Bronx News Roundup, May 28

 Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone! Enjoy the extra day off. Here are today's Bronx headlines:

A Jamaican drug lord, Christopher Coke, operated a drug ring out of Eastchester and parts of Queens for years, according to police. Law enforcement officials in Kingston, Jamaica have been pursuing Coke for the past four days, in violent assaults that left 74 people dead so far. Coke has still not been found.

A new book chronicles the pandemic of fires that ravaged the South Bronx during the 1970s.

An effort to keep state parks open this summer could lead to major cuts for institutions like the Bronx Zoo and Botanical Garden. The plan would take money from the state's Environmental Protection Fund, which pays for the zoo and gardens, to cover the cost of keeping the parks open.

Sam Suzuki, the Soundview landlord who was issued an arrest warrant by a housing court judge this month for ignoring court orders to fix his crumbling properties, has turned himself in to authorities.

Neighborhoods in the Bronx and Manhattan have the highest concentration of airborne nickel particles during the winter, according to a new air quality study from the Department of Health. Nickel, usually from oil burners, can irritate the lungs and worsen asthma and emphysema symptoms.

A video of Rocking the Boat founder Adam Green discussing the program, a boat-building project for students in the South Bronx. Here's a video interview with some of the program's participants that we took a few months back.

The city has settled to pay $700,000 to a mentally disturbed Soundview man who was shot by police officers during an altercation in 2005.

A pre-trial hearing is happening today for the two men accused of bomb plots at two Riverdale synagogues.

Bronx News Roundup, April 26

It's a cloudy day in the BX, perfect for catching up on some Bronx news!

While filming for Channel 2's "Eye of New York," embattled State Senator Pedro Espada exited the building mid-interview when confronted with allegations that he isn't a Bronx resident.

Top Democratic donor Bill Samuels announced that he will direct up to $250,000 toward defeating Senator Espada in this year’s election. Samuels heads the New Roosevelt Initiative.

No more free rides for a Bronx man who held an illegal copy of an all-access- subway key. He was caught by the police peddling $2 rides for people waiting in line for a MetroCard.

An apartment complex on Grand Avenue in Morris Heights might be in for an new look thanks to Bronx-born Francine Kellman of Pacific Housing Advisors. She plans on renovating the building without replacing tenants or raising rent.

After two decades of calling Bronx Community College's campus home, University Heights High School is to be relocated to the South Bronx, against the wishes of parents, students and teachers. More coverage here in the Mount Hope Monitor.

The Bronx motorcycle club "Legion of Doom" lost its vice president early Saturday when he hit a pothole on Magenta Street in Bronxwood.

Environmentalist Majora Carter plans on infusing a Hunts Point apartment building with a fragrance that will make it smell like green grass rather than the local sewage plant.

A Bronx fisherman was rescued just in time after spending 40 minutes in the chilly waters of Eastchester Bay.

School Chancellor Joel I. Klein is in a high-stakes battle with the teachers' union over seniority rules. If the rules remain, the newest teachers will be the first to lose their jobs if the expected layoffs go through.  Klein wants to change this, the union wants to keep things the way they are.

ATM scam artists are targeting Bronx residents. Read more here.

Andrew Cuomo would prefer Bill Thompson over Adolfo Carrion as his lieutenant governor, Crain's reports.