A snowstorm this month caused gridlock — and political teeth-gnashing — after snow, accidents and too many cars on the road brought major roadways to a crawl for hours. The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

State government is broke, Rhode Island was one of only two states to lose population in 2007, the schools lag those of its New England neighbors, college grads tend to flee the day they earn their degrees, our bridges are crumbling, some pols are in cahoots with crooked businessmen, and a felon hosts a show on the state’s biggest talk radio station.

State leaders were AWOL during a December snowstorm. Traffic snarled from Pawcatuck to Pawtucket. Governor Carcieri was in Iraq. Nobody told Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts he was going.

Yet 2007 wasn’t all traffic jams, layoffs and plea bargains.

Rhode Island colleges and universities were rated among the most prestigious in the United States, our health-care system is one of the nation’s tops, and philanthropist Warren Alpert left Brown University’s medical school $100 million.

Providence continued its rebirth as a hip center of culture, entertainment, hospitality, medicine and culinary excellence. The state’s violent crime rate, already one of the nation’s lowest, went down, childhood poverty dropped, and the once-threatened piping plovers made a comeback on Rhode Island’s sandy southern coast.

On July 1, the Tall Ships paraded in Newport, attracting thousands of additional visitors to the City by the Sea. This is the Spirit of Massachusetts, a 125-foot schooner. The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

The billowing majesty of the Tall Ships filled Newport Harbor under a shimmering June sun. Our theater groups were among the region’s best. In a country that lives by the 21st-century religion of velocity and worship of the new, we venerate the past and dwell in cozy neighborhoods in houses from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Sports fans from New York to Los Angeles are envious of the success of our beloved New England franchises — the Sox, Pats, Celts, Bruins, PawSox and P-Bruins.

Looking back at 2007 in Rhode Island is like going to a family reunion: you recognize everybody but notice they have changed. Your view of the event is shaped by whether you see the eggnog bowl as half full or half empty.

We argued endlessly about immigration, one of Rhode Island’s oldest social movements. A March raid that rounded up illegal immigrants working at a New Bedford textile factory sparked a heated debate in the region over illegal immigration that boiled up on talk radio, provoked letters to the editor and sharp blogosphere jousts, and eventually reached the Rhode Island State House.

Then on Dec. 14, a Guatemalan immigrant — who a friend said was here illegally — was severely injured in an industrial accident at a Lincoln manufacturing plant. The man, Leonardo Cos, 32, had his leg and one buttock amputated after he became trapped in a machine at Packaging Concepts Ltd.

Today’s Rhode Island is a diverse ethnic stew. Except for Narragansett Indians or other Native Americans, every Rhode Islander is the descendant of an immigrant. The state’s first white leader was Roger Williams, a Baptist preacher and immigrant of conscience who was banished from Massachusetts in the 1630s because he clashed with the theocrats running that colony.

Norma Urbina, 34, of New Bedford, was one of the 327 workers seized by immigration agents when they raided the Michael Bianco plant in New Bedford in March. The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

At the State House this year, opponents of illegal immigration — upset at the lack of enforcement from Washington — pushed for strict laws cracking down on undocumented immigrants. Those included provisions that would have forced employers to verify the citizenship of prospective employees, imposed criminal sanctions on employers who hire illegal workers and established English as the state’s official language.

In the end, the General Assembly, mired in financial and state budget issues, did not approve any of the toughest antiimmigrant legislation. But lawmakers who vow to crack down on illegal immigration say they will try again in the legislative session that convenes Tuesday.

ON A WARM September morning, Vincent A. Cianci Jr., the longtime Providence mayor, waltzed into the Starbucks at the Providence Biltmore Hotel, intent on getting coffee.

Then he spied a queue snaking almost to the door.

“Let’s go somewhere quieter, that line reminds me too much of jail,” said Cianci, fresh out of federal prison and back on the air at WPRO-AM.

