying that he doesn’t believe that the debt Mr. Woodmansee owes to society, and to him personally, has been satisfied. The wrongdoer has grossly underpaid for his crime and the score remains unsettled. …

Getting even is not complicated arithmetic. A just outcome in Norway, however, given the number of young lives taken, will doubtless be unsatisfying. Casey Anthony watchers will resign themselves to accepting the jury’s verdict and await the next celebrity trial. And John Foreman, the aggrieved father with the anguish of a debt still unpaid, is left to count the days.

An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Professor Rosenbaum as “she” rather than “he.”