Our ears were burning last week Рit seems even before the paper hit the streets, certain individuals were on the phones, making calls Рall denials, they said Рone or two were even threatening. Frantic calls were made to individuals around the city asking how we found out about certain items in Newstalk. Well, we have a lot of Newstalkers out there and the list keeps growing all the time Рmore and more individuals have joined, so that we now have eyes and ears in a lot of places. We think its called being thrown under the bus so to speak, so when we’re called, and we ask the famous question: “whom did you recently piss off?” Рstart there.
    

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Regarding the Harvard Place fire and the home belonging to the Thibeault‚Äôs – we now hear that there were 22 truckloads (that‚Äôs right, 22 truckloads) to clean the mess up – now we‚Äôre not in the demolition business here, but 22 truckloads sounds like a huge amount to us. Sounds like the amount that the Lincoln Park School would have been when they tore that down, never mind a single-family home on a little dead-end street that was severely damaged by a fire. We heard first that the disposal of the debris was in Rhode Island and now we hear it was in New Hampshire ‚Äì we‚Äôre beginning to wonder if it went to the same place that famous money desk from the Police Station went to. We now hear that the District Attorney has been asked to step in and see what‚Äôs going on ‚Äì and we also heard that there are no manifests for the 22 truckloads – that‚Äôs interesting, isn‚Äôt it?    

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That other Newstalk item last week regarding that large building that certain ZBA board members past and present (also a lot of other names floating around) ‚Äì well, we heard they did go to the Barracuda of Winter Hill and she refused to give them money too. Seems like this 70 to 98 elderly unit complex that they want to build is in Ward 2 and they‚Äôre having problems finding the $$$$ – from what we‚Äôve been told, a lot of wealthy people here in the city are saying ‚Äúno‚Äù flat out.   

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Huge crowd at Representative Paul Donato‚Äôs time over in Medford and an even bigger surprise was the Somerville contingent over there – seems a lot of Somerville‚Äôs residents prefer to deal with Rep. Paul instead of calling their own Rep‚Äôs here in the city. One thing is for sure, you‚Äôll always get a call back from Rep. Paul Donato – besides we hear he doesn‚Äôt like sitting alone in coffee shops like some other local Reps waiting to give an audience. 

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Rep. Carl (Prince Carl of the PDSers), according the legislators record on votes, seems to be marching to the tune of the House Speaker Рwho wanted the casino gambling bill killed Рbut what we found very funny is that he voted to give himself a raise…now we’re not saying he doesn’t work for it, but, we added up the hours on the “Beacon Hill Report” and frankly we think it’s strange that he would vote with the speaker, who is in the middle of a pissing contest with our Governor (whom everyone was behind before).

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Is anyone in the market to buy a high-rise? Well, apparently there‚Äôs talk on the street that instead of gutting and remodeling the Middlesex Courthouse in East Cambridge, it‚Äôs being put up for sale! The asking price is at $40M! According to sources, a new courthouse containing the Middlesex Probate, Deeds, Superior and District Courts will be all in one building combined. Two sites in mind for a new structure are being considered.  One site would be behind the new North Point area, which is presently under construction and the other choice location would be on Route 2 – next to the old Faces Night Club property. But don‚Äôt hold your breath waiting for the new building to pop up anytime soon – according to a past study conducted, the Middlesex Probate Court should have been out of their current outdated building and into a new facility back in 1974. Not a penny has been appropriated as of yet to build any new structure to house the court systems and the Governor wants the current high-rise sold FIRST before any shopping process can begin on a new location. Up to a $10M dollar price tag shopping limit for a new property is the projected price when it comes time to buy a new site.

 
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Congratulations to Mayor Joe and his wife Nancy on the recent new birth of another son — James Anthony! The new addition to the Curtatone family was born this past Good Friday on the 21st.   

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Happy 30th Birthday to Matt Capobianco of Ward 3, who recently celebrated with a large crowd of family and friends in Boston last Saturday night. Also this month, amongst other well known Somerville residents, our own Jamie Norton (managing editor here and member of the School Committee in Ward 4), is going to celebrate his 40th birthday this Saturday evening – to both we wish many more years and happiness from Newstalk.
                                             

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Our hearts go out to the victims and their families of that fatal crash from a car that rolled over into a house then burst into flames on Fellsway and Charles Street in Malden early Friday morning.