Settling into his coffee and tomato juice at a nearby restaurant, Cianci fired off a stream of the one-liners that helped make him a local institution. Asked whether he saw much homosexual activity in prison, Cianci quipped, “Not really.… There are more gays in City Hall than in jail.”

Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald said famously that there are no second acts in American life. He never met Buddy Cianci.

Former Providence Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr. arrived back on the scene in July, fresh out of federal prison. Here he heads toward Cafe Nuovo, in Providence, with granddaughter Olivia Cianci, 11. The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

Released from federal custody in July after serving more than four years in a New Jersey prison for his conviction on corruption charges stemming from his City Hall days, Cianci received a warm welcome from some of his old admirers back in the city he ruled for two decades.

If some found his talk show tired, his quips clichÉs and his hypocrisy transparent, others welcomed his jokes, political war stories and digs at the state’s current political leaders.

Besides his radio show, Cianci does political analysis for Channel 6, the city’s ABC affiliate, and is back in his role as boulevardier. Often seen in Federal Hill eateries, Cianci is chauffeured in a dark Lincoln with a VAC (Vincent A. Cianci) vanity plate. The car mimics the one he rode in as mayor. He won’t be eligible to run for any office until 2014, but he says his political career is behind him.

There is occasional fallout from his years of chicanery in City Hall. Earlier this month, Frank Corrente, Cianci’s former top aide, asked the city to restore the $70,000-plus annual pension that was stripped away when he was convicted, along with Cianci, in the corruption probe. Corrente was the city official seen taking two $1,000 bribes in FBI undercover videotapes.

IT TOOK 81 years, but in May the old Masonic Temple — once Providence’s most blatant architectural eyesore — finally opened.

The crumbling old skeleton in the shadow of McKim, Mead & White’s State House dome, was started in 1926 as a temple for the Masons but never finished. Now, a $100-million facelift has given the city another luxury destination — the Renaissance Providence Hotel, a 272-room facility that has drawn a young, trendy and affluent crowd to its restaurant and bar.

It took 81 years, but in May, the old Masonic Temple — once Providence’s most blatant architectural eyesore — finally opened as the Renaissance Providence Hotel. The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

In politics, Rhode Island in 2007 continued its tradition of being a theme park for investigative reporters, federal agents and criminal lawyers. A federal investigation, Operation Dollar Bill, is focusing on corruption at the intersection of business and politics — an old Rhode Island ailment dating back to Colonial times.

Two former vice presidents of CVS, the Woonsocket-based pharmacy giant, John R. (Jack) Kramer and Carlos Ortiz, were charged in January with paying former state Sen. John Celona, of North Providence, to perform State House favors for the company. Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

The biggest political name snared so far is former House Majority Leader Gerard Martineau, a Democrat who represented a Woonsocket district for many years.

Martineau, a well-liked State House figure, pleaded guilty to doing the bidding at the Assembly of CVS and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, the state’s largest health insurer, while receiving lucrative business contracts from both companies.

U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente pursued Blue Cross, eventually working out a settlement that requires the insurer to pay $20 million and make other changes in governance to avoid prosecution.

THE STATE HOUSE was gripped in 2007 by a growing state financial mess that will continue into 2008. Lawmakers approved the state budget over Carcieri’s veto, and the Republican governor could do little more than grouse on talk radio.

Facing a budget deficit estimated as high as $450 million starting in July, Carcieri worked in 2007 to cut costs. After the Assembly approved a state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, Carcieri proposed eliminating about 1,000 state jobs through layoffs and attrition.

The once-threatened piping plovers, such as this one at Watch Hill in June, started to make a comeback on the shore. The Providence Journal / GrETCHEN ERTL

But the governor’s staff was not prepared to move as quickly as workers considered fair and the first layoff notices didn’t go out until a week before Thanksgiving. The battle between the governor and state employees promises to flop into 2008.

In the aftermath of a plunging job-approval rating, seen in a Brown University public opinion survey this fall, Carcieri took to the talk show airwaves, a medium dominated by older, conservative Rhode Islanders who agree with the governor on major issues.

