Bronx News Roundup, Aug. 21

The Bronx Open - an annual tennis tournament in Crotona Park - starts on Monday. More than 30 of the world's top 100 women will take part. This year, there's no men's side of the draw. The event is free, except finals day on Aug. 31 which costs $10. The New York Junior Tennis League will provide free tennis throughout the week. Here's Adi Talwar's photos from last year.

The parents of a young boy killed by a van last summer as rode his bike to school are suing the city for $10 million.

Could the Stella D'Oro cookie factory in Kingsbridge stay open after all? The current owner, who has been threatening to close it after losing a labor dispute, may have found a local buyer.

Today's New York Times carries an article adapted from Constance Rosenblum's new book, Boulevard of Dreams, a history of the Grand Concourse.

As we mentioned in yesterday's roundup, City Council candidate Yudelka Tapia's campaign manger, Onix Sosa, has been hired by Pedro Espada, the ethically challenged state senator and majority leader. When asked about this yesterday morning, Tapia hadn't heard the news. Later, her communications director sent out press release saying she's parted ways with Sosa because she "felt that the job Sosa took was not consistent with the message she is trying to communicate to the voters of the 14th District." Tapia campaign is staffed by volunteers. In fact, Sosa was the only one on the payroll, Tapia said. She's hired a new campaign manager, a former volunteer.

Bronx News Roundup Aug. 18

A talented boxer from the Bronx was shot dead on Saturday, following an argument in a bodega on Clinton Avenue in East Tremont. Ronney Vargas, 20, had a bright future ahead of him, said his manager. [NYT] and [Daily News]

The severely premature baby of a woman who was struck by a bus on Webster Avenue last Thursday, is now stable. The boy - who weighed just 3-pounds 6-ounces - was born by emergency cesarean section. His badly injured mother, a traffic cops, died just hours later. [NY1]

The search continues for a 12-year-old Bronx girl who was swept into the rapids near Niagara Falls last Wednesday. [Buffalo News]

Mothers on the Move, a Hunts Point non-profit, is rallying against the noxious fumes that plague the neighborhood. On Saturday the group organized a "Toxic Bus Tour" along the waterfront to bring attention to the issue. They say the smell is caused by a fertilizer company and the Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant. [NY1]

In this week's "The Hunt" column, a technology consultant buys a three-bedroom co-op at 1100 Grand Concourse for $265,000. [NYT]

The Czech Republic's Lukas Dlouhy (world ranking 164) won the GHI Bronx Tennis Classic in Crotona Park on Sunday. Elena Bovina of Russia, a former top 20 player, won the women's singles. [International Herald Tribune]

And now to chess. According to The Times:

"a dispute involving members of the governing chess organization in the United States has erupted into a legal fight that has all the passion of a Bobby Fischer tantrum. There are claims of fake sexually charged Web site postings, stolen e-mail messages, and rival lawsuits, with one side alleging harassment and the other, slander. Even the Secret Service is looking into the situation." [NYT]

What this got to do with the Bronx? Well, the man at the center of the dispute, Samuel H. Sloan, lives on Davidson Avenue in Morris Heights. Sloan is something of an attention seeker with a colorful and, some say, unsavory past (just Google him). He's also the only Bronxite (that I know of) who claims to have lunched with Osama bin Laden.