Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, July 14

Ladies and gentlemen of the Bronx and beyond, welcome to Thursday's edition of the roundup. Enjoy.

Weather: Gorgeous. Cooler. Enjoy.

Story of the Day: Ex-Chilean Guerrilla Turned Bronx Social Activist Fights Deportation
Victor Toro, a South Bronx immigrant rights activist and social worker, continues to fight an uphill battle against deportation back his native Chile, where Toro says he was tortured during the 1970s by the military regime of Augusto Pinochet. He fears prosecution a Chile now run by another ruler with a military background. Toro, who co-founded the leftist guerrilla group MIR in late 1960s, was expelled from Chile after spending a year in concentration camps. A doctor at Montefiore Medical Center testified that Toro still suffers from post-traumatic stress as a result of the torture he experienced during that time. He ended up bouncing between countries for several years before arriving in the Bronx in 1984. Since then, he helped found the La Pena community center and been a staunch and vocal advocate for immigrant rights. Arrested by immigration officials in 2007, Toro's court appeal is close to coming to a conclusion.    

Quick Hits:
The naked suicide plunge taken by a Bronx couple off the Tappan Zee Bridge continues to baffle friends. One of the jumpers, Alfa Choice, was a former teacher at Bronx Science.

Jose Rivera, Bill Perkins Arrested at Protest [VIDEO]

As we mentioned in the post below, Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera--rarely seen without the red light on his hand-held video camera blinking--and Harlem State Sen. Bill Perkins, were among the dozens of protesters arrested this afternoon during a rally for stronger rent laws.

Here's some video footage of the protest, courtesy of the Albany Times Union.

Tomorrow: Bronx Rally for Marriage Equality

A number of LGBT advocacy groups and several local elected officials will be demonstrating tomorrow afternoon on the steps of the Bronx County Courthouse in support of marriage equality.

The rally was organized by Bronx Rainbow Independent Democratic Association and Marriage Equality New York.

Expected to attend: State Senators Jose M. Serrano, Gustavo Rivera, Jeff Klein and Adriano Espaillat, Assemblymembers Carmen Arroyo, Jeffrey Dinowitz and Jose Rivera and NYC Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

According to a press release, the event is in part a response to State Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr.'s controversial March 15 parade against the passage of a gay marriage bill for New York. 

The rally will start at 2 p.m. at the Bronx Courthouse, 851 Grand Concourse at 161st Street.

Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, April 7

Weather: Cloudy, maybe a little damp, high of 52.

To the news!

Story of the Day: Jose Rivera Stirring Up Trouble
Bronx political battle ax and assemblyman, Jose Rivera, didn't let Gov. Andrew Cuomo's austere budget pass quietly. Last weekend, during the Puerto Rican/Hispanic caucus's Somos El Futuro conference in Albany, Rivera, the former Bronx Democratic party boss, ripped Cuomo for criticizing his own party during budget negotiations. For the most part, Bronx Dems have been quiet about expressing their problems with the budget, which included deep cuts to education, health care and social services (and did not include strengthened rent laws or an extension of the so-called "Millionaire's Tax," which may have staved off some of these cuts). Not Rivera. He seemed energized by the fight, as you can see in the video he recently posted of the (ultimately ineffective) rallies held in Albany leading up to the budget deal.


Quick Hits:
The sister of late Bronx rapper Big Punisher -- aka Big Pun, aka Christopher Rios -- is lobbying to have the corner of E.163rd Street and Rogers Place in Longwood renamed Big Pun Place. The Grammy-nominated Big Pun died of a heart attack in 2000, with reports saying he weighed nearly 700 pounds at the time of his death. An earlier effort to rename a street after him was rejected by the city, which claimed his lyrics were too "violent and racy," the Daily News reports.

Yesterday, Dr. Nirav Shah, the state's relatively new health commissioner, made a trip to a new Bronx health clinic at El Nuevo San Juan Health Center. He's promoting the use of one-stop-shopping health services provided by these type of health clinics, which he says will streamline care.

Two Bronx custodians have been accused of bilking the city for some $500,000 after allegedly creating a fake-job scheme at two Bronx high schools.

Police are looking for three women they have on tape delivering a nasty beat down to another woman in Mott Haven.

A Bronx woman say she's certain Terry King, who was arrested and charged with two rapes committed a decade apart, is the man who raped her in Melrose in 1998.

The Bronx Zoo is scheduled to announce the name of its celebrity Egyptian cobra today.

A Snow Day from Yesteryear -- Jose Rivera in 1947

Assemblyman Jose Rivera shared with us -- and all his pals on Facebook -- this photo of himself after a 1947 snowstorm at E. 167th St. and Home St. Following the photo is Rivera's own description of the photo. We thought you'd find it interesting.

