Headlines in Wake of Bronx Gay Bias Attacks

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."

Bronx News Roundup, Sept. 1

We all knew this summer's been oppressively, relentlessly, shirt-stainingly hot, but now it's official. We are enduring the hottest summer in New York City history, according to the National Weather Service. Thankfully, temperatures are supposed to drop on Friday.

City officials unveiled a new $6 million dollar skate park near Yankee Stadium.

A lawyer has taken the Riverdale's Horace Mann School to court after the school suspended his son for three days. The schools suspended the 16-year-old after classmates found topless photos of a young woman on his computer.

Recordings show that one of the defendants charged with plotting to bomb two Riverdale synagogues expressed some hesitation about the plot, which also included plans to shoot down airplanes. The defense says this gives credence to their claim that the defendants were coerced into the plot by an FBI informant. More on the case here.

Researchers from the YIVO Insitute for Yiddish Research are combing through the apartment of famed Yiddish writer of Chaim Grade, whose widow recently died in the Amalgamated Houses near Van Corltandt Park.

Upstart Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, a real estate developer from Buffalo, recently touched down in the Bronx to talk with political leaders, including Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr.

Speaking of Diaz Sr., Ken Padilla, a district leader in the Reverend's turf, says Diaz Sr. is engaging "politics of deception."

It got ugly on the Cross Bronx Expressway last night when an overturned tractor-trailer dumped lumber all over an on-ramp.

Bronx News Roundup, Aug. 27

The quarter-finals of the Bronx Open, a women's tennis tournament, are being held today. The New York Times says:

Recognizable players from the women’s tour, in competitive, sometimes controversial matches, with fans watching from about a yard away, in an outer borough park — only it’s not the United States Open qualifying but the EmblemHealth Bronx Open, which is taking place this week on the hardcourts in picturesque Crotona Park.

There's no admission charge today or tomorrow.  Watching Sunday's singles final will set you back $10.  The US Open itself starts on Monday.

NY1 wraps up its week-long "Once Upon a Time In The Bronx" series with a look back at the storied history of Van Cortlandt Park.

The daughter of a Bronx woman who died at Jacobi Medical Center is suing the hospital for allegedly harvesting the deceased woman's organs without permission.

In court yesterday, the defense lawyers representing four men accused of trying to blow up two Riverdale synagogues, continued to paint their clients as dupes, cynically lured into a plot they would never have devised on their own.

Police say a 21-year-old man was shot dead in Mott Haven around 4 a.m. this morning.

Carl Paladino, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, received a warm welcome in the Bronx yesterday from State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. and other Hispanic ministers. Diaz also wants to meet with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. So far, Cuomo hasn't shown much interest.

Michele Carlo, a Brooklyn-based writer of Puerto Rican heritage, has written a memoir - "Fish Out Of Agua" - about her childhood years in the Bronx. Here's Carlo's website.