Medford house catches on fire

10/24/09 8:31 PM

Medford Fire Department responded to a call at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Friday of a house on fire on the corner of Main Street and Sylvia Road in Medford, about a half mile from Tufts' Gantcher Center. Firemen found the lights were flickering, and then located the fire in the wall, according to Deputy Chief Edward O'Brien. There were no reported civilian or firefighter injuries, but the fire caused close to $100,000 in damages. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

--Ben Gittleson

Update on H1N1 notes recent spike in illness

10/22/09 3:43 AM

Administrators from Tufts' three campuses announced yesterday  in an e-mail that approximately 130 students over the past six weeks have suffered from influenza-like illness (ILI), and vaccines for the H1N1 influenza will likely arrive considerably later than anticipated. Of the infected students reported, over 50  -- most of whom are undergraduates -- have surfaced in the past week alone. "An increasing percentage of these cases appear to be H1N1, although since testing is limited it is hard to know for sure," the e-mail said. "Some students have been ill for only a few days, others for over a week." Approximately 20 cases of ILI have surfaced on the Boston campus, none on the Grafton campus and a small number among faculty and staff. H1N1 vaccines --...

Power restored to campus early this morning

10/17/09 6:34 PM

Power returned to campus early this morning, restoring the university's heat and electricity and ending a long day in the dark for Tufts students.

A university alert at approximately 5:30 a.m. this morning announced that power was restored, over three hours after announcements last night estimated the power would return.

Parent Weekend activites have continued as planned today and through tomorrow, with adjustments to locations posted on the Parents Program Web site.

See Monday's Daily for more coverage on the outage.

--Alexandra Bogus

Power goes out across campus

10/16/09 11:23 AM

A power outage has blanketed the Medford/Somerville campus since late this morning after an underground cable failure caused an electrical fire in downtown Medford, affecting most of Medford and the university. The fire began at approximately 10:30 a.m. this morning across from 127 Main St. in Medford, forcing a manhole cover to burst open in flames, according to Medford Fire Department Deputy Chief Edward O’Brien. The fire ran underground to other manholes, creating enough smoke to blow the cover off an additional manhole.   An underground electrical cable failed, causing damage to a cluster of cables nearby and sparking the fire, according to Deborah Drew, company spokesperson for National Grid, which is the utility company responsible for the area and the primary power... 3 comments

TCU special election candidates announced

10/1/09 1:30 AM

Tufts' Elections Commission (ECOM) announced yesterday the candidates for a special election to fill a recently-vacated Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate seat and an open seat on the Committee on Student Life (CSL). Among them, freshman In-Goo Kwak, the student now known for posting a controversial flyer that some considered racially insensitive, will be vying for one of the student government positions. Senior Alex Daniele, sophomore Chris Walczyszyn and Kwak are candidates for the CSL seat, which remained unfilled in last year's spring election, according to ECOM Chair Kevin Terhorst, a senior. Amani Smathers and Alexander Zebrose, both seniors, will contend for the TCU Senate seat, according to Terhorst. Former TCU Senator Samia Zahran resigned from her position on...