Bronx News Roundup, June 28

Organizers were dismayed when the city shut down a public viewing of the United States vs. Ghana World Cup match on Saturday afternoon at Lou Gehrig Park, just blocks from Yankee Stadium. (FYI: Ghana defeated the U.S. 2-1 in overtime). The city cited safety concerns as the reason for the shut down, but Cary Goodman, executive director of the 161 Business Improvement District, wasn't convinced.

Goodman told the NY Times: “Is anybody really saying that in this Bronx neighborhood, where 45,000 people come for a baseball game, that the police cannot safely and successfully ensure a community event like watching TV?”

Anna Maria Silva, 40, was fatally stabbed in her apartment on Watson Avenue shortly after midnight on Saturday. After making a 911 call, a man who the police said was known to the victim admitted to the crime.

The Bronx band "Graveshift," composed of two sisters and two brothers ranging in age from 13 to 20, won second place in the Battle of the Bands contest on Sunday night at Manhattan's Webster Hall. The Daily News has the story.

The principals of Bronx Guild High School and Bronx Regional High School spoke out against a New York State requirement that would require high school students to gain a Regents Diploma in order to graduate. Both administrators expressed practical concerns with the requirement in the Times' article.

Problems at JFK high school continue in the wake of last week's bake sale scandal.

The Times profiles the stylish and effective principal of MS 391, Pedro Santana. (Note: this article wrongly says MS 391 is in the "South Bronx." Actually, it's located in the north central Bronx, on Webster Avenue, between about 182nd and 183rd streets. Decidedly not the South Bronx.)

Bronx News Roundup Oct. 15

The New York Times has an interactive map showing who in the City Council supports a term limit extension, and who doesn't. The Times sums it up this way: "Much of the support comes from the Bronx, while much of the opposition is from Queens."

The trial of a man accused of shooting dead an off-duty cop in Pelham Bay in 2005 starts today. Steven Armento could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Armento's co-defendant, Lillo Brancato Jr., an actor who appeared in several episodes of the "Sopranos," and the film "A Bronx Tale," will be tried separately. Officer Daniel Enchautegui was killed when he went to investigate to burglary at his neighbor's house. See here and here.

State Senator Jose M. Serrano, representatives from the New York Civil Liberties Union, and others, are holding a press conference at 1 p.m. today, to protest a new Department of Education policy which makes it easier for military recruiters to access high school students' personal information.

Last week, Congressman Joseph Crowley (Bronx/Queens) helped broker a nuclear pact between the United States and India.

P.S. 5, an elementary school in Mott Haven, is giving its students cheap, indestructible laptops. The program is sponsored by Teaching Matters and the DOE. The idea is to get students onto a shared network so they can do school work at home.

JFK takes on Clinton in high school football this Saturday. The Daily News is calling the game a "battle for borough supremacy." Both teams are 5-1 so far this season.