It was a very busy and hectic week at the Police Station
this past week – it appears that the chief is resigning, but in order to
collect his full pension he needs to stay on the clock till May – which seems
to be OK with the Mayors office and the Board of Alderman, who went into
Executive Session this past Thursday night to hear this news. It appears that Capt. Bradley will be
appointed Acting Chief temporarily until the State Legislature can approve a
permanent replacement. Maybe the Mayor
will be suggesting some sort of Police Commissioner position? On Friday morning, the chief had the locks on
his office changed; the city took his police vehicle back, along with his badge
and reportedly his gun as well. There
are mixed emotions – both pro and con – about the chief leaving and the way it
was handled by the Mayor. It’s almost
like deja-vu with how the previous mayor handled Pat Scrima and look what kind
of mess that turned into – that we now have to pay through the nose to make go
away.

It’s official! Because of the demand by you, the readers and residents of Somerville,
we are now as of this issue a WEEKLY PAPER devoted exclusively to Somerville’s
residents, groups, and businesses that have an impact on all of our lives. The decision by the owners – Prospect Hill
Publishing, Inc. – was just a dream two short years ago when they bought the
paper from Bob Publicover and something we really wanted to all along. Our commitment to the readers is that we will
not bring you biased reporting like the other local paper. We are locally owned and will continue to
bring the local news to you as balanced as we possibly can. So from now on, look for us every
Wednesday. If you have any suggestions
or comments give us a call or email us – we will listen. You can call the news office at 617-666-4010
or email us at somervillenews@aol.com Don’t forget to visit our website – which is
updated daily – and is undergoing a major overhaul so you can get the most up
to date stories from across the city.

The inside scoop from a recent Progressive Democrats
meeting (held somewhere – we can’t tell you where), is that former Mayoral
candidate Tony LaFuente announced that he is a "progressive". Tony went on to say that he thinks it was a
big mistake that he didn’t work more closely with that group when he was
running for Mayor, because if he had, he is sure that both he and Marty
Martinez would be in public office now. We have news for you Tony, Joe didn’t work closely with the PDS either
and he won by 700, so maybe it was something more than that one thing.

Those so called small band of “Progressives
Democrats" – as they like to be called " have their sights set on
removing several alderman regardless if they politically agree or with them or
not – just to be elected. We heard from
reliable sources within the Progressive’s pipeline of members that they intend
on announcing a new candidate for public office from within their own ranks –
every week for the next six weeks for the publicity. For some odd reason, they seem to be under
the impression that Somerville has never seen a "Progressive" group
that was politically active. Are we the
only ones who remember S.U.N – Somerville United Neighborhood? Or how about the S.T.U. – Somerville Tenants
Union? Or even the Ward Civic
Associations back in the heyday of Mayor S. Lester Ralph. We’d like to know who these
"Progressives" are – give us a list of the members – or at least give
us some kind of idea of what they stand for. What makes these "Progressives" any different from any other
Democrat in this part of the country? The Somerville United Neighborhood was a citywide combination of
residents and groups that did great things for this city and were extremely
progressive in their day – and everyone knew who they were and definitely knew
what they stood for.

Congratulations to Mayor Joe Curtatone’s family – just recently his sister Maria & her
husband Gino “Curtatone” Chiaravalloti welcomed a new baby boy weighing in at a
whopping nine pounds. Congrats to the
proud parents and to the whole family.

The dedication of the “Patrick Sullivan Square" at
the corner of Lincoln Street & Lincoln Avenue will be held on Saturday
March 5^th at 1PM. Patrick’s
sister Joan Guarino, who was recently named to the first ever “Gang Advisory
Task Force” in Somerville, will proudly be there at the dedication and there
will be a reception afterwards at Goodtimes over at Assembly Square. Joan Guarino has been a local activist for a
long time from Ward One who has been vocal in many areas and recently has been
active in getting this Gang Advisory Task Force up and running. We wish her and the other members the task
force the best of luck.

There will be a big announcement most likely tomorrow by
the City and a private sector company – too late to make our paper – City Hall
spokesman Mark Horan is always setting up major announcements so the Farm Team
can get the scoop. Hey we understand –
we know he has been calling our paper a "rag". We don’t mind at all, because we know he
reads us. There must be something about
having a spokesman who isn’t popular getting away with saying anything they
want, no matter how offending it is. Well we have seen worse – our all time favorite professional
non-caller-back – Cathy O’Dea – who worked under former Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay
– she never returned anyone’s phone calls. She probably is calling people back these days, since she has a new
career in Real Estate.

 Congratulations to Denise Cosby for recently winning the
"Ambassadors Circle Award" from ERA Franchise Real Estate. Denise is only part-time in the real estate
business and she managed to excel – she sold more than most experienced
full-time real estate agents in her very first year in the business. Also congratulations to John Zhang of Cedar
Street who received the “Beyond Excellence Circle Award" from ERA
Franchise Real Estate for top production. John was recently the focus of the National Association of Realtors –
who recently selected him and ERA The Norton Group as one of four offices
nationally as being diverse in agents that reflect the community. John was hailed as the One Million Member of
the National Association of Realtors and a TV crew was here few months back to
shoot a commercial about his work.

 You thought it was just a rumor but some of us at the News
heard it from various people around the city there really is a movement out
there to get rid of Alderman at Large Denise Provost – we heard some of those
people in the movement are former supporters as well as people who voted for
her.

 A new section of the paper will be starting up shortly
called “Square Talk” – from East Somerville to Teele Square and
every place in between all across the city, we will be giving you very specific
neighborhood information about what’s going on. If you live near any of the squares or hills and want to have something
printed, please let us know so we can put it in the right section of the paper.