Does Rudy Giuliani even know where Somerville is? Someone on his campaign staff obviously has some clue as to where our 76,000-plus population city is. The nation learned where the presidential hopeful stood on immigration when he recently threw Somerville’s name onto a list of opponent Mitt Romney’s sins. However, what really happens here in Somerville has been turned into a campaign ploy to make our former governor look bad and our city look like it is setting its feet against the forces of progress.

By George P. Hassett

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone is being accompanied by an armed police officer today after a supporter of an opposing campaign allegedly made threatening remarks against him, according to multiple sources close to City Hall.
  Lenny DiCicco, a volunteer with Richard J. Scirocco‚Äôs campaign to unseat Curtatone as mayor, allegedly said, ‚ÄúDon‚Äôt stand too close to the mayor this weekend,‚Äù to another person who reported the remark to Curtatone‚Äôs staff.

By George P. Hassett

The city’s first Italian-American alderman-at-large was the guest at the Aug. 17 contributors meeting for The Somerville News. Vinny LoPresti was an alderman from 1971 until 1975 and garnered the most votes of any at-large candidate in the city’s history, he said.

“Back then you had more people running for office and more people involved,” he said. “These days, I hear, there aren’t even primaries.”

LoPresti was one of 29 candidates in 1971, he said.

By George P. Hassett

Anthony Holloway, a Clearwater, Fla. police captain, will be the city’s next top cop starting in January, announced Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone at a news conference Friday.

Middlesex County District Attorney Gerard T. Leone and Attorney General Martha Coakley also attended the meeting and congratulated Holloway on his new post.

Holloway has been a cop in Clearwater since 1986 and said he looked forward to bringing the skills he learned there to Somerville.

“I want to be a part of the good things that are happening here,” Holloway said.

Former High School Headmaster Tony Fedele was very popular throughout his career and beyond here in Somerville Рeveryone is hoping that the concourse up at the High School will soon be named after him in his honor. Tony was so instrumental in starting the SHS Scholarship Foundation back in the late 80’s Рbringing everyone at that time together on the board. Over the years the foundation has given thousands of dollars in scholarships to hundreds of Somerville High students and has over $800,000 in the bank today. We support the city giving him this honor and hope that it’s on the fast track now that the Board of Aldermen have approved it.

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We heard from a source in the fire department that they responded to a call last week at a house in East Somerville that was filled with smoke. When the firefighters entered the smoke filled house, they found a family roasting a goat in their bathtub! We’ve heard of the old grille out on the porch or in the yard, but in the bathtub?

By Pam Rosenblatt

Artist Riki Moss wasn’t planning on calling Somerville home for too long, but more than a decade has gone by, and Moss is enjoying being a member of the local arts community. It was 1995 when she first came to Somerville.

‚ÄúI thought I‚Äôd just be here for a little while when I left Vermont,‚Äù said Moss. ‚ÄúBut it right away made me feel like (I was in) Brooklyn.  And I didn‚Äôt realize that I was nostalgic for Brooklyn.‚Äù

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and prior to Somerville living in Vermont, artwork and lifestyle have a bit of two places close to her heart. Living in Somerville reminds her of her Brooklyn days. And her art shows signs of Vermont, where she still has a cabin in the woods, even though she resides with her husband, Robert, in Somerville’s Brickbottom Artists Building.

By Doug Holder

Recently, at the Wilderness House Literary Retreat in Littleton, local poet, writer, journalist and educator Bob Clawson talked with a group of literature lovers about his friendship with the acclaimed Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Anne Sexton. Clawson showered his audience with his fascinating anecdotes and experiences with Sexton, who wrote “To Bedlam and Part Way Back,” among other critically acclaimed poetry collections.

Clawson said that he was teaching English at Weston High School in 1963. He had students read the works of contemporary poets to stoke the interest of his young charges. While reading Sexton’s poem “Menstruation at 40” in the faculty room, the gym teacher asked Clawson if he was a fan of Sexton. When he answered in the affirmative, the teacher said he was a friend of the poet and he would introduce him to her.

Police see a possible connection

By George P. Hassett

House break-ins in Somerville are on the decline because thieves are turning to cars as an easier way to score valuable electronic devices such as GPS devices and iPods, according to Police.

There were 465 larcenies from motor vehicles between Jan. 1 and Aug. 5. During the same eight months in 2006, 242 vehicle break-ins were reported. Both years are hefty jumps compared to 143 during the same time period in 2005, according to official Somerville Police Department crime statistics. From 2005 to now, that is a 225 percent increase and is possibly connected to a 34 percent decrease in residential burglaries over the same time span, according to Somerville Police Capt. Paul Upton.

By George P. Hassett

This week, an eBay shopper from Somerville bought the world’s most expensive bottle of beer for more than $500,000. And now the bottle is on its way to the city, bringing with it a story steeped in history.

An eBay shopper going by the name of “v00d004sc0re” bought the bottle, brewed in 1852, for the hefty price of $503,300 in the online auction. The buyer’s information is private, but he does say he lives in Somerville according to eBay profile. An email was sent to the auction winner through eBay’s Web site, but there was no response by The Somerville News presstime.

By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(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 is Deval Patrick country. We gave him one of his biggest margins in the state. We support his effort to forge a new partnership with cities and towns. We back his agenda to promote economic growth by supporting transit-oriented Smart Growth development. We’re with him all the way on his campaign to improve health care coverage and manage health care costs. We’re in full agreement with his proposals to invest in education at the primary, secondary and college levels. He’s our guy.

So you can imagine my dismay to have the Patrick administration propose a change in regional transit funding that might result in another two-year delay in the scheduled 2014 completion date for the Green Line Extension from Lechmere through Somerville and on to Medford. As I understand it, the state wants to enlarge the pool of money for regional transit improvements by qualifying for more federal grant money. The Green Line extension is their best shot at getting federal money, so that’s the project they want to bring to the U.S. Department of Transportation for approval.