An alert District Fire Chief discovered a porch fire on Saturday morning, July 8 preventing what could have been a serious fire. District Chief Robert McCarthy, working out of the Highland Avenue fire station, smelled smoke around 930 Saturday morning while doing paperwork in his office. After investigating, McCarthy spotted smoke coming from a third floor, wooden rear porch at 271 Highland Avenue. Firefighters alerted the occupant of the fire and were quickly able to extinguish burning materials on the porch.

Planning on applying for CPA funding for a project on City or State land? Join the City’s Community Preservation Act Manager on Thursday, July 13, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Central Library Auditorium to learn more about the CPA application process and requirements for community projects on public land. Eligibility determination forms for community projects proposed on public land only are due to the CPA Manager by August 4, 2017, via email to kstelljes@somervillema.com.

Staffers at Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services are helping to raise awareness about elder abuse by wearing purple ribbons and sharing information about how to identify and report elder abuse.

By Norah Al-Wetaid and Nathan Lamb

Roughly 10 percent of older adults have experienced some form of elder abuse – but a recent study funded by the National Institutes of Health estimates that only one out of every 14 instances of elder abuse are reported to authorities.

Massachusetts Developmental Team qualifiers Josslyn Marujo and Rachel Dunlap, with coach O’Brien.

By Jen Scannell

Gymnastics and More proudly announced recently that two Level 4 Girls qualified to the Massachusetts Developmental Team.

Josslyn Marujo, of Somerville’s Argenziano School, and Rachel Dunlap, of The Lynch School in Winchester, were chosen to participate in a Massachusetts State Sponsored Clinic held in Reading on June 25.

School is out and the Red Sox are in full swing so LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Boston is celebrating America’s favorite pastime with a baseball themed weekend of events on July 8 and 9.

Yoga teacher and energy session worker, Cat.

By JT Thompson

Cat: in her late 30s, travels all over the world teaching yoga and offering energetic work. For the last 11 years, she has been based in Bali. Cat occasionally comes to Bow Street Yoga in Union Square to teach, give dharma talks, and be available for craniosacral-shamanic sessions and teacher trainings.

Cat is now in the process of relocating her home base back to the States, and is excited to be part of what she sees as a rising cultural transformation in response to the Trump phenomenon.

Zvi A, Sesling is a Somerville Bagel Bard and the new Poet Laureate of Brookline, Ma.

Click here to listen to the Podcast.

The mural in the roadway is a source of pride for some, and irritation for others who reside near this section of Hudson St.

By Erin Wade

Last summer, a community group came together to design and paint a Somerville Neighborway mural on Hudson St., a quiet one-way that runs parallel to Highland Avenue between Cedar and Central streets, like other groups have done on Willoughby Street and similar roads near Hudson where there is light traffic and cars move below the speed limit.

By Jim Clark

Police officers were dispatched to a Buena Vista Rd. location last week on reports of a man brandishing a knife.

Upon arrival, the officers spotted the man, later identified as Joseph Donovan, of Cambridge, walking towards their police cruiser as three individuals in the distance yelled, “That’s him!”