Bronx News Roundup, May 13

A mix of good and bad news today.

On Monday, firefighters rescued a seven-year-old boy who was dangling in an elevator shaft in a Hunts Point building.

A Bronx father, who confessed to killing his 14-year-old daughter last year, may have also impregnated her. Prosecutors say that Miguel Matias, 36, raped and murdered his daughter on Feb. 16, 2008. Matias appeared in the Bronx Supreme Court on Tuesday where prosecutors consolidated two indictments against him - one for his daughter's murder and one for second-degree rape and incest.

The principal at the Bronx Lab School in Williambsbridge, Marc Sternberg, has been named as a finalist for the prestigious White House Fellows Program in Washington, DC.

Teachers at P.S. 230 in Morris Heights are celebrating higher reading test scores.

The Daily News covers Fordham Place, the new 125,000-square-foot retail space on Fordham Road that holds Sears, Best Buy, Walgreens and Bank of America. It’s also where Senator Pedro Espada claims he will open his district office, though that seems to be stalled.

Yankee memorabilia from the old stadium, which the city sold to the Yankees for $11.5 million, will be auctioned off. The items are worth between $50 million to $100 million dollars. Go here to read more.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will be this year’s Grand Marshal at the Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade this Sunday.

Police are investigating a fatal stabbing that happened yesterday in a Mott Haven park.

Bronx News Roundup, March 6

Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, jr. filed his petitions with the Board of Elections yesterday, making him the first candidate to ask to be included on the ballot for Bronx Borough President. Liz Benjamin reports that the ballot line will read "Bronx Unity Party," but the muscle behind him is Carl Heastie's new democratic machine, which claims to have collected 16,500 signatures for Diaz in just three days.
Diaz is set to formally announce his candidacy on Monday.

The so-called "gang of three" is back. Bronx State Senators Pedro Espada, jr. and Ruben Diaz, sr., as well as Brooklyn's Carl Kruger, are refusing to support the Ravitch plan, which would avoid huge MTA fare hikes and service cuts in part by imposing tolls on the Harlem and East River bridges.

The New York Observer notes that city comptroller Bill Thompson has become a much louder voice on the board of the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) since he began eying a run for mayor. The IDA is the city agency charged with arranging tax incentives for big development projects - like the new Yankee Stadium or the Kingsbridge Armory. Thompson participated in a rally this week demanding a serious community benefits agreement from the Armory developer (see below). More on that in this week's Norwood News.

Two former NYPD officers are facing a civil trial fourteen years after allegedly shooting two young robbery suspects over twenty times while they lay face-down on the sidewalk. The shooting was one of several which enraged citizens during Rudy Giuliani's tenure as mayor.

"Brazilian Modern," this year's orchid show at the Botanical Garden, is getting good reviews.

A Bronx woman has been named McDonald's Crew Person of the Year.

The Australian news media has developed a special interest in Bronx schools lately: this is the second Australian story this month to feature a Bronx school, this time the Bronx Lab School. (Last week's story, in another Australian paper, can be found here)

The Inauguration and other bits and pieces

We're getting to this a little late, but here's a roundup of today's Bronx news:

The Inauguration
The Bronx Lab School on Gun Hill Road was one of many Bronx schools to hold screenings of this afternoon's inauguration.

Mount Hope Monitor contributor Rebecca Chao visited MS 399 on 184th Street where hundreds of excited (and occasionally emotional) students watched proceedings in the school's auditorium. “He [Obama] makes us feel powerful, hopeful," said one eighth grader before the speech. "If he can do it, anyone can do it.” Afterwards, Student Council members, responding to Obama's can-do attitude and call to public service, said they were inspired more than ever to reverse the DOE's recent decision to close their school.

Bronx Congressman Jose Serrano had this to say:

Today our national dream of equality for all was one step closer as we watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama. This man who came from such an unlikely background to the presidency has become the repository of our hopes and dreams. Now he will have the chance deliver on the promise of his message. We will stand side-by-side with him and put our collective strength to fixing our nation.

As a boy from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico that grew up in the projects in The Bronx, and came to serve in the U.S. Congress, I believe in unlikely journeys and the power of the American dream.

More here.

Other news
Councilman Jimmy Vacca is co-sponsoring a bill that's sure to be popular with car owners.

State Senator Pedro Espada has once again failed to file a required financial disclosure report.

In September, Jonas Bronck Academy, a middle school, will move into Fordham Place, the building that houses Sears and Best Buy. The school is currently located on Manhattan College Parkway in Riverdale.

One of Bob Kappstatter's anonymous sources thinks he/she knows why Borough President Adolfo Carrion's confirmation as Obama's director of urban policy is taking an age and a day.