Bronx News Roundup, June 14

Morning, Bronxites! Your weather forecast for today calls for some cooler weather, with temperatures hanging around the low 60s, and a chance of rain this afternoon.

Story of the Day: Getting Down to the Wire in Albany
It's the last week of business for our state legislators before this year's session ends on Monday and they adjourn until January--meaning just five more (business) days to tackle a number of high profile issues and turn some bills into law. As we wrote yesterday, a slew of Bronx representatives are pushing to pass stronger state rent laws before the week ends, including Assemblyman Jose Rivera, who was arrested during a lively protest outside Gov. Cuomo's office.

While the rent issue still lingers, the Senate and Assembly quickly passed an ethics reform bill yesterday. The Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011 will supposedly keep a closer eye on lawmakers and lobbyists for signs of corruption and conflicts of interest, establishing an independent ethics commission to keep watch over things, and requiring lawmakers to fully disclose sources of income.

Other items still on the legislative agenda this week: a property tax cap and same-sex marriage. Bronx Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr., is now the lone Democrat opposing gay marriage. Three other Dems who'd previously been against it, and one Republican, announced yesterday that they now intend to vote yes.

Quick Hits:
Jerome Raguso, owner of Gino's Pastry Shop in Belmont, is taking a delicious stand: he sent City Council members a batch of empty cannoli shells, sans the cream filling, to protest budget cuts to arts and civic groups. The missing cream symbolizes "just how much the city's small businesses need its leading attractions," the Daily News writes.

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested for the weekend shooting of 15-year-old DeWitt Clinton student Yvette Torres.

Residents at a number of NYCHA housing complexes in the South Bronx and Manhattan are demanding that the authority make needed repairs on their apartments.

Giant rats are taking over a neighborhood in Pelham Bay.

The Bronx Re-entry Working Group is trying to help the formerly incarcerated turn their lives around.

A ring of 16 Bronx residents were arraigned yesterday for allegedly scamming car insurance companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Grim LeRogue, the man arrested in October for storming the field at Yankee Stadium and writing threatening notes to player Alex Rodriguez (similar to a bizarre letter sent to one of our publications, the Norwood News), was sentenced to community service yesterday.

A potential strike of union workers at retail department chain Macy's could mean a shutdown for the store's Parkchester branch, and three other city locations.

More drama in the Bronx NYPD ticket-fixing scandal.

Police are looking for a man suspected of robbing and sexually assaulting a South Bronx woman; photo at the link.

Bronx News Roundup, May 19

Students from two Bronx middle schools will have their community-inspired lunchroom table artwork displayed throughout city parks this summer.

More than 40 percent of street lights are non-working on major city highways, including the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Major Deegan.

The Times Square bombing suspect stopped waiving his right to a speedy court appearance and made his first appearance in a federal court yesterday. (Not really Bronx specific, but we thought you should know.)

The parents of 6-month-old Sophia Lopez from the Bronx, are searching for a bone marrow donor for their daughter. They are urging Hispanics to come out to the donor drive this Saturday at PS 71 in Pelham Bay.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is scheduled to speak at a Hostos Community College graduation ceremony next month.

The New York City Housing Authority will begin to monitor the energy consumption of tenants within public housing. If the amount of energy used doesn't change, it is a possibility that these tenants will have to begin to pay.

The city's Human Resources Administration is fighting back against Bloomberg's budget cutbacks on case workers and services offered to people with HIV and AIDS. The agency is facing a $75 million cut.

A federal judge refuses to dismiss the case of the four men who claimed to have been pressured into plotting to bomb two synagogues in Riverdale.

News Roundup for August 7

The Daily News has two stories today on school construction plans in the Bronx with very different outlooks. Patrice O'Shaughnessy's column looks at a plan by the nonprofit New Settlement Apartments to open a k-12 school on a neglected strip of W. 172nd Street.
The front page of the Bronx Boro News section covers the neighborhood's reaction to the Kingsbridge Armory plans that are moving forward with no schools included. The Norwood News's coverage of this issue is available here.

Gotham Gazette examines whether NYC's fiscal boom is reaching neighborhoods outside Manhattan.

NY1's Dean Meminger reports on $3 million in grants to South Bronx nonprofits from Venezuela's Citgo Oil Company. Congressman Jose Serrano deflected criticism for opening the doors of the Bronx to Venezuela and Citgo.

City Limits shows the obstacles facing some of the 22,000 people who received NYCHA Section 8 vouchers when the list was reopened after 13 years.