By George P. Hassett

The Tir na nOg, a popular local bar closed since March, is on the comeback trail with a reopening of sorts at a new location. However, the new venture still features the same old atmosphere that first made the bar a cult success.

“Toast the nOg” has combined the staff, music and regular patrons of the old nOg with the underground space of Toast, Sunday through Wednesday since the beginning of August. The fusion started when Elliott, newly unemployed since the nOg’s closing, would walk by a closed Toast on his way to the Independent restaurant. Toast was only open Thursday to Saturday and Elliott thought the open nights could be used as an opportunity to revive the nOg, he said.

Last weeks View from Prospect Hill was a commentary about how the “rumor mill” can produce some wild stories, disinformation and generally leave a destructive wake if we as people can’t separate the truth from fiction. What makes our jobs harder here in reporting regular stories is that people, for one reason or another, just love to embellish – sometimes even lie.

Take for example the front-page story in our paper last week about how the Mayor was allegedly threatened. The person who supposedly made the threat commented to us, on the record, about how he was vigorously supporting one of the mayor’s opponents and referenced the mayor as his “godson.” You wouldn’t mind, but there were enough people who have heard that this person was in fact the mayor’s godfather, that it seemed plausible enough to believe him – even without a comment from the mayor himself.

By Andrea Gregory

School bells will ring, morning announcements will be made and summer vacation stories will be swapped in the hallways as Somerville public schools kick off the school year today, Wednesday.

School officials say they are preparing for a great year with several changes being implemented and much in the works.

“We’re in great shape for the school year,” said Anthony Pierantozzi, superintendent of schools, the day before school started. “It’s a beehive of activity.”

By Andrea Gregory

The city is calling for a show of support, hoping residents and activist will join officials is  expressing the urgency and the need to bring more public transit to Somerville via the Green Line.

On Thursday, Sept. 6, the Department of Environmental Protection will hold two public hearings. During the hearings the DEP will collect public input on the project. The comments will be in response to the latest Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) status report with regard to the State Implementation Plan (SIP), and the latest proposal to delay the project for two more years.

Those folks who read Newstalk and got their tickets to “Somerville Night at the Red Sox” this past Saturday 9/1, from Bob Publicover and the Committee For A Response to Aids, got a once in a lifetime thrill. The 100 people who were at the game got to see, in person, the first “no hitter” by a rookie in Red Sox History. We think Bob guaranteed 100 return ticket buyers for next year. It was a great game to be there.

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The Fourth annual “Somerville News Writers Festival” is set for November 11th at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway Theater and you can go online to www.thesomervillenews.com and see the link to the site giving the names of the poets and writers appearing this year.

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By George P. Hassett

A week after federal immigration agents first swooped into Somerville to arrest alleged  gang members, uncertainty surrounds the operation as law enforcement officials refuse to release information and immigrants rights advocates make accusations of warrant-less searches and false arrests.

On Tuesday, Aug. 28, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents along with the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office and local police launched Operation 13, an action they say is intended to rid communities of specific wanted criminals affiliated with the dangerous Central American gang, MS-13.

By Pam Rosenblatt

It happened to Greenwich Village. It is happening to South Boston, especially Fort Point. Will it happen to Somerville?

“It” is gentrification, and it happens when low-cost, physically deteriorated neighborhoods experience physical renovation and an increase in property values, along with an influx of wealthier residents who push aside the prior residents. For years, once overlooked artist enclaves have become trendy communities with the original inhabitants eventually getting pushed out.

By Andrea Gregory

A new community organization is hoping for clear skies on Friday nights as it plans to launch open-air movie showings in September.

Under the Stars International Movie Nights is a celebration of mixed cultures and heritages in the community. The selection came via recommendations from local residents. While some residents may reminisce about home, hearing actors speak in their native tongues, other movie watchers will be welcomed into new experiences and have the opportunity to meet new people, said Carrie Dancy, executive director of East Somerville Main Streets, the events sponsor.

By George P. Hassett

When their friends were dying of drug overdoses, suicides and violence, Danny and Mark McLaughlin were frustrated. Now, just a few years later, they are working to address the pain and suffering they see in their city.

The McLaughlin’s, along with their brother Matthew and other neighborhood friends, started Save Our Somerville (S.O.S.) two years ago as a way to address the feelings of hopelessness among young people in the city. They say the group is meant to “speak for those who can not speak for themselves.”

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.)

That was a trick question. Sorry. No one can be objective.

It’s not that people don’t want to be objective. Many do. And many news sources insist that they are. But human beings don’t have the capacity to directly know the truth. If we did, salvation would not require faith.

Even when we see things “with our own eyes,” they remain our eyes. The process by which we “know” something involves taking in sensory information and giving it meaning. The human brain can’t do one without simultaneously doing the other. And the only basis that we have to understand and give meaning is every other experience that we have ever had and the meaning that we gave to them.