Governor Deval Patrick hit the campaign trail at Somerville’s Sabur restaurant in support of State Representative Carl Sciortino (D-Medford, Somerville) on Tuesday night. The governor praised Rep. Sciortino for his commitment to “working people, fairness, and economic opportunity” and said his “kindness and thoughtfulness” helped him understand how policy impacts people. Campaign officials say 200 people attended the event, including State Senator Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville, Medford), State Representative Paul Donato (D-Medford), and Medford School Committee members Paulette Van der Kloot and Ann Marie Cugno. Rep. Sciortino, who is being challenged by Somerville Alderman Bob Trane, is waging a sticker campaign for his third term, as he failed to collect enough signatures to get on the ballot because, according to the state rep, his nomination papers were stolen. Courtesy photo.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone announced today that two Medford residents have been arrested and arraigned in connection with the seizure of approximately nine kilograms of cocaine.

Heriberto Cruz, 43, and Patricia Taia, 29, were arrested Monday and arraigned Tuesday morning in Somerville District Court on charges of trafficking cocaine over 200 grams and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine over 200 grams. Somerville District Court Judge Maurice Flynn ordered cash bail set at $250,000 for Cruz and $1,000 for Taia.

According to the District Attorney, the seized cocaine’s street value is estimated to be worth more than $500,000. Cruz and Taia were arrested and the drugs confiscated after an investigation by Medford Police, State Police assigned to the DA’s PACT Unit, and the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Boston office.

“These were significant arrests that resulted in nine kilograms of cocaine being seized and taken off the streets of Medford. Illegal drug use and drug trafficking are serious offenses that are also often at the root of many additional crimes. Drug crimes have a tremendously negative impact and adversely affect the quality of life in our communities. We will continue to actively investigate and prosecute drug crimes and I want to thank the DEA and Medford P.D. for their cooperative effort in this investigation,” said District Attorney Leone.

According to authorities, an investigation resulting in a search warrant for Cruz’s Central Avenue home on Monday led to the seizure of seven kilos of cocaine from the house and two kilos from Taia’s SUV, which was parked in the driveway. Both Taia and Cruz were arrested and charged at that time.

The pair will be in court again on August 20, 2008 for a Status Hearing.

The Middlesex PACT Unit is a team of prosecutors and Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of cases of public integrity, anti-terrorism, corruption, technology, and high-level narcotics.

This case was investigated by State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s PACT Unit, the Medford Police Department, and the DEA. The Assistant District Attorney assigned to the case is David Solet.

- InsideMedford.com

Updated 5:37PM, Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Charlotte Contardo was a feisty member of the Greatest Generation. She joined the Navy as a young woman and served in the WAVES from April of 1944 to August of 1946. Charlotte, nicknamed Barney by her fellow servicewomen, achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer and earned the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal during her years of service.

After she was honorably discharged from her service in the Navy, Charlotte attended business school and earned a certificate for secretarial work. A Somerville native, Charlotte moved to Medford when she married Domenic Contardo. Domenic was also in the Navy but the pair did not meet until after the war at the famed Memory Lane restaurant. Charlotte and Domenic’s Medford home has been in the Contardo family since Domenic’s parents came over from Italy and all of Charlotte’s children and grandchildren have lived in the home at some point during the course of her long life.

Charlotte is survived by daughter Arlene Goldsberry and her husband Frederick, son Joseph Contardo and his wife Susan, son Daniel Contardo and his wife Debra, and grandchildren Allison and Melissa Goldsberry; Alexander, Laura, Rita, Jason, and Amanda Contardo; Jessica, Anthony, and Kaitlyn Contardo, and Jennifer, Brenton, and Cassandra Calhau.

Funeral from the Dello Russo Funeral Home, 306 Main Street, MEDFORD. Visiting hours Monday 4PM-8PM at the funeral home. Funeral mass celebrated at the Immaculate Conception Church, 10 Fellsway East, MALDEN, at 9AM Tuesday followed by burial at the Oak Grove Cemetery in MEDFORD. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend.

Eulogy by Laura Contardo, Charlotte’s granddaughter

Nana Charlotte was a stubborn and strong lady. She was always upbeat and loved telling stories, like of her time in the service, or the stories from growing up in the Depression.

