Suspect sought for arson attempt
By George P. Hassett

   Somerville police are looking for an 18 year old black male after his ex-girlfriend reported an attempted arson Saturday. The man allegedly splattered gasoline onto the hallway floors, attempting to spark it with a pack of matches, while threatening residents and holding a red gas can in his hands.

Former Romney official joins Mayor’s team
By George P. Hassett

   Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone announced Friday that economic development and environmental policy expert Douglas I. Foy has agreed to serve as a senior policy advisor on a wide range of urban development plans and projects in the city.
   Foy was appointed by Gov. Willard Mitt Romney as the first secretary of the State Office of Commonwealth Development, and charged with the task of linking agencies as diverse as transportation, environment, and housing. He was president of the Conservation Law Foundation for 25 years.

SCAT in national danger, rallies local support
By George P. Hassett

     Somerville Community Access Television (SCAT) is currently being threatened by bills in both the Senate and Congress that could undercut its funding and, thus, eliminate the 32-year old local public access station.
     The bill, s.1504, would, according to the bill, "eliminate government managed competition of existing communication service" and "provide parity between functionally equivalent services."
Essentially, the legislation would eliminate a requirement for telecommunications companies to pay franchise fees to local municipalities, said SCAT executive director Wendy Blom.

The View From Prospect Hill for the week of April 5

It is becoming increasingly dangerous to flush the toilet in Somerville.
The latest round of water bills have been issued and, predictably, residents are ranting and raving about exorbitant and incorrect billing, but the water superintendent says everything will be okay – so it will be…right? It’s their own fault anyway, who do they think they are flushing the toilet each and every time they use it? Washing their hands as they please? (By the way, those are not the views of the water superintendent or the administration, they belong solely to us.)

Reality Bites by James Norton for the week of April 5

Politics, paranoid people, retreads and staying above the fray

  I have no problem accepting who I am and how I act.  I‚Äôm just as paranoid as the next guy.  Being bi-polar is nothing next to the mania of local politics.  Maybe that‚Äôs why I feel so at home amongst the local politicos and always have?  Who knows.
  Mix a little bit of bravado, a certain sense of entitlement, a healthy dose of paranoia and just a dash (some people have more than others) of bullshit ‚Äì and you have the perfect candidate for office in Somerville.  This also permeates down through the food chain to spouses and children of politicians, the politician‚Äôs staff and then on down through the peripherally supportive all the way to the bottom ‚Äì yes, the infamous hangers-on ‚Äì or those whom I have lovingly dubbed in the past as the ‚ÄúPod People.‚Äù

Off the Shelf by Doug Holder for the week of April 12
Mauled Illusionist. Jean Monahan. ( Orchises Press. PO BOX 20602 Alexandria, VA. ) 22320 $15

     I first read Jean Monahan‚Äôs poems in ‚ÄúThe South End News,‚Äù a community newspaper in Boston. I was impressed with her work, and later a poem of hers appeared in one of the first issues of Ibbetson Street. Recently I booked her to read in the Newton Free Library Poetry Series, in the Fall of 2006. And later Monahan sent me her new collection of poems: ‚ÄúMauled Illusionist.‚Äù
     After selectively reading it, I was again reminded of why I chose her to read in the series. Her poetry has a sense of play, it slowly draws the reader in, and goes deep; behind the obscuring scrim of everyday life. In a very clever poem:  ‚ÄúHumpty Dumpty,‚Äù the poet taps into the thoughts of the fairytale character as he sits on his tenuous perch, and gets to some larger truths: ‚ÄúThough I straddle a wall between hope/ and sorrow, I find a kind of peace/ between them. / The fragile/ must be above it all, / self-contained, potential / cracked open by surprise ‚Äì and life -/ a lake within herself, a sun,/ The shell is delicate, but it will mend./ Nothing in this garden has not been broken./ Even the promises of Kings.‚Äù

Busted: Cops nab alleged drug dealer, seize 1,000 bags worth of dope
By George P. Hassett

   Somerville Police this week arrested a Rush Street man for trafficking narcotics, confiscating 18.4 grams of heroin, equivalent to one thousand bags, from the man.
    At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, police said they executed a search warrant at the home of Rafael Vasquez, 35, of 36 Rush St. Police said they entered Vasquez‚Äô apartment through an open front door and witnessed Vasquez ‚Äúlounging in his bedroom talking on a cellular phone.‚Äù Members of the Somerville Police Department Drug Control Unit had been conducting an ongoing investigating of Vasquez.

News Talk for the week of April 5

Lets see, Alderman Bruce Desmond is running for clerk of courts and Alderman Dennis Sullivan is no longer running for state Senate. Now word is circulating about another alderman running against newly elected Senator Pat Jehlen. We can’t confirm it but we think its either Ward 7 Alderman Bob Trane or Ward 5 Alderman Sean O’Donovan. Its still early so we expect to hear lot of rumors here.
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Actor Ben Affleck was in Somerville staking out future places to shoot his next movie. He must like this city because he was also seen having lunch at the Paddock on Pearl Street a few weeks back.   
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The local city and ward democratic party members met last week at the VNA, the guest speaker was State Treasurer Tim Cahill who handled himself very well when attacked by some of the local politicians who wanted to put him on the spot for the lack of money delivered here to Somerville from the Lottery. Treasurer Cahill was very good in his defense, some observers there said he looks like potential Gubernatorial material, and he‚Äôs someone to watch.