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The Breakfast War in Ball Square took a different twist this past week Рseems like Mike Moccia Рthe owner of the Ball Square Café took the first step in trying to settle things peaceably. Mike sent a very apologetic letter to Yasser at Sound Bites, Mayor Joe and to all the businesses in Ball Square. Hey, it takes someone to make the first step and Mike has done that Рin an attempt to quiet everything down Рwe congratulate him for doing this. We hope now all sides in Ball Square can come together. Mike also started a web site for Ball Square and it features all the businesses in the square with links to their own sites at www.ballsquarecafe.com. So if you haven’t been to Ball Square lately, come see why there are long lines at all the famous breakfast places on the weekends.

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The 34th Annual PTA Scholarship Dinner Dance will be held on Friday, May 2nd at Anthony’s in Malden. This year they’re honoring Mary Jo Rossetti, Steve Tuccelli, Joe Vilaine, Marie DiFava and the late Joe Mackey by presenting five scholarships to deserving seniors in the honoree’s names. All contributions to the program book and to the dinner/dance will be the source of the funds for the scholarships – any donations can be dropped off at any of the public schools – put “Attention PTA Dinner Dance” on the envelope.

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In a world driven to be more “Green” – the organization known as EarthHour.org is urging people all over the globe to turn off their lights for one hour to send a message about the need for action on global warming. To join in, either visit the website at www.earthhour.org or simply turn off excess lights and electrical equipment that will not compromise your safety from 8pm to 9pm on Saturday, March 29th.

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Mayor Joe submitted for a board vacancy, Congressman Mike Capuano’s son Michael as an alternate on the Planning Board, congratulations to him, another attorney Рwe think that’s good.

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The “Somerville Money Fair” will be held at the Elizabeth Peabody House at 277 Broadway on April 5th from 10am to 2pm. There will be workshops and information on hand for all people – young and old – looking to learn how to budget their money, discover strategies to increase income, find help and resources for money troubles and focus on young adults workshops so that kids will walk away with some real money skills! There will be a free lunch and free childcare provided that day. Sponsored by the Somerville Commission for Women with generous support from the Tisch College Citizenship and Public Service Scholars Program of Tufts University. For more information, contact (617) 625-6600, x 2406 or email sdarai@somervillema.gov. The Somerville Commission for Women is a part of the Somerville Public Health Department.

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In celebration of National Volunteer Week, the New England Regional Unit, Boston Chapter of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D)® will host its annual Record-A-Thon from April 28 to May 3, at its studio at 58 Charles Street in Cambridge. The production goal is to have volunteer/readers staff all eight recording booths at the Chapter’s studio in Cambridge for 12 hours (8:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.) during the six-day event. The event’s financial goal is $30,000. To participate in the 2008 Record-A-Thon, please contact Ron Wudarsky at (617) 577-1111 ext. 22, or rwudarsky@rfbd.org for more information.

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The Duhamel Educational Initiative is having their 12th Annual Spring Breakfast on Saturday, March 29th from 8:30am to 10:30am at the First Congregational Church, 89 College Avenue. This organization honors the legacy of the late Paul Duhamel, who devoted a great deal of his energy to helping the welfare and well-being of students in the public schools here in Somerville over the years – the monies raised from this event and direct appeals help fund special programs which directly benefit Somerville’s Public School Children across this city.

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We hear everyone’s favorite progressive – Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz – has the city caught in the midst of a nasty legal battle between two companies that have absolutely nothing to do with our lives here in Somerville. It seems last year she pushed a resolution that would support an out of state campaign to improve conditions at Smithfield Foods Incorporated. And now the company is suing the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and wants all communications between Rebekah (or any member of the board but Rebekah is the only member “progressive” enough to take up irrelevant out of state causes and probably the only one to have any extended communications with them). Remember Rebekah, if you answer one question in front of the grand jury you have to answer them all. Just start out by taking the fifth immediately and no one can force you to incriminate yourself.