Tonight, Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Arts for the Armory, the Somerville Climate Action and Rep. Denise Provost present a movie night with several short videos hosted by scientist and SCA member Jim Laurie on the power of natural systems and scientists, ranchers, and farmers that are restoring biodiversity and reversing current climate changing trends.

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The Somerville Community Game Show is this coming Thursday, January 18, 5-7p.m., at 165 Broadway in Winter Hill. Enjoy the Game Show opportunity of a lifetime! Be part of a fun and interactive experience learning about the results of the 2012 Youth Risk Behavior Survey taken by Somerville High Students. Light refreshments and a prize drawing will be offered.

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We hear that Ross Richmond, a “legislative aide” to current state Representative Tom Sannicandro of Framingham, is going to be running for the Ward 5 School Committee open seat. Looking him up, we see that he is from Brookline and that he does volunteer tutoring here at the Kennedy School, although we could not verify this through our sources at the Kennedy School. Maybe over the next few months we will see his profile card. We did hear that Rep. Carl Sciortino has talked him into running for the open seat. Carl is such a funny guy when it comes to other races, isn’t he? We’re interested in knowing what a “volunteer tutor” is, though. It sounds like a great way to give back to the community if your background is education or you just want to get involved, doesn’t it?

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The other candidate for School Committee in Ward 5 is Caroline Shea-Rosas, who is a PTA member at the Kennedy School, with one child attending and another on his way. She has lived here for the past nine years and is very involved in the community. Now, we heard this name two years ago. She was thinking about running then. We’re very glad someone like her is interested. Our sources tell us she’s a very likeable person and we hear she has a very energetic organization so far, and that her campaign manager is Diana Mathews. Maybe this Ward 5 race, both for Alderman and School Committee, will be exciting. There’s a lot more to come over the next several months. We wish all the candidates well and lets also hope that it spreads to the other wards and, in particular, the Alderman At Large race

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Our condolences to the family of Carmel T. Slattery who sadly passed away on Sunday. Formerly of Somerville for 30 years, Carmel was born and raised in Ireland and after moving to England came to the U.S, with her husband in 1960. She was also grandmother to our good friend Carmel Rogers here in the ‘Ville. She will be sadly missed.

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We suffered a big shock last week. We were very saddened to hear that well-known resident from East Somerville, Anthony (Tony) Ferrara, who sang at many a weddings and church services at St. Ann’s for many years, passed away. Our sincere condolences go out to his wife of 50 years, Janice, and the family. Tony was a great guy. He had a big heart and was always willing and able to help anyone who needed it. He will be sadly missed.

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Congratulations to the Carli family on the birth of their new addition to the family. Alexis Mae Carli, a beautiful baby girl 8 pounds 5 oz. 21.5” long, was born this past Monday. We wish them all the best and much happiness.

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We heard that the Health Department must have had a disagreement in understanding the law with the popular Italian restaurant superette on lower Broadway. They made them do away with their very well-known and popular self-serve buffet table of Italian specialty food items that everybody that goes in there for and simply loves, just because the display table that it was on was supposedly not up to code. We hope that they settle their differences soon and return the buffet with a new and improved up to code table so the residents of Somerville and beyond can continue to enjoy their awesome buffet selection.

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We heard through the grapevine that a not too recent episode of bullying happened, and that the person who was being bullied was told by Superintendent Pierantozzi “to get a thicker skin.” Both the child and parents were stunned by the remark, we hear. We’re stunned as well. With all the crap going on in the schools, the head of the School Department is saying this to a student?

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Speaking of the School Department, we hear that ten applications were reviewed and presented Monday night to the School Committee for candidates for Ward One’s vacant seat. The Superintendent’s office must have been busy reviewing all the applications. It’s an outrage, the elitist attitudes of some members of the School Board. In particular, we hear that School Committeeman Mark Niedergang from Ward 5 is leading this charge. For publicity, probably, since he has announced he’s running for Alderman. And the Superintendent’s office is to select who will represent Ward One. We hope that all the residents of Ward One tune in and watch the meeting and see how elected officials from other wards are going to tell you who will represent you on the school board. Won’t that be exciting? Or is it that the elitist School Board members know what’s best for Ward One?

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Here’s another mystery in the ‘Ville that people are talking about on the streets. It seems that last Wednesday there was supposedly a huge explosion like sound that we were told 911 operators got around a thousand calls about from concerned citizens. Does anyone know what or where it was?

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Here’s one for the book of idiots at its worst! We heard that some idiot called the Fire Department to report a person in the Mystic River under the Route 28 Bridge between Somerville and Medford. We heard that when rescue crews arrived they immediately sprang into action, put a ladder on the ice, crawled out to rescue the person that appeared to be clinging onto the ice for dear life. When they pulled him out of the water it ended up being a mannequin with a life jacket on that some idiot planted there as a stupid prank. If it was indeed a prank, it was plain stupidity. Putting police and firefighter’s lives on the line isn’t a joke! Was it some sort of a rescue exercise or a bad prank?

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We just heard some news from some very upset parents that the Kennedy School was put on lockdown for about two hours because of a threat by a parent who was allegedly going to cause some problems by trying to kidnap his child out of that school because of a nasty ongoing custody battle. This supposedly took place just a few days or so after that tragedy took place in Conn. What is making parents so upset is that they are saying they weren’t notified about the alleged threat and lockdown when it happened.

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Our condolences to the family of Helen Chrisis who recently passed away. Helen was a wonderful woman. She did a lot for the Greek Church and spent many years taking part in activities with the community. She was very dedicated and also sister to our good friend Charlie Goumas here in the ‘Ville!

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Happy 19th Birthday to Patrick Tauro, who is celebrating in the ‘Ville this week! Another Happy Birthday to little Matthew DiDomenico, who just turned seven years old.    Also, big time Happy Birthday to our good friend Bill Rogers down at the Yacht  Club.    Also, Phil Forsyth, who was born and went to school here and now lives in Texas. And  Happy Birthday to our good friend and a great guy, Ken Kotch, who owns his own photography company here. His work is known all over.

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Congratulations to our good friends Birdie and Ron Glejzer on their 58th wedding anniversary! They are both fantastic people and we here at The News wish them both 58 more happy years together!

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Congratulations are in order. Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz recently got engaged to be married to her long time boyfriend Andrew Kuller. We wish them both the best of luck.

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Congressman Mike Capuano announced on Facebook that he chooses not to run for Senator Kerry’s seat. He’s happy to serve the district as our congressman and wishes to stay there.

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Our condolences to the family and friends of William (Bill) Philpot of Winter Hill who recently passed away. Bill was very involved with St. Ann’s and a very popular guy in his neighborhood. Another nice guy who loved Somerville.