Around Town

Group Creating Community Fridge in Watertown Where People Can Take or Leave Food for Free

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A community fridge, where people can get fresh food and canned items or leave donations, will soon be available in Watertown. These types of resources have been around for a few years in other communities, and more have popped up in response to the food insecurity caused by the COVDID-19 pandemic. A group in Watertown has set out to create a fridge in town, and have already secured a spot and have a fridge ready to go. Watertown residents will soon have an alternative if they are in need of food, or seek to donate items, said Sophia Suarez-Friedman, a member of the Community Fridge Steering Committee, as well as Community Coordinator of the Watertown Mutual Aid Network, funded by the Watertown Community Foundation. “It is a take what you need, leave what you can kind of mutual aid,” Suarez-Friedman said.

Around Town

Ode to Russo’s and a Longtime Employee from His Two Daughters

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Phil Amatangelo worked at Russo’s market for nearly 50 years. The news that Russo’s market will be closing hit many people hard, and sparked plenty of memories. None more so, perhaps, than for a pair of daughters of a man who worked at the Watertown institution for just short of half a century. Anne Korte and Susan Amatangelo shared just a handful of memories of their father Phil Amatangelo with Watertown News. The Italian immigrant settled in the Boston area and his ties to the Russo family go way back, said Anne, who lives in Watertown.

Boston Pride

Q&A: Watertown Hockey Player Hopes to Win Back-to-Back Titles with Boston’s Women’s Professional Team

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Boston PrideBoston Pride defender Lauren Kelly signed to play her fourth season for the pro women’s hockey team. season 6 headshot

Watertown’s Lauren Kelly will return for her fourth year playing with the Boston Pride, the reigning champion of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL). Recently, the Pride announced Kelly would return to be part of the team’s 2021-22 roster. The Boston Pride are a professional women’s ice hockey team and are one of the NWHL’s four charter franchises. In her three seasons in Boston, Kelly has played 48 games on defense, scored five goals, and added 14 assists, including two in the playoffs.

Homepage Featured

State Board Approves Design of New Watertown High School

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Ai3 ArchitectsA rendering of what the new Watertown High School could look like. The view is from Common Street. The design of the new Watertown High School got the endorsement of the Massachusetts School Building Authority on Wednesday. Superintendent Dede Galdston sent out a letter saying that the MSBA Board of Directors unanimously supported moving the WHS project to the schematic design phase. “At this time, the design team, the OPM, and the School Building Committee will prepare for the next big milestone, the Board approval of participation in our project,” Galdston said in a letter to school and town officials.

Homepage Featured

Watertown Schools Opening In-Person, With Mask & Testing Requirements

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The opening of school in Watertown comes at a time when the cases of the Coronavirus are on the rise. In response, the School Committee voted to approve COVID-19 protocols for the 2021-22 school year on Monday night that includes requirements for regular testing of students and for masks to be worn when indoors. Some of the rules are the same as those that had been in place when school ended in June, said Watertown Superintendent Dede Galdston, while others have been changed. There will also be a shift in early October. School Committee Chair John Portz thanked the Watertown Public Schools staff and others who put together the COVID protocols.

Boston Federal Court

Watertown Father, 2 Sons Charged with Avoiding Taxes on Millions in Lottery Winnings

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The following announcement was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts:

A father and his two sons were charged yesterday in connection with a “ten-percenting” scheme in which they allegedly cashed winning Massachusetts state lottery tickets on behalf of the ticket holders to avoid taxes on the winnings.   

Ali Jaafar, 62, and Yousef Jaafar, 28, both of Watertown, and Mohamed Jaafar, 30, of Watertown and Waltham, and were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of filing false tax returns. According to the charging documents, the defendants conspired with others to purchase winning lottery tickets from the actual winners for cash, at a discount that was typically between 10-20 percent of each ticket’s value, thereby allowing the ticket holders to avoid reporting the winnings on their tax returns – a scheme commonly known as “ten-percenting.” The defendants and co-conspirators then allegedly presented the winning tickets to the Massachusetts Lottery Commission as their own and collected the full value of the tickets. It is also alleged that the defendants reported the ticket winnings as their own on their income tax returns and improperly offset the claimed winnings with purported gambling losses, thereby avoiding federal income taxes. 

Between 2011 and 2019, the defendants together cashed more than 13,000 lottery tickets and claimed more than $20,989,284 in Massachusetts lottery winnings. Based upon their submitted lottery claims, in 2019, Ali Jaafar was the top individual lottery ticket casher for Massachusetts. Mohamed Jaafar was the third highest individual ticket casher and Yousef Jaafar was the fourth highest individual ticket casher.