Bronx News Roundup, March 8

It's a clear and beautiful morning in the Bronx today, with highs reaching into the mid-40s this afternoon. On to our news roundup:

Story of the day: 

Reporter David Greene snapped this photo from the scene of a fire on the Grand Concourse yesterday, when firefighters rescued 14 pit bulls from a blazing sixth-floor apartment in a building in Fordham Heights. All of the dogs, including one puppy and four newborns, were safe and one was treated for a minor injury. No people where injured. We'll have more photos and the rest of Greene's account shortly.

Stand-up comedian and Bronx native Mike DeStefano, who spun his troubled childhood and recovery from heroin addiction into his comedic routines, died yesterday. His lawyer told the New York Times that DeStefano was in his 40s, but could not confirm an exact age or cause of death. 

A Bronx woman was struck and killed by a car yesterday after stepping into a lane of traffic on a Westchester road to avoid a puddle caused by recent flooding, police said. Her companion was also injured.

A man accused of beating a 25-year-old Bronx woman into a coma over a parking space apologized outside of a Manhattan court yesterday, and said the injured woman, Lana Rosas, was the one who hit him first.

The cabdriver accused of mowing down two men in Manhattan after refusing to drive them to the Bronx has a history of confrontations with passengers, according to the Daily News. He was fined and suspended by the Taxi and Limosine Commission last year after supposedly abusing another rider.

New York City is poised to become the most gridlocked city in the country, according to a new report, which sites a stretch of the Cross Bronx Expressway as the worst traffic spot. 

A Bronx high school and a middle school, which have yet to be named publicly, will soon be part of the DOE's plan to test a new "turnaround" tactic. Instead of closing down the low-performing schools, as it has done in the past, the city will try replacing the principal and half of the teachers at the sites in hopes of improving them.