The Daily News lays off Bob Kappstatter, a 43-year veteran of the paper, whose weekly column on the borough is a must-read.
Weather: Cool and mostly cloudy with on-and-off rainstorms predicted.
On to your Bronx news!
Story of the Day: DOE Meeting Tonight to Discuss 'Toxic' P.S. 51
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and other city officials will be in the Bronx tonight to meet with parents and members of the community to discuss P.S. 51, the Bedford Park elementary school that's being moved because its current building was found to be contaminated with high levels of Trichloroethylene--an industrial solvent that can potentially cause serious health problems that affect the central nervous system, including the liver, kidney, and the immune system, according to the EPA.You can read more coverage on the situation here; details about tonight's meeting are here.
The DOE said there are no immediate health risks posed to students at the school, but that doesn't seem to have done much to ease parents' concerns. "All parents in this school should have their children tested because as you can see from this issue the Board of Education can't be trusted to tell the truth," one BxNN reader and PS 51 parent commented. We'll be covering tonight's meeting and will keep you updated.
Quick Hits:
The funeral for Christina Santiago, killed this weekend in Indiana when a concert stage collapsed, takes place today in the Bronx.
Great story in the Times this morning about parents who are caught with minor amounts of marijuana--not enough to charge them with a crime--getting subject to extra scrutiny from child welfare on accusations of neglect.
Weather: Foggy and 71 degrees at the moment, with scattered thunderstorms predicted.
Story of the Day: Kemba Walker Ready for His NBA Close-up
Soundview native Kemba Walker, who was launched into basketball stardom after leading his UConn Huskies to a national championship this spring, is expected to be a lottery pick in tonight's NBA draft, telling the Hartford Courant that he's "excited, nervous, ready." He could join any of five teams--Charlotte, Detroit, Toronto, Sacramento and Utah. "It's a dream come true no matter where I am selected," Walker told the paper.
"The Bronx, and all of New York City really, will smile knowingly and burst with pride," tonight, the NY Post's Steve Serby writes. Good luck, Kemba!
Quick Hits:
In other news related to talented Bronx athletes: North Riverdale Little Leaguer Sean Gallagher, 9, pitched a perfect, 8-inning game last week.
The NYPD is now scanning the irises of crime suspects when they are arrested and before they are arraigned, to avoid fraud and escapes. The new system started in Manhattan yesterday and will be introduced in the Bronx and other boroughs soon.
A Jamaican bakery in Wakefield celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The Kingston Tropical Bakery, at White Plains Road and E. 226th Street, was opened in 1970 by husband-and-wife team Jessie and John Levi and now employs 36 people.
A Bronx-based moving company is taking painstaking precautions to prevent the spread of bed bugs.
Dominick Sgobbo, a World War II vet who lives in Pelham Bay (who is also the uncle of Daily News writer Rob Sgobbo, a former Mount Hope Monitor intern) was reunited with his army mess kit after 65 years, when a Dutch archeology student dug it up and returned it.
Sgobbo also has a story in the paper today about Lehman High School, where students are complaining of dead rodents and urine-stenched bathrooms since a number of custodians at the school were laid off.
In his weekly column, the Daily News' Bob Kappstatter says Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo's appointment of BP Ruben Diaz Jr. to his transition team is a dig at Mayor Bloomberg. Diaz and Bloomy butted heads last winter over the Kingsbridge Armory deal, which the Mayor pushed for and Diaz helped kill.
Also on Cuomo's new team? Assemblyman Peter Rivera, who, oddly enough, was being investigated by Cuomo in his Attorney General role last year for allegedly having too-close ties to a now defunct nonprofit.
More on the possible closing of several of the city's Catholic schools, and what it will mean for the Bronx.
A man who struck and killed a pregnant woman on Webster Avenue in 2008 has been sentenced to four years in prison. Walter Walker was driving without a license and was convicted of criminally-negligent homicide.
The price of Yankees tickets--including the usually-cheap bleacher seats--will go up again next season.
