Wow what a shock – a local news station did an investigation at the Middlesex County Courthouse and found a couple of judges not working a full day.  Another example of how work is done in our bankrupt county.  Hey, let’s not forget a favorite former local politician, known affectionately to some of us as “video boy”.  He’s enjoying his sweet weekly payday as the Register of Probate at our expense – and we elected him!  And he keeps sticking his nose into local politics, even though he moved a while back.  The Middlesex County Court System has been rated as “The most poorly run court system in the nation” – what a disgrace.

Speaking of “video boy” and general loss of reasoning – what were the members of the Board of Aldermen who wanted to vote on that resolution regarding divesting in Israel thinking?  There’s no plausible explanation as to why our Board of Aldermen should even be talking about foreign policy, let’s hope this issue goes away as quickly as it came around.

It’s kind of official – Kevin Tarpley is back – and running for Alderman.  Of course, nobody knows whether it’s for a Ward seat or an At-Large seat.  Apparently that is how we are going to be doing political posturing as we enter into 2005 – announce you’re running for office like LaFuente and Tarpley, but don’t be too specific about what office you’ll be running for.  We’d like to announce that we are running for…our lives.

A few issues ago we wrote about the restaurant on

Hey – has anyone seen Herb Vargas lately?  We haven’t seen him in so long, we are on a Herbie withdrawal.  Now that the Presidential election is over, maybe we will see him and many more like him who are local political activists in the coming year – this is a local election year (otherwise known as Dawn of the Pod People).  Rumors are rampant as to who will have a race and who won’t – let’s hope that some survive the oncoming wave of new faces and one issue candidates – and won’t fall by the wayside like Vinny Ciampa did.

We had a great turnout at the Second Annual Writer’s Festival this past Sunday night at Jimmy Tingle’s.  Thanks to the writers who came and read, to those who came to listen to them, to those who helped sponsor the event with us and thanks to Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway Theatre for hosting again.  It was bigger and better than last year and we are looking forward to next year already.

Have you seen the changes we have been making every month – expanding the paper and making it better?  We have up to date news on our website daily and want to get your feedback – we do this for the readership and for the community – let us know your opinions and ideas.  You can call, fax or email any one of the staff and the publishers at any time.