Bronx News Roundup, Tuesday, Aug. 9

Weather: Sunny, with a high in the mid-80s until later this afternoon, when rain and thunderstorms became increasingly likely. There's an even higher chance for rain tonight. Should be hotter, less chance of rain, tomorrow.

Story of the Day: Report: City Knew of Bronx New School Contamination 6 Months Ago
According to a Daily News story out today, a contractor performing tests at the Bronx New School's cafeteria found high levels of trichlorethylene (otherwise known as TCE) contamination as early as January. In March, underneath the school's basement floorboard, the contractor discovered TCE contamination levels that were 10,000 times higher than what the state deems safe. Exposure to TCE has been linked to cancer and it can cause severed kidney and liver problems. The Department of Education says they didn't have the contractor's full report until the end of June. But even Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott acknowledged that the city should have informed parents sooner. "I'm totally shocked by the whole thing," one parent told the Daily News. Also, it's still unclear where the school will move now with just a month left before school starts.

Quick Hits:

Bronx News Roundup, Friday, July 22

Welcome to Friday's Bronx news roundup. Let's get down to business, starting with the scorched earth we are all living through here in the Boogie Down and elsewhere around the country.

Weather: The National Weather Service says temperatures could reach 104 this afternoon and have issued an Excessive Heat warning. (My question: is there an Egregious Heat warning?) Tomorrow it is supposed cool down to a high of 100. We won't see any real relief until Monday when temperatures are expected to drop down into the relatively frigid low-80s! 

Story of the Day: Bronx Cop Penalized for Ticket Fixing
The Bronx ticket-fixing scandal has claimed its first victim. (Unless, of course, you factor in the criminal cases that blew up in the face of prosecutors who were relying on testimony from cops implicated in the scandal.) Gregory Manning, a former financial secretary with the Patrolman's Benevolent Association, pleaded guilty yesterday to departmental charges at the NYPD Advocate's Office. Manning, who had testified three times in front of a grand jury called to investigate dozens of cops implicated in ticket fixing, was docked 40 days vacation, suspended for five days and issued a $500 fine for his transgressions. Manning had already filed retirement paper work, but the NYPD would not process it because the veteran cop was involved in the ongoing grand jury investigation. This could be a path others implicated in the scandal who want to retire might take as well.

Quick Hits:
Rev. Carmen Hernandez, an outspoken advocate for gay rights and LGBT justice, and her partner Dorris de Armas, a grandmother, will be one of 98 couples getting married in the Bronx on Sunday, the first day gay marriage will be allowed in New York. (764 couples are scheduled to tie the knot in the five boroughs Sunday, the most ever on a single day in NYC history.) In an interview, Hernandez talks about her love for de Armas, her homophobic mother and her decision to come out to her congregation at age 30.

News Roundup for Aug. 16

Woodlawn residents are trying to pry loose Fire Department records that indicate whether or not response times have gone up since the Department closed a firehouse in that neighborhood a year ago and moved its units to Wakefield. The city said at the time that it would analyze response times in a year.
The issue was of concern to residents outside of Woodlawn as well, since the Woodlawn units -- Ladder 39 & Engine 63 -- would be the first to respond to an emergency at Croton filtration plant, now under construction in Van Corltandt Park.
Meanwhile, in a move likely to further anger the Woodlawn residents, the city announced yesterday that it was locating a new EMS station at the old Woodlawn firehouse.

Some Soundview residents said they were taken by surprise by the pesticide spraying for West Nile Virus in their community.

South Bronx residents and environmentalists are not happy with the city's seemingly greener method of transporting Bronx waste out of the borough - by rail rather than truck.

The trucking industry had its day in court this morning to protest stricter weight rules on Bronx and other area bridges in wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

Streetsblog wonders why the Henry Hudson Bridge spanning Inwood in Manhattan to Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx will be closed to bicyclists for 3 years, longer that it took to build the bridge itself.