A  nucleus of Cambridge residents shared ideas for a proposed new senior network around Central Square at a meeting December 18 at the YWCA on Temple Street. Present for the photo were (l. to r.) Janet Ghattas, Officer Matthew Mahoney, Lita Newdick, Officer Daniel Burroso, Polly Allen, Bette Denich, Bob Woodbury, Sarah Boyer. (Also at the meeting but not shown: John Hand, Mary Holbrow, Marian Darlington-Hope.)

This was the second exploratory meeting to be organized on behalf of the project by Polly Wynn Allen and Janet Ghattas. A preliminary meeting in Cambridgeport (http://www.cctvcambridge.org/New_Senior_Network) took place earlier this month. A third meeting is tentatively set for sometime in January to accommodate those who could not attend the December meetings. read more...

Photo: Cambridge Action Forum officers David Lewis and Karen Carmean

“Every year we look forward to hearing what are the most important changes since last year,” Karen Carmean said as she opened the annual Cambridge Action Fund Forum on December 8. “What are you doing now, and what have been your biggest issues?”

Cambridge Action Fund, Inc. (CAF) is an organization of local businesses and individuals that contribute funds and volunteer services to help homeless people in the community. www.cambridgeactionfund.org
At this year’s Forum, four charities that receive money from CAF reported on the past year’s activities and their plans for the future. read more...

As Christmas trees go up, summer flowers blossom in local dooryards. A flowering crabapple is in full bloom at the corner of Pearl and Hamilton. Forsythia, geraniums and roses are opening nearby.

A weather headline today in boston.com says mild weather is expected to continue, with temperature as much as 15 degrees higher than normal today. This month has run about 6 degrees above normal, according to Charlie Foley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.

“It’s nice to know your neighbors.”

In a nutshell, that comment by Janet Ghattas summarized the rationale for a small but purposeful senior network that is starting to take root in the Cambridgeport/Central Square area.

Ghattas made the comment during an informal morning session in Polly Allen’s living room on December 8. (Photo, above, left to right: E. Denise Simmons, Polly Allen, Bette Denich, John Hand, Janet Ghattas)

A second meeting -- hopefully with additional participants from an area that includes Riverside, Area IV, Cambridgeport, and parts of mid-Cambridge -- will take place in Central Square next week, underlining the fact that the group seeks to include residents from all sides of the Square. This upcoming meeting is set for 4-6 p.m. on Monday, December 19 at the Cambridge YWCA, 7 Temple Street (between Mass Avenue and Bishop Allen Drive). read more...

 
Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General Nora Mann started her workday one morning in November by roasting a turkey. It had to be in the oven in her Arlington kitchen by 4 a.m. and done by 8 a.m., so she could drop it off at On The Rise in Cambridge on the way to her office in Boston.

Mann is the Deputy Chief of Non-Profit Organizations and Public Charities, a division of the Business and Labor Bureau in the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. One of Mann’s duties there is to oversee the state’s more than 23,000 public charities.

 
So where does cooking a turkey fit into that? read more...

After a break-in and assault on August 26, 2010, reporters kept a vigil at 220 Pearl Street (blue house at right).

The trial of Cambridgeport resident Marcos Colono, originally set for November in Middlesex County Superior Court, has been re-scheduled for April 26, 2012. Middlesex District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Cara O’Brien gave the information out in response to a phone inquiry.

Colono is charged with two separate but similar crimes in two Massachusetts counties: a break-in and assault of a father and son at the Pearl Street apartment on August 26, 2010 in Cambridge (Middlesex County), and an earlier break-in and assault of two young women at an apartment on Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton (Suffolk County) back in 2008. He was arrested here by Cambridge police on October 6, 2010 – more than 14 months ago. He has been in custody since then. http://middlesexda.com/news/press-release-archive.php?reference=124 read more...

  
Runners line up for the start of Sunday’s 3rd Annual Superhero Hallowe’en 5K Run/Walk.  Front row, l. to r.: the Teenage Schoolwork Sentinels team, award-winners in the Fantastic Four category – Stephen Reilly 254, Jordan Chabot 255, Scott Kaplan 257, and Tyler Kaufman 256 of Sharon, MA. Next to them are Steve Masterson 9590 of Allston (as Lorenzo, the Ninja Turtle); John Werner 9601, David Knight 9599, and Antonio Tugores 808 (as Zorro), all from Brookline; Calin Peters 9613 of Cambridge (as Underdog); and Steven Schuler 846 of Palo Alto, CA (as Redonk). Tugores, Masterson, Werner, and Schuler finished in the top ten men overall with gun times* ranging from 17:12 to 20:36.

by Mary Holbrow read more...