Bronx News Roundup, Friday, July 22

Welcome to Friday's Bronx news roundup. Let's get down to business, starting with the scorched earth we are all living through here in the Boogie Down and elsewhere around the country.

Weather: The National Weather Service says temperatures could reach 104 this afternoon and have issued an Excessive Heat warning. (My question: is there an Egregious Heat warning?) Tomorrow it is supposed cool down to a high of 100. We won't see any real relief until Monday when temperatures are expected to drop down into the relatively frigid low-80s! 

Story of the Day: Bronx Cop Penalized for Ticket Fixing
The Bronx ticket-fixing scandal has claimed its first victim. (Unless, of course, you factor in the criminal cases that blew up in the face of prosecutors who were relying on testimony from cops implicated in the scandal.) Gregory Manning, a former financial secretary with the Patrolman's Benevolent Association, pleaded guilty yesterday to departmental charges at the NYPD Advocate's Office. Manning, who had testified three times in front of a grand jury called to investigate dozens of cops implicated in ticket fixing, was docked 40 days vacation, suspended for five days and issued a $500 fine for his transgressions. Manning had already filed retirement paper work, but the NYPD would not process it because the veteran cop was involved in the ongoing grand jury investigation. This could be a path others implicated in the scandal who want to retire might take as well.

Quick Hits:
Rev. Carmen Hernandez, an outspoken advocate for gay rights and LGBT justice, and her partner Dorris de Armas, a grandmother, will be one of 98 couples getting married in the Bronx on Sunday, the first day gay marriage will be allowed in New York. (764 couples are scheduled to tie the knot in the five boroughs Sunday, the most ever on a single day in NYC history.) In an interview, Hernandez talks about her love for de Armas, her homophobic mother and her decision to come out to her congregation at age 30.

Here's our exclusive story on the upcoming rally Bronx postal workers are holding, along with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., to protest the shuttering of the borough's post office branches and mail processing plant.

CNN profiles South Bronx environmental activist superstar Majora Carter.

The Times takes a look at the Bronx heavily-Irish neighborhood of Woodlawn: “Where else can you go to the corner deli and get a loaf of bread from Dublin?” Chick Donohue told the Times. “And I can go into a pub and have rashers [Irish bacon] with my Guinness.”

More details in the case of the Bronx teenager who is accusing two 46th Precinct cops with beating him outside of the station house.

The heart-warming story of 13-year-old genius Bronxite Autumn Ashante's acceptance into the University Connecticut, first reported by the Daily News, continues to unravel. After first reporting that Autumn had been accepted at the school and was preparing to enroll for the fall semester, the paper followed up with a report saying Autumn's acceptance had been rescinded. Now, the school is saying Autumn was never accepted and therefore her (non)acceptance was never rescinded. The second report contained confirmation of Autumn's acceptance from a university spokesman who now claims the confirmation never happened. The first report contains no such confirmation from the school.

Details on the fights on tap for the Knock Out Cancer boxing event at Hunts Point produce market tomorrow night.

Plus, our Bronx sports roundup has an awesome montage of Brett Gardner highlights.