Don't forget to check out our new features on this site, like our events calendar, community forum, and the SeeClickFix feature where you can report and track responses to neighborhood problems.
Happy Election Day, everyone! Make sure you head to the polls today and vote. Here's a roundup of who's running in the Bronx and elsewhere. Now on to this morning's Bronx headlines:
Roberto Huie, a senior at the Eagle Academy for Young Men in Tremont, has been accepted into the prestigious West Point Military Academy.
Family and friends mourned yesterday at the funeral of 17-year-old Luzbenet Ramirez, who was found murdered in a Longwood apartment last week. A 40-year-old man has been arrested in connection with her death.
Catch up on your Bronx political news--including Nelson Castro's unpaid parking tickets and more on the future of the Muller Army Reserve Center--in Bob Kappstatter's weekly column.
Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg called Yankees fans an "embarrassment" during a radio interview yesterday.
Things are working out well in Morris Heights, where a residence for the mentally ill and chronically homeless was first met with neighborhood protests. Community Board 5 member Bernice Williams said last week that the center's residents are "very good neighbors."
A 30-year-old Bronx man drove the wrong way on I-81 in upstate New York this weekend. He faces traffic-related charges.
State Assemblyman Michael Benjamin has proposed legislation to put the Board of Elections under mayoral control, following the firing of Executive Director George Gonzalez last week.
The Bronx--and the rest of the country--is reeling after last week's horrific antigay attacks, in which a group of men who call themselves the "Latin King Goonies" sodomized and tortured a 30-year-old gay man and two 17-year-olds they suspected of having had sex with him.
The violence comes after the suicides of five gay teenagers across the country over the last month, all of whom were tormented in school for being gay. Yesterday was National Coming Out Day, and today, Oct. 12, is the 12 year anniversary of Matthew Shephard's death, the 21-year-old gay college student from Laramie, Wyoming, who was brutally beaten and left tied to a fence to die in 1998.
Last week's beatings took place in an abandoned building in Morris Heights, while the suspected ringleader of the gang is a 23-year-old man from Bedford Park.
"The Bronx is hanging its head in shame," this week, writes Daily News columnist Bob Kappstatter. "As if it needed another bad rap, the utter stupidity and vile hatred of some punk gangbangers gave the borough a new black eye."
A 15-year-old Bronx boy was shot and killed in a shooting Monday morning in Brooklyn.
In the wake of this weekend's drownings, the Times takes a closer look at the Bronx River and its re-emergence in the public eye in recent years.
The part of the river where the two teens drowned--near the Bronx Zoo, in West Farms--is a popular swimming spot, according to the Daily News.
Police are looking for a man who raped and assaulted a 79-year-old woman in the elevator of her Westchester Square apartment building. State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. is holding a press conference today at 1 p.m., at Benson Street and East Tremont Avenue, to rally for the community's involvement in catching the assailant, according to press release sent this morning.
Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the Working Families Party, writes that the best way to change Albany is to vote Pedro Espada out of office. His party has already endorsed challenger Gustavo Rivera.
The Daily News Bob Kappstatter has more on this race in his weekly column. We'll be posting more details on some of the candidates today, so check back here for updates.
Daily News Bronx Bureau Chief Bob Kappstatter was Gary Axelbank's guest on BronxTalk this past Monday night (before the Espada civil suit was announced).
They had an in-depth discussion about Bronx politics and analyzed some of this fall's Senate and Assembly primary races (who might challenge who, whether the incumbents will get County support, etc.)
Next Monday night at 9 p.m., Public Advocate Bill de Blasio will be the guest. On Monday, May 10 it will be City Comptroller John Liu.
For more than 15 years, BronxTalk has been seen live each week on Bronxnet's Cablevision channel 67. It's also on Verizon Fios channel 33 and streamed live at http://www.bronxnet.org/. Produced by Jane Folloro, BronxTalk is repeated each day at 9:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m., and 9 p.m. Archives are available at blip.tv; search for "BronxTalk."
