Around the Region: Melrose OK's Serving Booze on Sunday Mornings

Here's some of the top stories from just outside Medford's city lines from last week:

: Melrose —Bloody Mary fans rejoice: Brunch in Melrose could get a little saucier. The Melrose Board of Aldermen approved Monday night the adoption of a new state law that gives cities and towns the option to allow restaurants to serve alcoholic beverages starting at 10 a.m. Before the law changed last year, Massachusetts restaurants couldn't serve alcohol before noon on Sundays. Melrose restaurants that currently have a full liquor license or beer and wine license can't start serving booze on Sunday mornings right away. First, they need approval from the Melrose Liquor Licensing Commission.

There were more violent crimes in Wakefield in 2010 than in 2009, reflecting a statewide uptick in crime, according to the most recently released data from the FBI. Five more robberies occurred in 2010 than in 2009, up from 4 to 9, property crime was up by 8.6%, with 275 crimes in 2009 versus 301 in 2010, and burglary was up 32%, from 51 to 76 reported crimes. There were 664 total crimes committed in 2009 and 724 in 2010 according to the FBI, meaning an overall increase in crime of 8.2% in Wakefield.

: Reading-- Approximately 200 members of the Reading community gathered at the Reading Memorial High School field house Wednesday for a discussion about drugs in the community. Participants named potential root causes of the abuse, but largely agreed that the community tends to deny that it has a drug issue.

Stoneham-- An illegal immigrant was found guilty Tuesday in a Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn on multiple charges for assaulting a  girl running in the Middlesex Fells Reservation in September 2010.