"My First experience with a snow storm. 1947 Picture taken by my uncle Julio Padilla. at 167 st. and home street. This was a storm! 24 inches. This picture was taken after we moved from a shelter in the lower Eastside of Manhattan. We moved to 995 e. 167th St. into a furnished room. My 2 sisters Santa and Chenta and My Mother. We were so poor that this is a hand me down PeaCoat. It had 3 missing buttons. We were never able to replace them. No money for buttons."  -Jose Rivera's description of this photo from Facebook

St. Barnabas Residents Seeking to Form Union

Photo by Alma Watkins

Resident doctors at St. Barnabas Hospital are trying to form a union, citing safety concerns, low pay, bad equipment, too few nurses and other staff and a recent cut to health and disability benefits for the hospital’s non-union employees. The hospital has challenged the residents’ petition to unionize, arguing at the National Labor Relations Board that the residents are students, not employees. The Board rejected that argument in a ruling on May 22. St. Barnabas has announced it plans to appeal the decision.

On Friday, residents joined organizers and staff from the Committee of Interns and Residents for a press conference asking St. Barnabas to abide by the ruling. They were joined by Assembly members Jose Rivera and Michael Benjamin and Crotona Community Coalition board members Andrea Dozier and John Taylor in the D’auria-Murphy Triangle, across from the hospital.

“I have a vested interest because I go to this hospital, I go to this clinic. We need them,” said Dozier, whose doctor, Mahesh Dangal, was one of the residents holding a sign behind her as she spoke.

St. Barnabas declined to comment beyond a short public statement, which reads in part:

Our stance against the unionizing of residents is not about being
anti-union - in fact St. Barnabas Hospital prides itself on being a
union-friendly shop - but instead has to do with fundamental and
philosophical differences over our view of residents as students, not
employees. From our perspective, they are in an educational training
program and so, as students in training, are not covered by the
National Labor Relations Act.

What Was the Deal?

Now that Joel Rivera, and former party chairman Jose Rivera (who was rumored to be mulling a bid for Bronx BP as well) are out of the running, the speculation can begin about the political deal-making that went on. It's no accident that Assemblyman Ruben Diaz appears to now have a clear path to a new office on 161st Street.

Did the Riveras exact a promise from the new party chair, Assemblyman Carl Heastie, that the new machine wouldn't back primary opponents to Joel Rivera, who will undoubtedly run for a third term in the City Council, or Naomi Rivera, who will be up for re-election to her Assembly seat next year. And what about Rivera ally Maria Baez, who could be facing several opponents this fall in her campaign for a third term on the City Council?

And might have Jose Rivera agreed to drop his lawsuit seeking to regain the keys to the office of the party chairman?

If politics is the art of the deal, this one must of been a beaut.

Stay tuned ...

Update: Patrick Jenkins, special assistant to Carl Heastie, just called me to say, "Chairman Heastie doesn't believe in making deals."

Bronx News Roundup, Jan. 28

Newly sworn-in U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is trying to make peace with immigrant advocates, including Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera and other Hispanic lawmakers, who believe her immigration stance is too conservative. According to the Times article, an anti-immigration group ranked her in the top 22 of all Representatives based on her immigration voting record in the House over the past two years.

Because Gillibrand reached out to him, Rivera postponed a scheduled press conference to announce plans to meet with opposition candidates for a possible 2010 election.

More bad news coming from the new Yankee Stadium project. Not only will local residents have to wait until 2011 to use news parks (to replace the parks taken by the city and the Yankees to build the new stadium), but now the Independent Budget Office said the cost of replacing two parks has risen to $195 million, $16.3 million of which can't be accounted for. More here. And here. The parks will be paid for using taxpayer money with the Yankees chipping in $10 million.

Here's the Daily News full story on Assemblyman Jose Rivera's bid to overturn the court decision that led to ouster as Bronx Democratic Party chairman.

A big fire in Morrisania forced people from their homes last night.

NYC's Health Commissioner is launching a campaign to reduce residents' sodium intake by aiming. He says a reduction in smoking and sodium will have the greatest impact on people's health.

Bronx News Roundup Jan. 27

Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the former Bronx Democratic Party Chairman, has launched an appeal in the State supreme court with the intention of winning back his old leadership position.

In his weekly column, Bob Kappstatter wonders if we'll hear Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion give his annual State of the Borough address this February.

Assemblyman Peter Rivera, whose brother has been in the news recently, isn't impressed with the way the governor and his aides treated Caroline Kennedy. Rivera's also been speaking out against Kirsten Gillibrand, Paterson's eventual Senate pick, and her somewhat conservative positions on immigration.

Councilman Larry Seabrook isn't a fan of Gillibrand either - specifically her longstanding support of gun rights. Last year, the former congresswoman earned a 100 percent rating from the NRA.

As the Senate's housing committe chair, will State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. do what's best for tenants? Housing adovcates don't think so. More here.

Cops and local residents are working together to help stamp out graffiti - or at least curtail it.

The women's basketball team at John F. Kennedy High School is having a terrific season.