News Talk for the week of Nov. 29

Anybody see the latest union picketing development last Tuesday? The fire and patrol union faithful were protesting the mayor and the stalled contract negotiations in front of the entrance to City Hall, when none other than that star of stage and screen himself — Police Chief Bob Bradley — drove aggressively towards the picketers, nearly hitting one firefighter. Apparently Bob Brando, oops, we mean Bradley, was angry the union folks were picketing in the crosswalk. Well, he let some of the guys and gals have it and they started yelling right back. A chant of ‚ÄúNo more commercials‚Äù began and, for a moment, it looked like we were going to get a good old fashioned street fight. But luckily, cooler heads prevailed and the Chief drove calmly into the parking lot. Oh well.

                                                    **********
Mayor Joe is probably just as irritated as Chief Lawrence Olivier, oops sorry, as Chief Bob Bradley is with the unions these days. Mayor Joe must have been angry to have his fundraiser cancelled by the gutless owners of The Rack, who cancelled on their commitment to Joe because of the Police/Fire union pickets. Ticket sales must have been going well though, because the mayor’s committee quickly set up a new destination for it. Quincy Market Place at Boston Rocks, 245 Quincy Street tonight Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 5:30 p.m. is the new date and time. Should be an interesting evening, don’t you think?
                                                      **********
We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season this year, Christmas is a time for joy and giving. Unfortunately, there’s always a grinch somewhere in town. We strongly urge boycotting any store that tries to hijack Christmas by calling it Happy Holidays.
                                                       **********
The bloggers have made the Scott Trant story the number one most commented on story this year, with over 200 comments. Number two thus far is the tale of seized personal items from the fire station, ‚ÄúThe big payback,‚Äù with well over 100.   Thousands and thousands of hits weekly on our site and why? Because it‚Äôs instant communication and discussion within our city.      
                                                         *********
Alderman Bob Trane, the current VP of the Board of Alderman, is working hard to be elected by his fellow aldermen to be next year’s president of the board. We hear he has the votes now. Apparently his ratings with aldermen jumped up last week when he took on the planning department and their behind the scenes move to change the plans for the new VNA at the old Conwell School site.
                                                          *********
Ok Gene, we were wrong you didn‚Äôt sell the Western School for $1.00, but we noticed you didn‚Äôt mention what the City of Somerville has been paying in rent to use the school.    Believe it or not, the City of Somerville pays Tufts University a whopping $300K a year for rent, and that‚Äôs down substantially — a few years ago it was far more. Our Somerville High math says if you sold the building to Tufts, and now they collect rent of $300K a year at 10 years its 3 million out of the city‚Äôs pockets and into the Tufts strongbox. And of course we know its more. Oh, the $1.00 sale price was the Pope School on Washington Street to the Boys & Girls Club, which by the way, is up for sale for over a million dollars. We wonder what the sale price will be on the old Powerhouse School and to whom?    
                                                          **********
The online informant, ‚ÄúThe Mole‚Äù made a comment about broken down city trucks being stored in the rear of the Homan‚Äôs building. We checked it out and ‚ÄúThe Mole‚Äù was correct — its pretty nasty back there and not the type of image the city should be projecting on its own land.
                                                           ***********
By the way, to the bloggers who don‚Äôt like us calling the Progressive‚Äôs ‚ÄúSecular Progressives,‚Äù we like the name, so can it. We‚Äôre men and women of letters over here at News Talk and we guess you just don‚Äôt understand how we can take phrases rarely heard and flip them into daily words. And, some of us were around in the real progressive days when organizations such as Somerville United Neighborhoods advocated for the people.  And besides, we like the title, it‚Äôs our opinion and we have a right to our opinion.   
                                                             **********
Looks like Jack Connolly is the first to declare his candidacy for the Alderman-at-Large special election. The aldermen are discussing the dates for the special election and the time frame between primary and final elections. Then maybe Marty the secular progressive will announce.    

                                                          ***********
On a lighter note, apparently we were not the only ones that noticed something done by our US Post Office Dept. Have you noticed that the first, last and only new time to have your mail picked up by the Post Office is at 1 p.m. daily? We noticed how weird it was for businesses and residents alike that the Post Office would do this without letting the public know —  it seems there was major publicity about the raising of the stamp prices but not about the time frame on pick up mails. While we‚Äôre on it, have you noticed that your mail is not being delivered like it once was when it was cheaper? Now its always late, or sometimes not just there for days in a row.
                                                           ************
We heard from very reliable sources that certain city department heads have unofficially banned the Somerville News from their properties. One such department head at the Tufts building has reportedly remarked that the paper wasn’t wanted there. Our sources tell us that more then one person has heard her make such outlandish comments about this fine publication. We’re watching and hoping its not true. But we’re watching.