Photo left to right: Mayor Joseph Curtatone, new firefighters David Pantanella, Thomas Mederos and Jay McKenzie, Fire Chief Kevin Kelleher and Alderman Robert Trane.

By William Tauro

Tuesday evening Mayor Joseph Curtatone  swore in three new Somerville Firefighters with a ceremony that was held at City Hall.

David Pantanella, Thomas Medeiros and Jay McKenzie are the newest additions to the Somerville Fire Department that will be joining a fine group of individuals that protect Somerville residents on a daily basis from the unpredictable.
New firefighter Jay McKenzie received an extended honor from his mother Ret. Somerville Firefighter Cynthia Snow-Murphy who passed on her badges and Cap to her son Jay at the ceremony. McKenzie is the first child  of a female Somerville firefighter to join the department.

By Ashley Troutman

Listen to live music, eat local food, and win prizes at the Local Roots Food and Music Festival. This is Groundwork Somerville’s fourth year producing the event as a fund raiser for youth gardening and green community efforts.

The outdoor concert at the festival will feature several local musicians. Mark Santoro will sing his own songs and play a mixture of folk and country music with his acoustic guitar. Dylan Chace also sings and plays guitar, but his genre of choice is crybaby rock.

By Samantha Hutt

Challenger Tim Flaherty and incumbent state senator Sal DiDomenico faced off at a debate Tuesday Aug. 30, as their rematch campaign heads into its final stretch.

Both pushed for immigrant rights, environmental concerns and education but few issues divided the candidates in the debate, both Democrats.

By George P. Hassett

Ask about diversity in Somerville and you might hear about the city’s established Brazilian, Salvadoran or Haitian communities. Less visible but still thriving is a Punjabi community which worships, gathers and does business in Somerville neighborhoods.

On Friday, local Punjabi culture is celebrated with a festival featuring Indian food, music and film. Utsav! A Festival of Punjabi Culture, organized by the Somerville Arts Council and Somerville Community Access Television, kicks off Friday at 6 p.m.

- Photo by Donald Norton

By William Tauro

Police have two bank robbery suspects in custody. After allegedly robbing the Winter Hill Bank in Somerville the alleged suspects robbed a bank in Malden and were apprehended.

Somerville Police and the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force are seeking to identify the subject pictured above for robbery of the Winter Hill Savings Bank at 342 Broadway.  At about 1:00 p.m. September 8^th, the suspect entered the bank, passed a note to a teller demanding money and threatened that he had a weapon.  Suspect then fled the bank on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.  This Suspect is believed to be responsible for other bank robberies in the area.  Suspect described as a white male, 6-0 feet tall, thin build, age in the mid to late 20’s.  He was wearing a dark color cap, white tee shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers.

The Board of Aldermen met for more than two hours Tuesday with all members present and voting.

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By George P. Hassett
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O’Donovan calls out Nstar

Ward 5 Alderman Sean O’Donovan urged the public to attend a community meeting with Nstar engineers Wednesday, Sept. 8 in response to a string of power outages.

Tonight Wednesday, Sept. 8 at City Hall at 7 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chambers, Ward Alderman 5 Sean O’Donovan, who is also chair of the committee on Public Utilities, will host a public meeting with NSTAR present to explain recent outages here in Somerville that affected a lot of people in their homes as well as in many businesses for hours at a time.  The meeting is open to the public and Alderman O’Donovan is hoping a lot of people show up.