Bronx News Roundup, Dec. 21

Friends of a gay Bronx soldier who fought for the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell and died serving in Iraq, visited his grave site on Saturday, shortly after the Senate voted to repeal the controversial policy.

Beleaguered State Sen. Pedro Espada and his son, Pedro G. Espada, could be hit with more indictments in the coming months, according to the Daily News' Bob Kappstatter in his weekly column.

A Bronx teenager has been charged with a felony hate crime. Police say Justin Tavarez, who's a student at Skidmore College in upstate New York, took offense when he saw a white man dining with a black man and smashed a plate over the white man's head.

The man accused of using an ice-pick to threaten and rob several women in the Bronx and Manhattan, carried out the muggings so he could buy Christmas presents for his family, his cousin says. 

Councilman Jimmy Vacca, chair of the Transportation committee, says too many cyclists don't obey traffic laws.

Every year, Bronx resident Milagros Guzman decorates a Christmas tree she calls the "Tree of Angels," to remember victims of homicide, including her own daughter, Jessica, who was murdered in 1990. 

More on the arrest of Nathaniel Linden, the man police suspect of robbing at least two Bronx churches.

Plans are in the works to clean up a contaminated lot by the Major Deegan Expressway at 135th Street, and build a 80-90 room hotel. 

Tenants of 1204 Shakespeare Ave. are being allowed to return home in time for the holidays.  Many of the apartments were evacuated earlier this month after the Department of Buildings found that the building's emergency exits were blocked. 

The legendary Morris Park Boxing Club reopened yesterday, a year after it was almost completely destroyed by a fire. 

Last Thursday, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. appeared on NY1's "Inside City Hall."  Topics for discussion included the Kingsbridge Armory and the Muller Army Reserve Center. Here's the clip.

Yesterday, NYPD Detective Robert Salerno gave out Christmas presents at Lincoln Hospital, the same hospital where he was treated earlier this year after being shot in the line of duty.

Billy Wharton, a writer and activist who edits the Socialist WebZine, was on jury duty recently at the Bronx County Hall of Justice. During his lunch break, he sat in on a few trials and then wrote about his experience for the Examiner website.

Veterinarians at Yonkers' Animal Specialty Center are hoping to reunite an injured Rottweiler with its owner.  The dog was found on a Bronx street two weeks ago, bleeding and limping.

Ed. note: Start a discussion about any of these stories, or anything else you want to talk about, in our forum. Highlight problems in your neighborhood with our SeeClickFix feature. And find out what's happening in our constantly-updated events calendar.

Bronx News Roundup, Oct. 26

A veteran Bronx cop who works out of the 44th Precinct claims he was transferred to an unpopular shift because he refused to write-off a parking ticket he gave to a friend of an NYPD chief. As has been reported, Internal Affairs is probing allegations of ticket-fixing at several precincts in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens. Deputy Inspector John D'Adamo, the commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct, is said to be one of those under investigation.

A woman convicted of brutally murdering 91-year-old Nellie Hocutt during a home invasion in Williamsbridge in 2003, has been sentenced to 25-years to life.

Burton Roberts, a hot-tempered Bronx judge who inspired the character Judge Myron Kovitsky in Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities," died on Sunday aged 88. As a lawyer in later life, Roberts helped defend the cops who shot dead unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo.

Last week, Gloria Cruz, the leader of the Bronx chapter of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, was honored by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Robert Salerno, a police officer at the 44th Precinct who was shot and injured when he confronted an armed man last March, was recognized at the same event.

A confessed killer who helped murder the doorman of a Mount Eden brothel in 2004 is expected to testify against his three alleged accomplices.

The boyfriend of a woman found murdered in her Morrisania apartment on Sunday has been arrested in connection with the crime.

A Bronx teenager who says he's being physically abused by his family, has made a desperate plea for help, even showing up at family court on his own to state his case.

Pedro Espada, Jr., the soon to be ex-state senator, owes $41,625 in fines for sticking campaign posters to street lamps in the run up to September's Democratic primary. The candidate with the second highest fine: Espada's victorious opponent, Gustavo Rivera, with $11,250. That and more in Bob Kappstatter's weekly column.

Church members at Saint Stephen's United Methodist Church in Marble Hill are celebrating following the restoration of their 112-year-old place of worship.

A gourmet chef has been cooking up a feast - and a healthy one, too - at two schools in West Farms.

Bronx News Roundup, April 6

A Massachusetts man will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of having his teenage girlfriend murdered. Carlos Cruz, 40, paid his cousin $700 to shot dead Chelsea Frazier on a quiet street in Castle Hill last spring, and make it look like a robbery.

A 65-year-old Bronx man is dead because a surgical sponge was left inside him during open-heart surgery at Montefiore Medical Center, his children charge in a lawsuit.

Daily News columnist Patrice O'Shaughnessy says Gov. Paterson's proposed soda tax "isn't fair" because it would hurt low-income families.  Last Wednesday, New Yorker Against Unfair Taxes, a coalition of businesses opposed to the tax, held a protest and petition-signing at a Fordham supermarket. In response, State Health Commissioner Richard Daines expressed shock that the "beverage lobby has the audacity to bring their fight against the sugary beverage tax to a borough that has the city's highest obesity rate and highest rates of sugar beverage consumption." Daines believes the tax would improve Bronxites' health.

A 27-year-old mother has been arrested after allegedly leaving her three young children unsupervised inside the family's Westchester Square apartment.

Fair-beating is still common-place on the Bx12 Select Bus Service, which runs along Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway.

Four members of a violent drug-trafficking gang, the so-called DeKalb Avenue Crew, have been found guilty of murder, robbery, racketeering, and other charges.

Robert Salerno, the Bronx cop badly injured in a gun-fight on March 22, has been released from hospital. He will spend the next two months or so at a physical-rehabilitation center in White Plains.

A look at the challengers Assembly members Carl Heastie, Naomi Rivers, Nelson Castro, and Peter Rivera, may face in the fall.

BoogieDowner wonders: Has Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson been taking her parking cues from Pedro Espada? Yesterday, a reader of theirs snapped photos of Gibson's car parked in a bike lane on the Grand Concourse. In the window was a police placard. 

So far, Hunts Point, Morrisania, West Farms, and Wakefield are among the neighborhoods with poor Census participation rates. You can see how your neighborhood's doing here.

A look at how Puerto Ricans came to dominate Bronx politics.

In Van Cortlandt Park, work is ongoing to clear up hundreds of fallen trees that came crashing down in last month's storm.