By George P. Hassett

A Dorchester crack dealer with an “obvious dental issue” was arrested in the Burger King parking lot on Somerville Avenue Saturday with 35 bags of crack cocaine, police said.

Michael Johnson, 52, was identified to police as a crack cocaine dealer suffering from an acute dental issue, police said. During the investigation, he was contacted and an order was placed for crack cocaine, police said.

Somerville Police Officer Dante DiFronzo was cleared in the fatal July shooting of a woman who had stabbed him and two other officers after an investigation by the Middlesex DA's office.

New details emerge in death, triple stabbing

By George P. Hassett

A Somerville police officer who shot and killed a 33-year-old woman has been cleared in an investigation launched immediately after the shooting by Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone.

Dante DiFronzo shot and killed 33-year-old Carol Kingsley after Kingsley stabbed three officers and set a fire inside her home. Kingsley died from one gunshot to the head, according to the investigation.

By George P. Hassett

A 15-year-old Somerville boy was arrested for kicking down a basement door and stealing a $600 bicycle on Aug. 16.

The boy allegedly kicked down a door on Heath Street and stole a blue mountain bicycle, police said. As he fled from the owner, who heard his basement door being forced in, the boy took a big fall off the bike on to the pavement, police said.

By George P. Hassett

Two Somerville teens were arrested Aug. 20 for allegedly attacking an 18-year-old man with chains and a windshield wiper on McGrath Highway.

The boys, ages 14 and 15, allegedly ran towards the victim as he waited for a bus on Washington Street under the McGrath Highway underpass. The driver of the car, a gray sedan with the back window punched out, yelled to people on the porch of a nearby residence to get in their house.

~Photo by William Tauro

~Photo by William Tauro

By William Tauro

A little over a month after the Somerville Public Safety building/Police Station flooded and destroyed three quarters of its police cruisers, Wednesday submerged police cruisers are towed out of the re-flooded police lot again.

~Photo by Ashley Taylor

Proposed tenant faces resistance from residents, city
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By George P. Hassett

“We can do better,” said Ward 4 Alderman Walter Pero at a planning board meeting Tuesday. “The Green Line is coming.”

These days we’re all angry – whether it’s rallying against overspending or local folks tired of corruption and double dealing on Beacon Hill – we can all feel the outrage, regardless of party affiliation or personal politics.

Strike up a conversation about politics or policy and you’ll hear some variation of, “Throw the bums out” – and in some ways there is nothing wrong with that sentiment.

The only thing wrong is when it ends with just rhetoric. In America, complaining about the elected officials who get close to free health insurance for life is a good start, but we can do more.

Today is the last day to register to vote or change your party affiliation so you can vote in the Primary on September 18. As always it’s very important to vote but especially now in the economy we are in, this is your opportunity to send a message.  We encourage everyone old, young, new to Somerville or long time resident to vote. It’s so very important to get out and register.  City Hall is open until 8 p.m. today Wednesday, go through the doors on School Street on that floor is the election department, two lovely ladies are there waiting to register you and answer your questions.
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ProjectMUM floor. ~Photo by v vansant

ProjectMUM wingsthings. ~Photo by vvansant

Somerville’s annual intergalactic dance party returned Saturday night as Project MUM took over the space under McGrath Highway to pay tribute to George Clinton & the P-Funk Mothership. Hundreds of dancers in their best Funkadelic space attire boogied to funk spun by DJs Flack, Wayne & Wax, Axel Foley, Pace and Brother Cleve. The usually vacant urban space underneath a highway overpass was transformed by out of this world lighting (and disco ball) by Todd Lewis Sargent, a video space mashup by VJ Dziga, and the return of last year’s Space Girls and Alienettes, led by Carey Foster and Peneny Pinnette.

- Photo by William Tauro

By George P. Hassett

Fire officials are estimating $650,000 in damage after a three alarm fire blazed through four apartments in a wood frame Houghton Street building on Monday.

Eighteen people were displaced after the fire and many required temporary housing assistance from American Red Cross volunteers at the scene, said Somerville Fire Chief of Operations Peter St. Claire.

The building was a four section wood frame row house with a mansard roof which included numbers 34, 36, 38 and 40 Houghton Street.