By George P. Hassett

A human trafficking task force busted an illegal massage parlor in Davis Square last week after a man who paid for sexual services at the parlor complained to authorities, police said.

Fu Shen Spa was raided Aug. 4 after undercover investigators reported prostitution at the second floor suite at 258 Elm St., police said.

(from the city of Somerville)

Mayor Joseph Curtatone  Invites you to attend the  Annual “Old Time” Senior Picnic.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010,  (Rain date Friday, August 13, 2010)  at Powderhouse Park from 11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Join us for the “30th Annual Mayor’s Senior Picnic.”

It’s a wonderful day of dancing, music, entertainment and prizes galore.

Photos by Dave Krugman

Party celebrates paper in all forms
*

Jewelry by Project Have Hope

By Ashley Troutman

Union Square Main Streets is celebrating the summer with a paper party. On August 14 from 3 to 7 p.m., a specialty craft market will be in Union Square featuring origami, paper maché, framers, bookbinding, silk-screening, comics, and more.

Main Streets Executive Director Mimi Graney co-coordinated the event. “I’m looking forward to seeing paper in all its varieties, textures, colors, and shapes,” Graney said.

Weinberg Design, White Sparrow Bindery, and Albertine, Repeat, and Union Press, are just a few of the participating vendors. The Boston Paper Collective will attend, and demonstrate how to make handmade paper. Project Have Hope will display their handmade paper bead jewelry, and donate a portion of the proceeds to families in Uganda.

On The Silly Side By Jimmy Del Ponte

(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.)

Do you know who Snooki and Pauly D are? How about some dude known  simply as The Situation? They are the supposedly real life characters on the MTV smash hit, Jersey Shore.

Of course, Happy Days’ Arthur Fonzarelli was the first one to come up with a nickname beginning with “the.”  Give me The Fonz over The Situation any day. The Fonz never removed his leather jacket and flaunted his abs. They never had to bleep The Fonz out.

By Julia Fairclough

The art of cocoa bean cultivation by the Olmec Indians dates back as far as 1500 BC. Thousands of years later, the only producer in the United States of 100 percent stone ground, organic chocolate continues to thrive right here in Somerville.

Taza Chocolate, founded in 2006, will open its new factory store on August 18, which co-founder and chocolate maker Alex Whitmore boasts is one of the few chocolate factories in our region. To celebrate the grand opening, Taza is selling gift certificates (or “Taza dolllars”) in ten dollar increments.

"Bella Figura" - Lorenzo the CAt photo by Joann Biondi

Bring cat food to pet inspired art show at Nave gallery Friday Sixteen artists share art works inspired by their pets at a new show in Somerville this month. The price of admission should be easy for an animal lover: donated cat food for a local cat adoption shelter.

The Nave Gallery is presenting little critters – a mix of video, painting, pen and ink, photography, and mixed media installation creations inspired by their beloved pets. The opening reception is Friday and it runs until August 29. “Come have breakfast with Ginger, a Golden Retriever with the best of table manners, in a video by Barb and Scott Withers, take time to study Zehra Khan’s intense 91 inch pen drawing entitled “The Beastiary”, and you can’t help smiling when you see Lorenzo the Cat in his latest dashing outfit as photographed by Joann Biondi,” said V Van Sant. The show runs until August 29.

Part 5: Union Square
*

By William Shelton

(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.)

Union Square is a classic example of how a neighborhood commercial center declined, and how a determined group of partners can bring it back.

The Square got its name by being a Civil War recruiting center for the Union Army. Adjacent to the Boynton Yards meatpacking district and a short distance to Assembly-Square and Brickbottom factories, it thrived as Somerville industrialized.

The process to pick Somerville’s next police chief is nearing its final stage.

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and other city officials last week began the first of four visits to the police departments and agencies of the final candidates with a trip to Washington, D.C., where candidate Thomas Pasquarello works as special agent in charge and area police director of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.