By Elizabeth Bernardi

With this month’s closing of the Star Market at 299 Broadway, many Winter Hill residents no longer have a grocery store within walking distance, and even more are anxiously awaiting some announcement of what will replace it on the property.

The Star Market, in a building dating back to the 1960s, announced in November that it would close at the end of January. Originally, the store was slated to close on Jan. 26, but that was moved up, as Theresa Pero discovered Saturday morning, when she and a friend tried to stop by the store.

By George P. Hassett

East Somerville residents will have the first opportunity to apply for 500 new jobs the IKEA in Assembly Square is expected to bring. Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone announced the local hiring agreement Friday.

According to the agreement, IKEA will contribute $100,000 toward an employment training program for Somerville residents and provide six computers to be placed throughout the city for use by residents applying for positions at the new store. 

By Tiffany Razzano

The disposal company responsible for picking up the city’s trash is being investigated by the attorney general’s office for allegedly refusing to pay its employees a fair wage.

At a Jan. 16 Finance Committee meeting Michael Lambert, chief of staff for Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, told aldermen that Assistant City Solicitor David Shapiro was present at a meeting where officials from the attorney general’s office confirmed an investigation into F.W. Russell Disposal was underway.

By George P. Hassett

Police have charged a fifteen year old juvenile from Somerville with three counts of making false bomb threat reports earlier this month. Capt. Paul Upton said officers tried to get an arrest warrant for the boy but were denied one.

By George P. Hassett

The celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at the Somerville High School auditorium Monday was almost post-race. Issues of racial equality were raised but more often speakers at the event encouraged the audience to keep King’s legacy alive through ending poverty, supporting worker and immigrant rights, offering help to recovering heroin addicts and honoring local measures such as the mediation program at Somerville High.

Keynote speaker Byron Rushing, a Democratic state representative from Boston, spoke of King’s work to unionize trash collectors in Memphis and maintained King’s legacy was one of radical change and revolution.

By George P. Hassett

A Highland Avenue bank robbed of more than $200,000 in May was again the scene of a heist tonight as a lone masked gunman entered at closing time, tied up four employees, took an undetermined amount of money and fled in a car belonging to one of the employees, according to police.

Word from the Somerville Police Station is that the new Police Chief Anthony Holloway is the real deal! According to sources, the new chief strongly believes and is strictly enforcing the chain of command rule. It’ said that if a patrolman is not called to his office by the chief himself – that he or she has no reason for ever stepping foot in this office at all – his orders are that if you have a problem, see your Sergeant, if your Sergeant has a problem then he can see his Lieutenant and then to the Captains and so on. Another rule is that he does not like liars, so if you lie, you’re fired! This all sounds great, but let’s see how long it lasts. Oh, by the way, that controversy over the Chief’s new car? It seems that a brand new Crown Vic was in the garage underneath the station at least a week before the story.

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New bank in town on Winter Hill – apparently to get a leg up on all the other local banks – they recruited the former manager of Citizens here in Somerville, who now is trying to take business away from Citizens. At the same time, we heard a strong rumor now that this bank ‚ÄúCiti Bank‚Äù, which just opened might be having major personnel cuts throughout the region and the newly opened bank and its staff are on the top of the list to be cut, unless they can convert some major business from the other local banks and fast. 

By Alix Roy

McIntyre and Moore Booksellers will close their doors in Davis Square when their lease expires on April 1. Diminishing sales and a changing consumer attitude towards used books have contributed to the store‚Äôs decision to downsize after almost ten years at their Elm Street location. No decision has been made as to where they will end up, although the owners hope to relocate within walking distance to ‚Äútry and remain as local as possible.‚Äù 

A 65-year-old Somerville woman was cited for failure to use care in stopping and a marked lanes violation today after she drove into the side of a Ball Square business.

The woman, whose name police are not releasing, struck a parked car, a hydrant, a streetlight and the Belgian Truffle House beginning at the corner of Broadway and Willow. She was treated for injuries and transported to a local hospital for further care, police said.