By William C. 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.)

A statement may be factually accurate, but not true. I may say that you have a hysterical fear of water, but I don’t mention that you’re on top of your house, praying for rescue from a rapidly rising flood. The first fact accurately conveys one meaning. Adding the second fact radically changes the meaning.

Off The Shelf by Doug Holder

When a publicist from Harper Collins in New York City emailed to see if I wanted to review Mark Doty’s new poetry collection: ‚ÄúFire to Fire,‚Äù I was on it like the proverbial hornet. Doty is high on the top shelf of American poets, a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Whiting Writers Award and the U.K’s T.S. Eliot Prize. His poetry has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Ploughshare, Prairie Schooner, and many other well-regarded literary journals. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Ingram-Merrill Foundation, as well as the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. In his new collection Doty peppers his work with beautiful studied images, and haunting apparitions he spies in the most unlikely of places. Doty has an astute ear for music, he can smell death’s most subtle odor, and he can explain to you what you have been just dying to articulate. To be honest, few of the poetry books I get to review are dyed-in-the-wool page turners. But Doty’s is hands down. I interviewed Doty recently for The Somerville News.

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.)

Easter was a special time in my family because I had an Uncle Chick and an Uncle Bunny. Really! I used to love telling people that. It was that kind of holiday when we got new shoes and new clothes. I remember it was a struggle because my parents never liked the suit jackets I liked – I ended up wearing some dumb looking thing that I hated. The trip to Anderson-Little in Medford was a pain in the butt – the only good thing about it was that we always went to Howard Johnson’s on Wellington Circle when we were done. We’d pile into my father’s old Rambler American and take the drive to hell – it was an hour of trying on hideous suit jackets that made me look like an Italian version of a mini Wally Cleaver.

By Mia Lamar

The neighborhood surrounding Foss Park is at odds over recent calls to have the Foss Park pool house mural repainted. Peter Ungar, chairman of the Foss Park Neighborhood Association, said he has experienced backlash and even some “threatening” phone calls after he initiated a community discussion over whether the mural should be repainted.

The phrase “grease the skids” is an unfortunate one to use when discussing municipal business. Here in Somerville, it brings up decades-old memories of federal prosecutors playing audio tapes of local politicians demanding bribes and kickbacks.

But the phrase used by a NextG employee to describe how the company gained favor with the city is not the most disturbing piece of their proposal to put more than 3,000 feet of wiring through the city.

No the “grease the skids” comment made in an internal email accidentally released to the Lynn Department of Public Works Director seems to be nothing more than a poor choice of words. It simply referred to the company expressing a willingness to support a community program such as the Sunsetters if they are allowed to do business here.

By Joe Lynch

(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.)

Somerville voters adopted its city charter, which established the basic form of government upon its incorporation as a city in 1871. Back then, we had only 4 wards and elections for Mayor and Aldermen were held every year. By 1934, the population of the city had exploded to well over 100,000 residents. Our form of government still consisted of the executive position of Mayor and the legislative body called the Board of Aldermen. By then the city, by charter change, had been divided into seven distinct wards, we added four aldermen at large positions, and had already changed our election cycle to every two years. More routine maintenance items have been performed on the city charter over the years. We’ve deleted provisions of the charter that are no longer needed, we’ve added provisions necessary to adapt to our ever-changing current and future municipal needs and desires. But over the last 75 years, we have not revised, nor even had a significant widespread public discussion about, our charter and how our form of government is constructed.

By Hilary Dyer

Somerville’s immigrant community, and their supporters, met at a Brazilian restaurant on lower Broadway last week to launch a campaign to make Massachusetts a ‚Äúsanctuary‚Äù state.

Welcoming Massachusetts is a statewide initiative striving to deliver more rights to immigrants, regardless of their legal status. The coalition was formed in October 2007 by community leaders in greater Boston in the wake of high profile immigration raids in international neighborhoods and heightened animosity towards immigrants throughout the country.

By Keith Howard

With the help of a Somerville democrat, Congress is taking steps to restore public faith in the government.

The passage of House Resolution 895 will give the Office of Congressional Ethics, a newly created body within the House, power to investigate ethical violations of its representatives, delegates, officers and employees.

The six-member board-split equally between Republican and Democratic appointees-will be able to investigate any House member, as long as at least one board member from each party agrees.

‚ÄúBasically the presumption is that everybody in Congress is here to protect our friends. That’s just not the case. That’s never been the case. I think public presumption is that it is,‚Äù said Congressman Michael E. Capuano, who lead the effort.

By George P. Hassett

For the second time in three weeks a well-known Somerville lawyer rejected an agreement that would place him on probation for his role in the death of a 22-year-old Tufts student.

Frank Privitera is scheduled to go on trial April 29, charged with negligent motor vehicle homicide for a November 2005 traffic accident that killed Boryana Damyanova, who had come to Somerville from Bulgaria to study international relations.

On Tuesday, Privitera’s attorney Michael Hanley told Judge Maurice Flynn he was ‚Äúone millisecond‚Äù away from reaching an agreement that would resolve the case. Privitera, Hanley said, was ready to agree to pre-trial probation and a five-year loss of his driver’s license but had one concern: he wanted the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office to state in writing to the Registry of Motor Vehicles that they had no opposition to Privitera retaining his right to drive in the event of an emergency.

Another so called big mystery or rumor has been floating around the city now for some time but lately it’s getting some heavy steam – apparently someone can’t keep his mouth shut (or maybe it’s supposed to be out there – we don’t know), but here it goes – it seems there are two projects in question – one is on Cross Street, a multi-unit apartment building that had the great big X the city’s ISD placed on it for such a long time until it was demolished recently. The other project is the Hudson Street apartment condos – both of these projects we heard are being run by three city and state employees! The first is the former MBTA safety employee who still currently works for the Somerville Housing Authority AND who also sits on the zoning board! The second is another former zoning board member, who recently was supposedly forced to resign from the board because of a conflicting situation (because he owns and operates a demolition company that was doing business with the city and who’s wife is currently working as Assistant Director at Council on Aging). The third partner we heard was also an employee of the SHA who also at the same time owns and operates and a very successful electrical company on the side.  And by the way, the moneyman we hear is the electrician’s uncle.