Bronx News Roundup, Aug. 18

Weather: Cool and mostly cloudy with on-and-off rainstorms predicted.

On to your Bronx news!

Story of the Day: DOE Meeting Tonight to Discuss 'Toxic' P.S. 51
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and other city officials will  be in the Bronx tonight to meet with parents and members of the community to discuss P.S. 51, the Bedford Park elementary school that's being moved because its current building was found to be contaminated with high levels of Trichloroethylene--an industrial solvent that can potentially cause serious health problems that affect the central nervous system, including the liver, kidney, and the immune system, according to the EPA.You can read more coverage on the situation here; details about tonight's meeting are here.

The DOE said there are no immediate health risks posed to students at the school, but that doesn't seem to have done much to ease parents' concerns. "All parents in this school should have their children tested because as you can see from this issue the Board of Education can't be trusted to tell the truth," one BxNN reader and PS 51 parent commented. We'll be covering tonight's meeting and will keep you updated.

Quick Hits:
The funeral for Christina Santiago, killed this weekend in Indiana when a concert stage collapsed, takes place today in the Bronx.

Great story in the Times this morning about parents who are caught with minor amounts of marijuana--not enough to charge them with a crime--getting  subject to extra scrutiny from child welfare on accusations of neglect.

Bronx News Roundup, April 19

Weather: Temperatures in the low to mid 50s, with rain showers throughout most of the day.

Story Of The Day: Charter School Blues

The Daily News' Daniel Beekman takes us on the scene of a public lottery at the high-performing Bronx Charter School for Excellence, in Morris Park, where 1,635 hopeful parents were vying to get their kids into just 28 open kindergarten spots. The lottery determines who gets in and who goes home, a process (as chronicled in the much-talked about film "Waiting for Superman") which means heartache for most of the families who apply.

"It's a crushing feeling," one parent told the News. "You gamble with your kid's life and just hope you get picked."

Bronx Charter boasts that 88 percent of its fifth-graders passed the state English exams last year--that's compared to the 41 percent average for public schools in Bronx's District 11.

Quick Hits: 

Former Co-Op City janitor Paulino Valenzuela was found guilty yesterday for the 2007 shooting that killed his boss.

More on the Bronx NYPD ticket-fixing probe: the Post reports that part of the massive investigation is focused on highway patrol officers headquartered on the Bronx River Parkway, who are responsible for cruising and ticketing drivers along the West Side Highway and FDR East River Drive.

Livery cab drivers in the south Bronx are sporting bullet proof vests provided by Security USA, which donated the vest in memory of Bronx cab driver Cesar Santos, who was shot and killed in 2010 over a fare dispute.

One Bronx family, and thousands of others, face homelessness or the shelter system as their city-provided rent subsidies run out.

Bronx Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson is one of several elected officials rallying for the state to establish a domestic violence offender database, following the recent brutal murder of a Lower East Side woman at the hands of her boyfriend.

A jury continues to deliberate in the trial of two NYPD transit officers accused of beating a Bronx man in 2008.