Alderman At Large Jack Connolly will be hosting a campaign rally at the Burren Pub in Davis Square tonight, Wednesday, November 2. From 6 to 8 p.m.

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Ward 4 Alderman candidate Tony Lafuente will be having an old fashion campaign rally/barbecue this coming Saturday, November 5, in Winter Hill at the corner of Langmaid Avenue and Broadway next to Temple Street. No charge, open from 11 to 4 p.m. A live band will perform throughout the afternoon. Stop by and get some food, meet and greet neighbors and friends, and hear some great music. Let Tony know you’re going to support him and help him on election day on the 8th.

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Looking over some of the Campaign Committee reports that were dated as of September 2011 report filing (anyone can go online to the City of Somerville web site and see all the candidate’s filings  and we’re sure you’re going to agree with us that some are very interesting). One Alderman At Large candidate (not hard to figure who this is – just go online) for re-election’s campaign report shows no activity other than that his campaign owes him personally $85, 424.00. Wow! For an Alderman At Large seat? Why would someone run up a bill to himself to be elected for a position that pays $25K a year? It has to be his entire 14 years of bills running for Alderman At Large that he has been bragging about! We think that it was such good reading, after the elections are over Newstalk will search through City Hall’s web site and see if we can find more of these or ones that are unusual. We’ll keep you posted off course.

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We were reading another interesting filing from Christine Barber, candidate for Ward 4 Alderman, you’d think she was running for President. Her campaign staffer (her words, not ours) lives in Stoneham. Her campaign consultant lives in Chicago, IL (again her words not ours). A list of contributors as of September 2011 mentions 126 contributors, of which 104 live outside of Somerville. Only 21 live in Somerville and of that only nine were from Ward 4. The Ward she wants to represent. Check it out for yourself if you don’t believe us. Go online to the City of Somerville web site. She has announced a fundraiser in Boston for tonight, Wednesday, sponsored by four ladies, none of which are from Somerville either.    Ask yourself this, even if you’re a new Ward 4 resident, who would she represent if she was elected? She claims on some of her literature we’ve seen that she’s for open and transparent government. If she’s elected who would she represent? Her outside interests or the residents of Ward 4? Nothing here is illegal, it just sounds strange, doesn’t it?     She might want to run for Rep. Sciortino’s seat next year since the new redistricting involves all of Ward 4 now, since  she is getting as many as he does contributions from outsiders.

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Our condolences to the family of Anthony “Tony” Cavicchio who passed away suddenly this past weekend. He was very well known in Somerville, in particular East Somerville. A long time resident who graduated from SHS back in 1958. His family and friends and all of those that knew him down in East Somerville will surely miss him. Again, our condolences to his wife and family that he leaves behind.

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Frank Senesi, head of Veterans Services, is said to be retiring at the beginning of the year. He has done a great job in this department in his tenure as Director. He is key to all the fundraising efforts for the Memorial Day parade every year. We hope he is still associated with that part of it. We’re sure the administration will miss him and his dedication on the job to all the Veterans here in Somerville.     Now the rumors will start to fly as to his replacement will be. We heard already that Alderman from Ward 4 Walter Pero would be interested in the job now that he’s retiring from the Alderman’s seat, and sources tell us that Cindy Hickey’s (Council on Aging Director) husband Bob Hickey would like the job. He was in the so-called running for the job, we hear, back when Frank was first appointed.

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Our good friend Bob Publicover is back home again from his umpteenth time at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and is doing fine. But he and lot of his friends are upset and disturbed that while he was at the hospital he dozed off for very few minutes and woke to find that his new iPad was stolen. While in a private room and just dozing off. Isn’t anything scared anymore? We think the hospital should have at least done a thorough investigation or put in some kind of effort to retrieve it, or else get him a new one!

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Speaking of Bob Publicover, he announced recently that he and his long time partner David Lebahn got engaged and will be looking for a late spring/early summer wedding. They make a good couple. Bob is demanding and David is constantly running around. Seriously, they are both nice guys and it’s a nice thing that they are doing. We wish them the very best and we’re going to expect an invitation as well. We’re sure a lot of Bob’s friends here in the Ville will be just as excited to hear the news.

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What a horrible fire in Teele Square. An entire city block of stores gone. We hope the cause was not intentional, but we did hear that the ATF was called in because of something the Somerville Fire Dept found at the scene.

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Was there an unusual amount of new registered voters in Ward 7 recently? We heard a rumor that on one particular street there were eight names that claim to live there and one house was empty, while others hadn’t lived there some say ever or for a long time.

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It appears that Mike Meehan is leaving his post as Communications Director for the city and his replacement is none other than the man himself, Mr. Tom Champion who is making a return to his old job. He’s been the voice of Somerville for a few years, the mystery man on our phone reminding us to park on the odd side of the street, it’s a snow emergency. Just in time for the snow to arrive, don’t you think? We wish Mike Meehan the best in his future and good speed. We welcome back Tom Champion.

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Happy birthday to Alderman At Large Dennis Sullivan this week along with Mrs. Linda Brown, one of Somerville’s finest school teachers. Best wishes also to Joe Staples, who has been hinting he’s over 60 but under 75 years. A big Happy Birthday to Ariana Roche as well. To the many other birthdays in the ‘Ville or from the ‘Ville we wish you the best.

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Next week on November 9, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Registrar of Deeds Eugene Brune will be hosting a training session on how to search and download records from the Registry of Deeds here in Middlesex County South. Call the registry in Cambridge and RSVP your intentions on attending. Registry of Deeds, lunchroom, 4th floor, at 208 Cambridge Street in Cambridge.

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This week four Somerville Police Officers, Lt. Gerald Readon, Sgt. Joseph McCain, Detective Mario Oliveira, and Detective Ernest Nadile were awarded Massachusetts’ most prestigious police award, The Hanna Award for Bravery.    They are receiving this award for their actions in the 2010 incident in which Detective Mario Oliveira was shot multiple times. Detective Oliveira recovered and has been back to work. Congratulations to all of these fine officers.

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Meanwhile, up at the Board of Aldermen, Officer Jack Leuchter received a citation from the Board of Aldermen for his 35+ years of dedicated service as a Somerville Police Officer. Congratulations on your retirement, Jack, and on behalf of a grateful community we thank you for your years of service!