Now we promised that we wouldn’t say anything, but we will tell you this much – watch Fox Channel WFXT 25 – sometime in the next week or so.  Apparently Fox, in cooperation with the Somerville Police Department, are doing an undercover investigation throughout the city.  We think it can’t be that much of an undercover operation – we found out about it – and not only that, but several locations were tipped off about it in advance.  Remember that loose lips sink ships and if you’re going to do an undercover investigation, maybe fewer people should know about it.  This reminds us of a rumor we heard back last year that the Feds were reportedly here in Somerville – and that they are still doing an investigation and/or talking to several public officials here.  We can’t confirm this yet, but the rumors still persist.

We hear through the grapevine that the City will be have a six million dollar shortfall with income into the city and that they’re scrambling trying to raise money any which way they can through all the departments – cutting back and letting people go.  Some ideas being talked about are “surcharges” and maybe some layoffs – oh-oh, we weren’t supposed to tell you that.

So how big do you think Aruba is?  We heard through reliable sources that former Mayoral Candidate Tony LaFuente and Alderman at Large Bruce Desmond were down there at the same time.  Now we can’t confirm if they were discussing politics, but we wouldn’t be surprised.  Hey – it’s interesting to note that the negative comments in the Farm Team’s Speakout were down against the Mayor that same week.  Makes you wonder.

Congratulations to New State Rep. Carl Sciortino for his first speech on the Floor of the House recently and his choice of subject in his speech.  He chose to speak on the Green Line coming to Somerville, and why it would be good for our city.

The senate race is heating up with rumors all over about who’s in and who’s out – since the deadline for filing for the special election is July 23^rd, you can bet a lot will happen soon enough.  We hear that another prominent name in the City – former State Rep. Vinny Ciampa – is seriously considering running.  We also hear that deals are being made to cut down on the amount of candidates out of Somerville in order to have someone from the city elected.  Who’s in and who’s out will change almost daily, so go onto our website, we’ll keep you posted with all the latest info at:  www.thesomervillenews.com.

Speaking of our website, it seems that there has been a lot of activity lately. In each week during April, we were averaging about 500 hits per day, according to our web hosting company.  Now here’s a lesson for those that don’t understand how websites work – on the website you can make anonymous comments that are automatically posted directly onto the website.  Some people create phony names to hide themselves like the comments in the Farm Team’s Speakout.  Point is that it’s anonymous.  There are those in the city who actually think that people associated with this paper have been posting comments on the website.  Like we have that much time – and beyond that – we don’t need to hide our names.  We did notice in our website data report that six comments that were posted did come from the same IP address which originated somewhere within the city – obviously a disgruntled city employee or shall we say “mole.”

Frank Senesi, the Director of Veterans Services, recently had a fund-raiser for the Memorial Day Parade to help defray the cost of the bands that will be in it.  He did a great job raising money so far and the event itself was very interesting.  Lots of people were there and the tables were full with the usual crowd of Somerville Politicians and Department Heads at the bar – many of them drinking.  There was excellent entertainment at the event with the USO group making a special appearance singing all the old tunes.  Everyone had fun and it was a good fund-raiser – Frank and his committee worked hard.

The annual city spring clean up went off in spite of the weather – there were huge crowds all over the city – but the most impressive was up in Ward 7 headed by Ward Alderman Bob Trane.  Bob worked hard getting residents out and informing them of the yearly event.  We saw lots of Ward 7 people working hard, especially the Trane family, now we know how they all stay so slim.

Various fund-raisers for the politicians are coming soon.  Ward One Alderman Bill Roache will be hosting a fund-raiser on Thursday May 5th at Goodtimes Emporium and popular Ward Six Alderman Jack Connolly will be having his event on May 11th at the Burren followed by entertainment over at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway Theatre.  Later in the month, the Register of Probate John Buonomo will be having a small but important fund-raiser at the Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge on the 26th of May.

Another popular event that has been going on for the past two months will once again be held this month – “Seller’s Condo Conversion Seminar” put on with both ERA The Norton Group and popular local attorney Richard DiGirolamo on Tuesday, May 24th at 6:00 PM at the ERA office located at 699 Broadway.  The ones in March and April were standing room only and very informative to those sellers that want to know how much more their homes are worth selling them as condo’s.

Oh and by the way, several people associated with the city have been overheard as saying that our paper isn’t read by anyone and that it’s a “rag” paper.  We find it funny that if the slightest little thing is said about anyone on the “Team”, the administration goes berserk.  We think its funny to be referred as a rag paper.      A rag paper that prints 8,000 copies a week, that gets 3,500 hits per week on the website and we direct mail to over 500 people.  We are the best when we tell the truth and it’s a positive story, but a rag paper when we tell the truth and it’s not so great.  The common factor is the truth.  You know what, it doesn’t matter what they think, because some of us will be here long after they’ve all retired or been indicted.