But the biggest embarrassment for the governor — and Providence Mayor David Cicilline, a Democrat — came on Dec. 13, when an intense midday storm dropped a thick blanket of snow on the state. Highways quickly filled with stalled traffic, Providence streets were gridlocked, and at 9 p.m., 60 school buses filled with children were still out on snow-clogged city streets.

Carcieri was in the Middle East; no state officials communicated the problems to Rhode Islanders. Depending on who was talking, Cicilline or school or emergency-management officials were blamed for failing to fetch the city’s children earlier and for a breakdown in communications with residents and motorists.

The public relations fallout continued after the governor returned, and he fired a top state emergency-management official. Cicilline, too, fired the city’s emergency-management director.

Oscar the cat became famous when it became known that he seeks out dying patients at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Providence, hours before death. The Providence Journal / John Freidah

At the Assembly this year, lawmakers also argued about gay marriage, but took no action to change current law, which bars gay marriages. Rhode Island is now the lone state in New England without a provision allowing some form of legal recognition of gay unions.

Carcieri has been an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, a crusade that has been joined by the Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence, a staunch and outspoken conservative on such hot-button social issues as gay marriage and abortion.

Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court, by a 3-to-2 vote, ruled that a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts, where gay nuptials are legal, could not get divorced in Rhode Island, where the women live. The court ruled that the state’s Family Court had no jurisdiction to grant a same-sex divorce because the Assembly had defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

THE STATE’S only law school, The Ralph R. Papitto School of Law, underwent a name change to the Roger Williams University School of Law in the aftermath of an embarrassing incident. Papitto, a retired business executive and chairman of the board of the university, resigned his post after admitting that he used a racial slur during a board meeting.

After a protest by law students, and at Papitto’s request, his name was removed from the school.

In October, tenant Irene Foss watched as an auctioneer tried to sell off her building at 123 Daboll St. in Providence, which was under foreclosure. The real estate and mortgage crisis deepened as the year went on. The Providence Journal / John Freidah

In elections, 2007 was a quiet year, with no big statewide or federal votes. The major parties split the two special legislative elections, with Democrat Frank Ferri, an openly gay neighborhood activist, winning a seat in Warwick, and Republican Steve Coaty, a lawyer, picking up a seat for his party in Newport.

U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy celebrated both a year of sobriety and his 40th birthday in 2007. Freshman U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse gained praise from his Democratic colleagues and widespread attention from national news outlets for his tough Judiciary Committee questioning of President Bush’s administration.

Rhode Island’s senior senator, Democrat Jack Reed, became one of the most influential members of his party in shaping Iraq War policy. Reed is up for election in 2008, but the political cognoscenti consider him a lock for a third term; he has about $3 million in his campaign chest, and Republicans do not have a decently financed candidate willing to take him on.

The fifth anniversary of the Station nightclub fire that killed 100 in the worst disaster to hit Rhode Island since the Hurricane of 1938 arrives in February. The tragedy continued to make news in 2007, as Daniel Biechele, the former Great White rock band manager whose pyrotechnics sparked the fire, was granted parole from his sentence at the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Another legal joust, that of the state and former lead paint manufacturers, also made ripples this year. The state has found that three companies liable for creating a public nuisance must strip the paint from about 240,000 houses and apartments, at an estimated cost of $2.4 billion. The companies have protested, appealing the state’s verdict in the courts and challenging the state plan.

A fatal crash on New Meadow Road in Barrington in November took the life of a young man and caused widespread anguish in the town about underage drinking. The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

In Barrington, one of the state’s richest communities, alcohol-fueled boating and auto incidents that claimed the lives of two teenagers led to soul-searching and yet another round of community meetings aimed at persuading the town’s teens to stop the boozy underage parties that have plagued the community for at least two generations.

A whimsical note was struck at the Providence Place mall, where eight young artists were found to have stayed rent-free, off and on for four years, in an apartment found deep inside the mall’s infrastructure.