She was an awesome grandmother. I feel really lucky to have spent so much time with her. Us grandkids always had so much fun over her house. She loved playing and spending time with us, even after Rita burned her with hot chocolate. From the trash bag “races” up and down the hallway, to always playing dress up with her clothes and jewelry- everyone always wanted the slips and the nylons for our hands. She’d let us take all the pillows, blankets, and furniture to make forts. Nana would even let us make them out in the side yard. And Nana let us take over her house for a few days so we could make the “Universe Gym.” I always loved when she let us play “chef” in her kitchen. We would mix anything and everything. Sometimes we convinced Nana to try it!

She was my favorite person. It’s extremely sad she’s gone. I will continue to be thankful for all the support she has given me in all my decisions, from studying automotive to joining the Army. She encouraged everyone to lead a full life, as she did. I have nothing but good memories of her. But she herself said she was ready to go. So I leave you all with the famous words that Nana Charlotte always used to say: “Here’s to you and here’s to me, but if perchance we should disagree, to hell with you and here’s to me!”

- Allison Goldsberry

A woman escaped with just minor injuries after her speeding car flipped over on 93 North in Medford at 2:00AM Thursday morning.

After being checked out at Massachusetts General Hospital, the woman, Cheryl Southern, 37, was transported to the State Police barracks in Medford early Thursday morning and then proceeded to her court arraignment, according to State Police.

Though State Police could not be specific about the charges, WHDH is reporting Southern has been charged with failure to stop, operating with a suspended license, and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

State Police say Southern was speeding on 93 North early Thursday morning when she presumably lost control of her 1996 black Oldsmobile Aurora, causing the car to roll over.

According to WHDH, Southern was fleeing police that attempted to pull her over on the Fellsway for speeding.  Southern then led police on a chase onto 93 North, where the station says her vehicle reached a speed of 95 miles per hour before crashing and rolling over after she swerved to avoid a motorcyclist.

The Medford Square Market will feature a new vendor this week, the Pustizzi Fruit Farm & Vegetable Ranch.

Some of the items Pustizzi’s will have include potatoes, summer squash, lettuce, swiss chard, kale, scallions, and beets.

Other vendors at the farmers’ market include Busa Farm, When Pigs Fly Bread, George the Olive Oil Guy, Oliver Deli, Panorama Bakery, La Bella’s Fine Foods, and The Greenest Bean.

In addition, Market Manager Nikole Roome-Torres says the market will begin featuring fresh cut flowers and potted plants the week of July 24.

The market, in its second season, is every Thursday from 12PM to 7PM on River Street in Medford Square.

More Accusations for Marzilli; Calls for his Resignation Increase

- Bob Sprague, YourArlington.com

As calls mount for Arlington’s state senator to leave office — through resignation or removal — neither of these outcomes is yet expected to occur, and the senator may well serve out his term, ending in January, as his attorney readies a stout defense despite new accusations by more unidentified woman. One of them named in a lawsuit is allegedly a former employee of the senator’s wife.

Republican lawmakers have asked state senator J. James Marzilli (D-Arlington), indicted July 1 in cases involving four women in Lowell to resign his seat. Media organizations have run unscientific public-opinion polls asking whether Marzilli should be removed from office.

Marzilli has issued no comment about any public matter after saying June 5 that he was not seeking reelection. He remains in office, but he has been treated at McLean Hospital in Belmont since June 5 for an unspecified bipolar disorder.

Could Marzilli be removed from office?

David Falcone, press aide to Senate President Therese Murray, declined to discuss it, but The Boston Globe reported July 16 that he wrote in an e-mail:

“‘The Senate has a process in place through its Committee on Ethics and Rules to discipline a senator if and when a legal matter is resolved.’”

The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating whether Marzilli should be removed from office. In a rare and unusual move, the state senate voted unanimously after Marzilli was indicted to launch an investigation, the results of which won’t be announced until after the criminal proceedings have been completed. The Ethics Committee will likely using information gleaned from court cases.

It is expected the timeline for these procedures will continue at least until Marzilli’s term ends at the end of the year.

If Marzilli resigns, his current staff will continue their work until the end of the term, Brian McNiff, press officer for Secretary of State William Galvin, said July 14.

Marzilli’s chief aide, Cindy Friedman, elaborated in an e-mail July 14:

“If the senator resigned, the office would remain open, and the staff would continue to work until such time as a new senator was sworn in and seated — in this case, Jan 4 or so of 2009.

“The staff would represent the 4th Middlesex constituency (as it is doing right now), respond to local issues, help with home rule petitions before the Senate, and provide constituent services.”

The political issues swirling around Marzilli raises one set of questions, but the legal ones raise others.

The July 9 indictment filed in Lowell Superior Court by an attorney for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. lays out charges in four cases involving women in Lowell, all occurring on June 3. They focus on the charge of “accosting,” which basically means that one person is bothering another.

