Medford

Dog Gets Lost in Fells, Survives Hit-and-Run and Freezing Night in Cemetery: Tessie, a six-year-old Boston Terrier, proved that cats aren’t the only animals with nine lives after surviving being hit by a car and a shivering night in a cemetery. Tessie was with her dog walker on a hike through Middlesex Fells in Medford on Jan. 6 when she got separated and ended up lost, wandering through the streets of Medford. Scared by the traffic and the unfamiliar sights and sounds, she panicked and began to run. Passersby tried to get hold of her but to no avail; she ultimately was struck by a car in a hit-and-run accident and scampered away. Her owner and others looked for her, but she didn't turn up until the next day, when a postal worker found her shivering in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Arlington. She was taken to Angell Animal Hospital where they performed surgery on her pelvis, which was shattered. She's now recovering.

Melrose

Anonymous Donor Offers $75K for MHS Technology Upgrades: A Melrose parent whose kids recently graduated from Melrose High School has offered to anonymously donate $75,000 to technology upgrades in the school, as long as the city matches his donation. After speaking with MHS Principal Dan Richards, Mayor Rob Dolan said he will bring to the School Committee a proposal to use the donation and match to update two foreign language labs, creating wireless networking labs equipped with 30 iPads each.

Reading

Senator Clark Weighs in on Proposed MBTA Cuts: With public hearings underway regarding proposed fare hikes and service cuts—which could all but end public transportation in Reading—one local legislator offers her thoughts on the matter.

Wakefield

Blocked Websites at Schools Hampering Learning: Wakefield students make a habit of trying to access dangerous websites; sites like Reading Public Schools, or Galvanize Wakefield, a site created by parents dedicated to the propsect of a new Galvin Middle School.

At least, these sites are considered dangerous by the public school's web-filtering program. As of right now, Wakefield is set to the highest level of web filtering in its schools, which blocks any sites recognized as "uncategorized."

"Web content filtering is crushing us at all six schools," said Elaine Hughes, a teacher and the education technology administrator in Wakefield. "There was this bullying website that a middle school teacher wanted his students to access and take pledges on, but they were all blocked. Guidance counselors cannot access the Reading, Stoneham, or Woburn Public Schools sites. Any site can come through as uncategorized."