FOR THE passionate sports fans of southern New England, 2007 was a golden year, arguably the greatest since the Pilgrims first touched Plymouth Rock. The Red Sox opened the Fenway Park season on a chilly April afternoon with a victory over the Seattle Mariners, then sold out every home game en route to the team’s second World Series championship of the 21st century.

Led by a combination of such youthful players as Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, and cagey veterans such as Curt Schilling and Manny Ramirez, the Sox emerged victorious from a hang-on-every-pitch playoff series against the Cleveland Indians that went the full seven games. They then swept the Colorado Rockies for their second world championship since 1918.

Rhode Island’s Pawtucket Red Sox continued to fill McCoy Stadium and send a stream of young players to Boston. PawSox owner Ben Mondor, the grand old man of Rhode Island sports and rescuer of professional baseball in the state, vows after every season that he will retire. On opening day in April, he was, of course, back at his perch in the owner’s box along the third-base line at McCoy Stadium.

In football, the Patriots pursued perfection, rolling toward what fans believe will be a fourth Super Bowl victory in seven years. Quarterback Tom Brady ascended to new heights, shattering passing records and reaching a New England sports sainthood occupied by Bill Russell, Ted Williams, Bobby Orr and Larry Bird. Coach Bill Belichick is the latest incarnation of Red Auerbach.

After two decades of mediocrity, the Boston Celtics have made a remarkable turnaround. With new players Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen melding with veteran scorer Paul Pierce, the Celts have the best record in the National Basketball Association.

Even hockey’s Boston Bruins are respectable again, and the top farm team, the Providence Bruins, have skated to the best record in the American Hockey League.

Former Providence College basketball great Jimmy Walker, who died this year, enlivened many a winter night for Friar fans in the 1960s. AP / Victoria Arocho

Rhode Island’s winter passion, college basketball, is drawing big crowds. The University of Rhode Island has gotten off to an especially promising start under coach Jim Baron, defeating a Providence College five whose mettle will be tested over the next two months in the tough Big East Conference. And Brown University, under coach Craig Robinson — the brother-in-law of presidential aspirant Barack Obama — has surged to the top of the Ivy League hoop rankings.

Virginia Lynch, the art gallery owner from Little Compton who boosted the state’s art scene, died this month at 92. The Journal / Andrew Dickerman

AS YOU JOIN tomorrow night in a verse of the Scottish anthem “Auld Lang Syne,” remember these Rhode Islanders who are no longer with us, but who helped make our little corner of New England distinct.

•State Rep. Paul Crowley of Newport, a Democrat and Irish-American publican, who served almost three decades in the Assembly and was a much-loved figure in his native seaside city.

•Bobby Doyle, the marathoner and Pawtucket native who was an inspiration to distance runners and an ambassador for his sport.

•Virginia Lynch, the art gallery owner who boosted the state’s artistic scene and provided artists with a showcase for their work.

Joe Marzilli, a legend in Rhode Island food circles, died in April. The longtime owner of The OId Canteen Restaurant, on Federal Hill in Providence, had been honored by Johnson & Wales University and others. The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

•Joe Marzilli, the Federal Hill raconteur and restaurateur who served up stories and fine Italian repasts on Atwells Avenue for 50 years.

Beloved nature writer Ken Weber died in August. The Journal / Sandor Bodo

•The Rev. Philip Smith, the Providence College president who presided over some of the school’s transformation from a Fruit Hill commuter college to a respected, selective regional institution.

•Ken Weber and John Hackett. Weber, a reflective nature writer, and Hackett, a sharp-edged, cigar-chomping political reporter, couldn’t have been more different. Yet both graced the pages of this newspaper for many years and informed and entertained Rhode Island readers.

•Dennis Lynch, the former Democratic Pawtucket mayor and state official who was father to two of the state’s most influential Democrats, Attorney General Patrick Lynch and William Lynch, the state Democratic chairman.

•Jimmy Walker, arguably the best Providence College basketball player ever. Walker’s jumpers enlivened many a winter night for Friar fans in the 1960s.