In an interview with YourArlington July 11, Marzilli’s attorney, Terrence A. Kennedy, discussed how he plans to defend his client against those charges.

First, he made clear does not intend to use the fact that Marzilli has been undergoing treatment for a bipolar disorder as a legal defense. A member of Marzilli’s staff confirmed that general diagnosis to YourArlington June 21.

Kennedy said he does not know any specifics about the disorder, which can result in wide mood swings. Nor could Kennedy say whether Marzilli remains at McLean.

As to the indictments, Kennedy said he intends to fight them all, focusing questions at the basis of each in fact and as to constitutional issues they raise.

He said he “would not address the facts of the case with the press,” but that “at this point in time, as with any case, he will look at legal challenges to what is underlying indictment.”

He said he planned to use the implications in Commonwealth v. McCarthy, a 1982 decision that says a valid indictment requires, at the least, that a grand jury hear sufficient evidence to establish the identity of the accused and probable cause to arrest him.

Kennedy asked whether the facts supported bringing an indictment and whether all counts would survive a constitutional challenge. That is, he explained, could these charges, in which women are making claims about a man, be sustained if the roles were reversed – if the charges were brought by a man against a woman?

He complained about media coverage of his statements following his client’s July 9 court appearance in Lowell. He said he had provided more explanation than had been reported and that, in one case, it appeared that a reporter did not wish to know more.

He said that when he tried to further explain his legal approach to veteran Channel 7 (WHDH) news reporter Victoria Block, she called what Kennedy was saying “legal mumbo-jumbo.” He scoffed at her characterization, saying that as a lawyer, “this is what I do.”

In suggesting further legal strategy, Kennedy said he would also consider seeking motions to suppress statements. He called it a “normal process.”

Kennedy expects to seek motions before July 28, the next hearing in this matter in Lowell Superior Court, which is expected to be before Judge Paul A. Chernoff.

Earlier Arlington case to be heard July 30

In addition, there is the accusation made in April by an unidentified Arlington woman. In May, Leone, the district attorney, decided evidence was insufficient to bring an indictment. Since then, the woman has hired Wendy Murphy — an attorney known for her defense of women, including a noted role in the Duke University lacrosse team rape case — is pursuing the Arlington case as a civil matter

That case has been continued twice — the latest time to July 30 in Cambridge District Court.

Kennedy, a graduate of Boston College Law School, has been a lawyer in private practice for 25 years.

A Timeline: Calls mount for resignation, removal

The editorial drumbeat for Sen. J. James Marzilli Jr. to resign his office is rising across the region. In Arlington, it began June 4, the day after he was accused of accosting four women in Lowell when Advocate Editor Nicole Laskowski published a brief editorial asking him “to think of his constituents and consider resigning from the state Senate to get his life in order.”

The state Republican Party kept up the beat later in June with www.marzilliwatch.com, a site that included a poll that pushed the envelope. It asked whether Marzilli should be removed from office.

Five GateHouse newspapers took that cue in July and asked a similar poll question in five of its newspapers. On July 10, it reported that 80 percent of respondents in the unscientific poll had chosen “yes.”

By July 10, a Lowell Sun editorialist wrote that Marzilli “is exhibiting considerable selfishness by insisting on hanging onto his seat despite knowing he will never again participate in another debate or cast another vote.”

Then on July 13, veteran Boston Globe op-ed columnist Joan Venocchi called for Marzilli to quit. She wrote:

“His political career is over, the result of his own destructive behavior. Ceding the title — and salary — of state senator is now a necessary formality.”

On July 15, the Boston Herald reported that state Senate President Therese Murray, Democrat of Plymouth, rejected the call from Sen. Robert Hedlund, Republican of Weymouth, to strip Marzilli of his chairmanship, which pays $7,500. That is in addition to his $58,000 annual salary. Marzilli is co-chair of the Tourism Arts and Cultural Development Committee.

On July 16, The Boston Globe reported followed an initial online report on Wickedlocal that a civil rights suit alleged more women say they were vicitmized.

Items on the agenda include a resolution by Council Vice President Breanna Lungo-Koehn directing the city to paint lane lines on Salem Street in Medford Square to separate the three lines of traffic going through the intersection with Forest, Main, and High Streets; a resolution by Councilor Robert Maiocco asking the state for an update on the Green Line extension to Medford; a resolution by Councilor Paul Camuso asking the mayor to offer an early retirement incentive to municipal employees for fiscal year 2009; and a resolution by Council President Stephanie Muccini Burke asking for an update on the cell tower bid for Medford High School.

