Week in Review: Post Office Closure Hearings; The Fall of the West; Occupy Boston

Here's some of the top stories from around Medford this week:

As a professor at Harvard University, Niall Ferguson says he's getting a first-hand look at the demise of Western global dominance. The surnames at the top of the mid-term grade sheets are commonly those of the far east; names like "Wong" and "Li," Ferguson said in a lecture at Tufts University Thursday. “I know who the hardest working students here are," Ferguson said to an audience at Distler Performing Hall. "This is an amazing time of change we’re living through, and we're privileged at the great universities of the United States to have a ringside seat to the end of western predominance. I see it every week, I see it in the mid-terms."

Medford native Dale Hamilton-Powers, Director of Administration for the Boston Bruins, will be bringing the Stanley Cup to LoConte Rink on Thursday, October 20, 2011, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Concerned residents, politicians and union members packed a public hearing Wednesday to voice their support for the West Medford and Tufts post office branches. Over 50 people turned out to the hearing, held by the U.S. Postal Service at the Magoun Room in . The two branches are on a list of about 3,700 post offices nationwide the postal service is considering for closure.

About 70 students from marched into Boston Monday to join Occupy Boston protests. Students from about 10 Boston-area colleges, including Tufts, planned to meet on Boston Common for a student solidarity protest before joining larger Occupy Boston protests in Dewey Square, near South Station.

There are too many code violators in Medford and not enough citations being written against them, according to city councilors. The council passed a resolution Tuesday asking Mayor Michael McGlynn to the City hire a "Ticketing Officer" to work in conjunction with the Building Department and Code Enforcement Officer John Bavuso.