Bronx News Roundup, Friday, May 13

Eery start to this Friday the 13th at Bronx News Network. As you can tell, we've experienced some technical difficulties of late. Our website administrator went down last night and all posts from Tuesday on were removed. We're told the posts will be restored soon. We just received access to the site at about 12:30 p.m. In any case, we're back. On to the news!

Weekend Weather: Cloudy and warm today. Tomorrow, a foggy morning  might give way to some drizzle in the afternoon. The real rain is supposed to hit Sunday, just in time for the Bronx parade collision (more on this in Story of the Day). 

Story of the Day: Bronx Parades on Collision (Con)Course
On Sunday afternoon, the Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade will party its way down the Grand Concourse from E. Tremont to E. 167th Street. Just six blocks south, the face and outspoken mouthpiece of New York's anti-gay marriage movement, Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., will be leading a group of other like-minded gay marriage opponents in a "Rally to Defend Marriage." Diaz, who was born in Puerto Rico, says he did not consider changing the route or date of his rally and the president of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, Francisco Gonzalez didn't seem to have a problem with it.

But gay marriage advocates and AIDS activists do have a problem with it. Diaz's anti-gay marriage rally will coincide with the annual New York AIDS Walk in Central Park, leading the state senator's critics say the rally will stunt acceptance of gays and the cause of wiping out AIDS. "We are distressed that Sen. Diaz would focus his attention on increasing homophobia," Marjorie Hill of Midtown's Gay Men's Health Crisis told Metro. A counter-protest is taking shape, which could mean fireworks on the Concourse. Diaz, who has two gay brothers and a gay niece, denies the homophobic label and say he is expecting a love fest on Sunday, telling the Daily News: "We're respecting our love for life and humanity in the Bronx."

The Tremont Tribune, a BxNN publication, has this editorial on the matter. 

Quick Hits:
Drivers navigating the Bronx’s Claremont neighborhood beware, the city is reducing its speed limit on a quarter-mile stretch there to 20 miles per hour, 10 miles less than the city's default speed limit of 30 m.p.h. That pilot program coincides with another speed-reduction effort: the installing new electronic signs that will tell drivers to slow down, using an ominous digitized skeleton, to drive home the point.

At an attempted murder trial in the Bronx, an officer testified that ticket fixing was "a common courtesy" dealt with by union reps.

A Bronx man who won $18.5 million in a lawsuit against the city after spending two decades in prison for a rape he didn't commit, had the award taken back by an appeals court.

Nine city schools, including the Bronx's Herbert H. Lehman High School, Banana Kelly High School, Bronx High School of Business, Grace H. Dodge Career and Tech, will be Re-Started last year, rather than closed.

John Rose is hoping to overcome cerebral palsy and win a seat on the Co-op City board of directors.