More…

See the entire City Council agenda for July 15

Find out when the next City Council meeting is

Past City Council coverage from InsideMedford.com

Tufts University’s focus on sustainability will go beyond the campus this fall when Tufts students, faculty and staff will have a chance to voluntarily finance green energy projects in Medford and throughout Massachusetts.

Tufts is the first university in the state to sign an agreement with Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to join “Clean Energy Choice On Campus,” a green energy development program coordinated by MTC, the state’s development agency for renewable energy. By supporting the development of energy from wind, solar, and other renewable resources, Massachusetts’ reliance on coal, oil, and other fossil fuels that contribute to air pollution and global warming is reduced.

For every dollar donated by individual members of the Tufts community the MTC will put aside a matching grant of two dollars. The MTC will divide the matching funds three ways: one-third will be available to Tufts to use for future alternative energy sources on campus like solar panels and wind turbines, one-third will be put into a fund for renewable energy programs in the city of Medford and the remaining funds will go into an account administered by MTC for green energy projects in low-income communities across the state.

The original contributions from Tufts will be used to purchase renewable energy credits (REC’s) from Sterling Planet, a nationally known developer and marketer of renewable energy. When a renewable energy facility generates electricity, it makes two things: electricity and REC’s. The certificates represent the environmental benefits of renewable energy.

“By purchasing REC’s, Tufts community members not only guarantee that the electricity they are responsible for is not generating greenhouse gas emissions, but by supporting clean energy they are also helping the university, Medford, and low-income families in Massachusetts. Students from many facets of the university, faculty and staff will work this fall to recruit 1,000 donations to the program, which will generate $30,000 in matching funds,” said Tina Woolston, project coordinator for Tufts’ Office of Sustainability.

Woolston said Tufts’ participation in the program is consistent with the school’s leadership role in making sustainability a campus wide priority and will help Tufts reach its goal to meet or beat the goals set by the Kyoto protocol.

- InsideMedford.com

Other Green Initiatives from Tufts

Tufts Praised for Energy Efficiency

Tufts Brings Green Ideas to the Table

Sophia Gordon Hall Tufts’ First Green Dorm

Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 7:00 PM
Tuesday, August 12, 2008, 7:00 PM
Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 7:00 PM
Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 7:00 PM

All meetings take place in the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, 2nd Floor, City Hall.

For further information, please contact the City Clerk 781-393-2425.

Council Meetings can be watched live on TV-16. Replays are Thursday at 7:00 P.M. and Friday at 3:00 P.M.

- Allison Goldsberry

State Senator Jim Marzilli (D-Arlington) pleaded not guilty July 9 to charges of accosting and attempting to sexually assault four women on June 3 in Lowell.

Sen. Marzilli, 50, has been charged with four counts of annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex, and one count each of attempting to commit a crime (indecent assault and battery), disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

“These are troubling allegations in which Senator Marzilli is alleged to have engaged in a string of highly inappropriate and sexually explicit acts against four separate women,” said Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone.

Sen. Marzilli was arrested in Lowell on June 3 after allegedly harassing several women, including attempting to grope a woman on a park bench.

In an interview with WBZ-TV, one of the victims said Sen. Marzilli harrassed her while she waited for a bus on Central Street in Lowell. The 59-year-old woman said Sen. Marzilli approached her after looking at her several times and said hello. The woman said hello “to be friendly,” and then Sen. Marzilli, who had begun to talk away, turned around and allegedly asked the woman if she was wearing underwear.

The woman told the senator she was in fact wearing underwear and called him a “dirty pervert.” She said she did not report the incident to police until the next day after she had seen TV news reports about the senator’s arrest.

Sen. Marzilli has been free on $1,500 cash bail since pleading not guilty at an arraignment in Lowell District Court on June 4. His lawyer, Terrence Kennedy, maintains his client is innocent and says he is suffering from a “fairly serious mental health condition.”

The senator checked himself into McLean Hospital in Belmont several days after his arrest. An aide to the senator, Cindy Friedman, recently said Sen. Marzilli is suffering from bipolar disorder.

In a rare and unusual move, the state senate voted unanimously after Sen. Marzilli’s arraignment to launch an ethics investigation against the senator, according to a story published by the State House News Service. The results of the investigation will not be announced until after the criminal proceedings have been completed, which could take years.

Sen. Marzilli, a state representative for Arlington and Medford for nearly two decades before being elected to the State Senate in a special election last year, has dropped his bid for re-election to his senate seat in the fall.