Have you seen our web site? Since we launched it back in March, www.thesomervillenews.com has had more than 15,000 hits. The site averages more than 100 hits per day and spikes to more than 400 hits on the first and third Wednesdays of the month – when the paper hits the streets. Roughly half of our web traffic is from regular visitors to the site and the other half is from people all over the globe using search engines like Goggle and Yahoo to find information about the city we love and the stories we tell about her. What’s the number one search query? No question: IKEA.

OK – last issue we here at Newstalk made a small error in dates (hey it doesn’t happen that often), but we’re big enough to admit it and own up to our mistakes. Seems like we gave the date for Senator Charlie Shannon’s Annual Boston Harbor Cruise for the 4th of August – the correct date should have been tonight, August 18th at Rowes Wharf. We hear it’s another sell out for the ever-Popular Senator Shannon again this year.

The Mayor’s Annual Elderly Picnic is being held today – with probably less donations than usual. It seems that letters for donations from the local business community went out later than usual. Hopefully in spite of that, the Elderly will have a great day. We also got the advance word from sources that not one Senior will be towed like last year – when Mayor Dorothy was in charge.

There are plenty of rumors about the “cheapest” Alderman on the Board, who won’t part with any money from her hefty war chest. We hear it over and over again about how much money each of the Aldermen give over time – every one of them except the present President of the Board – Denise Provost. Quite often, the aldermen are called to help out at various charitable events around the city and each one has given – except Denise. In somewhat of a defense for Denise, we don’t believe it at all – we believe that she gives her friends at the Mystic “My View” Task Force money to help them file their silly lawsuits. Speaking of being cheap, rumor has it that one of the school board members donated a USED item to the Elderly Picnic – we heard that it was Ward 3 School Committee member Roberta Bauer. Now maybe she’s cheap, or it could be that her husband was just trying to clean up the house, or maybe re-gifting is back in style?

If you’re a candidate for public office, it only makes sense that you would let the voters know a little bit about who you are – to get their attention and give them a reason to vote for you – that only makes sense. And on the flip side, as voters, we want to know about who the candidates are, what they’ve accomplished – give us a reason to vote for you. The most important thing we would think you’d want to get across to voters is that you’re not just a one-issue candidate for a job that is multi-faceted and deals with a wide range of issues all across the district. We heard that Carl Sciortino – who is running for State Representative – has something in his past that he should tell us more about – we heard through the grapevine that he and his partner were in the papers last year demonstrating at the Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston during Mass. Someone suggested to us that we do a Google search using his name – we did, and so should you!

We keep on telling you that we’re planning on printing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the Mystic “My View” Task Force members. We are very happy to announce that we have one list of names and are working on a second. Instead of putting Mayor Joe on the spot and asking him where IKEA and The Christmas Tree Shop are – we think all those interested should contact Lanny Evarts of the Ten Hills – who claims to represent “the residents” of the city – he is the one who filed the lawsuit to stop the redevelopment of the Mall. We think his number is listed – give him a piece of your mind.

Another rumor we hear out there on the streets is that Freddy Federico of Sonny’s Deli in Union Square is planning on running for Registrar of Probate against our favorite son “Video Boy”. Hey we figure why not – most of the current Registrar’s employees hang around there all morning while they’re supposed to be on the clock anyhow. Who would know more about the Registry and its hacks than Freddy?

Congratulations to the many people who showed up and played in the 1st Annual Softball Tournament last month in memory of the late Carlos Demedeiros. There were many friends and family members that were on hand to show their appreciation – it was a great success – and hopefully next year it will be even bigger.

More bad news for those bad boys at the Somerville Boxing Club – we were told that there’s a warrant for arrest out for boxing manager Norman Stone – who failed to show up at the Somerville District court last week. Norman is facing charges of making threats, amongst other things. He’s tried through various sources to have the person who made the charge drop it, to no avail. As they say Norman, see you in court.

With all the new pseudo-political groups popping up all over the city, we figured we would give another crash course on how to set your own up. First, you don’t need a membership list if you’re political and not non-profit. Second, you don’t need to advertise your meetings – this might cause outsiders to disrupt your plans. Thirdly, you can have as many or as few people as you’d like as members, so you can have the meetings on your back porch if need be. Finally, you can announce yourself as the “spokesperson” and then fib (just don’t fib too much) about how your group got to endorse a certain candidate for public office. Sounds a little too Bolshevikian to us, Vladimir. We miss the old group names like “The Somerville Collation for Better Government”, “Somerville United Neighbors” or even the Ward “Civic Associations”. Watch to see how many of these loggerhead groups starts proclaiming their endorsement of candidates in an effort to move into the political arena.

Meet the challenger for the 27th Middlesex state rep. seat, Dane Baird, for friendly conversation Aug. 19, at 42 Liberty Avenue in Ward 6. Baird said he looks forward to meeting with voters and conversing, while they enjoy free lemonade and cookies. More information is available at (617) 733-4110.