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The
Winter Hill PTA & the Student Council are having a yard sale on
Sunday, May 31st, from 9:00am until 2:00pm in the Winter Hill Community
School Cafeteria. Items will be selling from .25 cents and up. There
will be furniture, clothing, toys, books, pocketbooks, kitchen items
and much more. There will also be face painting, music, slush and
snacks for sale. All money made from this event will go directly
towards our school for field trips and school supplies. A portion of
the profits will go towards the 8th grade banquet & award ceremony.

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Another
heroic story coming out of our Police Department – apparently early am
Tuesday morning, Police Officer Cliffy Mansir was the first to respond
to fire call at a house on Powderhouse Blvd. When Officer Mansir
arrived he found that all the occupants were still in the house, he
immediately evacuated the entire house and then proceeded to put out
the fire on the porch. We heard that on Monday during the day they were
varnishing the porch and left the cans lying around when somehow they
ignited.

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Somerville Public School's
Music Dept Presents: the annual SPRING STRING FLING, a wonderful
concert full of student string players. The event will be on Thursday,
June 4th at 7pm – in the Somerville High School Auditorium, 81 Highland
Avenue. Admission is free – and this will be the orchestra director's
last concert – the amazing Rita Ranucci is retiring.

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Funny
how some PDSers look at things – take for instance the PDSer from Ward
5 SC member Mark Neidergang – he was the only elected official in the
parade that had his clip board and nomination papers with him so he
could have them signed while marching in the parade. He probably thinks
that was what Memorial Day was all about – getting his signatures – and
not to remember those that fought for our country! Then just prior to
the ceremony at the Veterans Cemetery he got up and left, maybe he had
an emergency? Well, at least he was there for the parade. You might
remember he said at a school committee meeting that Good Friday should
be done away with and that Bunker Hill Day was an "annoying" – we're
trying to keep record of his holiday opinions.

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The
online desperate antics of the Farm Team last week accusing us here at
The News of plagiarism, a charge that was posted by their Assistant
Editor Auditi Guha, might have backfired in her face. We were thinking
of getting her a Dictionary, but then we thought about it, and changed
our minds. But Apparently she or someone realized that the heading on
the blog page was too strong and they changed it…from accusing us of
Plagiarism to Copycatting – but alas, not in time to be saved by one of
our readers in PDF form. We have a feeling that it's not the last she's
heard of this!

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The Somerville Police
Department is sadly loosing two great guys! Sargent John Christensen
and Detective David Lyons are retiring after many years of devoted
service to the department and the city. The two are being honored with
a farewell dinner on June 5th at the Mount Vernon Restaurant. We wish
them both the best in their travels and thank them for their service.

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The
Welcome Project Graduation and Celebration will be Sunday, June 7th
from 4pm to 7pm at the Mystic Activity Center, 530 Mystic Avenue. This
will be a special celebration for the first class of high school
students to complete their training in LIPS — the Liaison Interpreters
Program of Somerville – and the progress our adult learners have made
in their English for Students of Other Languages classes this year.
LIPS trains bilingual high school students to assist with language
interpretation at community meetings in Somerville. In addition to
learning formal interpretation techniques to connect people

who
do not speak the same language, LIPS also builds the leadership of
young people from immigrant families to be knowledgeable and engaged in
issues that affect themselves and their community. Fourteen youth
participated this year, learning to assist with interpretation between
English and three target languages – Haitian Creole, Spanish, and
Portuguese.

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We hear that West Somerville
resident Bob McNary recently suffered a heart attack and we hear he's
home recovering. Bob is a popular guy around the city, and lots of
Newstalk readers wish him well and back to his old self very soon.

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Somerville
youth earns Boston College High School Honors – Spencer W.
Camara-Harrison ('12), of Somerville, achieved Honors for the Third
Quarter at Boston College High School. For Honors, a student must have
at least a 3.2 quality point average and all grades "C-" or higher.
Boston College High School is a Jesuit, Catholic, college-preparatory
school for young men founded in 1863. The school enrolls approximately
1,300 students from some 100 communities in eastern Massachusetts.

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Traffic
and Parking recently approved a measure to increase meter rates across
the city as well as to go citywide on Permit Parking. The hearing was
this past Thursday night, just a matter of when it will take effect.

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The
"Taste of Somerville" is back, sponsored by the Somerville Chamber,
will be coming on June 9th at the Holiday Inn. More then 20 Somerville
restaurants will present samples from their menus and wine and beer
tasting. Tickets for the event $35.00 and it runs from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.

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Brazil
@ SCAT is a new initiative to serve Somerville's vibrant Brazilian
community. SCAT now offers production classes in Portuguese, and
beginning on June 24th, a Brazilian film monthly screening series. The
first film of the Brazil@SCAT screening series will be "Hour of the
Star" (1985). After the death of her aunt, Macabéa (Marcelia Cartaxo)
moves from the Brazilian countryside to the big city of S√£o Paulo,
where she lives in an all-female boardinghouse, takes a job as a typist
and meets a man (José Dumont) who has dreams of becoming a congressman.
Director Suzana Amaral also penned the screenplay for this
coming-of-age drama based on Clarice Lispector's best-selling novel by
the same name. Portuguese with English sub-titles. Time: 7:30pm at the
SCAT studio at 90 Union Square. It is free; however, donations are
appreciated. Only 30 seats – so get there early!

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