Somerville Police are seeking to identify the suspect who robbed a local gas station.  On July 12, at about 8:45 p.m., the Sunoco Gas Station at 541 Broadway was robbed at knifepoint.  The store surveillance video shows the suspect arriving in a black sedan, possibly a Nissan Maxima, with a towel covering it’s license plate, then entered the store and walked up to the counter, where he spoke briefly to the clerk.  The suspect then went back to his car briefly.  He then came back into the store where he calmly walked behind the counter, pulled out a knife and demanded cash.  The suspect fled the store with an undisclosed amount of cash, jumped into the car and fled toward Medford.

By Jim Clark

Employees at the Somerville Avenue Target store became suspicious of a customer while observing him on their security camera system last Sunday.

The man had reportedly entered the store and walked directly to the vacuum cleaner section where he placed two of the same model vacuums into his shopping carriage. Store personnel state that this particular type of vacuum is a commonly stolen item.

By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

If you paid a company thousands of dollars a year each and every year, you naturally would expect to get attentive customer service as part of the transaction. After all, you are a good customer. That company ought to place a high value on your patronage.

City government is no different. If you live in Somerville, you either pay local taxes directly or through your rent. You get a lot for those taxes – schools, roads, public safety, parks, public records, etc. Yet it is still a sizable chunk of money. In the business of municipal government, you are the customer and you deserve high quality customer service.

Best-selling fantasy author George R.R. Martin. - Photo by Andrew Firestone

By Andrew Firestone

Somervilliens always seem to be on the right side of the literary tracks, but this last Tuesday, July 12, a few of them absconded to Burlington where best-selling fantasy author George R.R. Martin held court. Partly in celebration for the release-day of his fifth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance with Dragons, and partly due to his ever-rising fame from the HBO television adaptation, Game of Thrones, these lucky ‘Villens joined over 1,000 fans outside the Barnes and Noble booksellers to meet the famous author and come away with a signed copy of his book.

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library will grace the Music on the Park Stage, Seven Hills Park, as part of the ArtBeat festivities on Saturday, July 16.

By Carrie Stanziola

If you are looking for a fun, inexpensive, and red-filled weekend, come to ArtBeat in Davis Square on Friday and Saturday. Expect to enjoy local talent including artists, craft vendors, musicians, and specialty performers. As some Somerville residents already know, each year ArtBeat is based around a different theme, this year’s being the color red. Saturday’s festival will commence with a Red Menace Parade that will feature beating red hearts, pirate puppets and fruit jugglers. Red-themed activities including plein art painting and the construction of a giant, red-scaled dragon on the Davis Square traffic island will take place.

By Andrew Firestone

Hut! Hut! Hike! Children of all ages flanked the field at Dilboy Stadium and trained in the summer sun this week, when Detroit Lions Offensive Tackle and ‘Villen through and through Gosder Cherilus held a free training camp for children aged 7-14. Sponsored by the Gosder Cherilus  Foundation with help from the Somerville Recreation Department, the week-long camp, held from 9 till noon, helped kids with their agility, catching, hitting and teamwork.

By Jim Clark

While working an undercover detail at the Boat House on Shore Drive last Saturday, a Somerville Police Narcotics Detective reportedly witnessed what he deemed to be suspicious activity on the part of an individual who was pacing around in the parking lot while speaking to someone on a cell phone.

Governor Deval Patrick signed into law the GIC Healthcare bill which included several key points of his own interest.

By Andrew Firestone

The long-discussed and highly controversial Group Insurance Commision Healthcare bill was signed into law Tuesday, July 12, after several months of debate. This bill gives cities and towns the opportunity to sign onto the GIC, thus lessening the total healthcare costs by $100 million across the state. Public labor unions had been wary, and many officials on the state and national level had spoken against curbing union rights. Governor Deval Patrick personally added four amendments to the bill, which were made to lessen costs on the citizens.

By William Tauro

Laptop computers, cell phones, cameras and thousands of dollars worth of fine jewelry were recovered during a Somerville Police Department sting and search warrant operation that took place at a residence in Everett.

By Harry Kane

On Tuesday the Teddy Bear Picnic took place at the Somerville Community Growing Center on Vinal Avenue. The community gathering encompassed a picnic, scavenger hunt, and a lesson about which plants in the city are edible. Each child brought a teddy bear to the picnic and searched the vegetation for different colored small plastic bears that had been hidden in the community garden.