Bronx News Roundup, March 1

Welcome to March, everyone. We made it through a bizarre, quick, cold February and I don't know about you, but I feel one step closer spring! The first day of the month will be sunny and cool, with temperatures reaching freezing levels tonight and then fluctuating wildly throughout the rest of the week.

Story of the Day:
Fantastic story and video on Riverdale's own Mr. Mummy, Bob Brier, an Egyptologist who has dedicated his life -- and three consecutive apartments -- to collecting what he calls "Egyptomania." Brier, 67, a world-renowned mummy researcher, has amassed countless Egypt- and mummy-related items, "a collection that runs the gamut, from rare artifacts to dime-store kitsch, from authentic mummy parts to pop culture merchandise," writes the Times' Corey Kilganon. Brier once sent his daughter to school with a mummified cat and says (jokingly?) that he'll be buried with all his Egyptomania.

Quick Hits:
The Visiting Nurse Service of New York is testing out a new smart phone app with young diabetes patients in the Bronx and Manhattan. The app is designed to help them manage the disease.

The City Council is considering legislation that would regulate so-called "crisis pregnancy centers," which seek to deter women from having abortions. The Bronx has the highest rate of aborted pregnancies -- 48% -- of any borough.

An insurance company is threatening to pull the plug on coverage for obstetricians at Bronx-Lebananon Hospital, which delivers some 2,700 babies each year.

ABC goes behind the scenes with the Bronx warrant squad. Here's the video:


Looks like city and state officials getting serious about keeping the Hunts Market in the Bronx. Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. said last week he was confident a deal would get done.

Big heroin bust on Bronx Park East.

Bronx businesses and cultural institutions are gearing up for the return of Yankees baseball on March 31.

Pregones Theater will be celebrating Latin music and dance all month long.

Editor's note: Did we miss anything? Have a news tip for the Bronx News Network? E-mail us at bronxnewsnetwork@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

Bronx Health: The High Cost of Undiagnosed Diabetes

Ed. note: This article appears in the latest edition of the Norwood News. November is Diabetes Awareness Month.

By Jeanmarie Evelly

When most people find out they have diabetes, it’s in their doctor’s office, following a routine physical exam that reveals their blood sugar is too high. But some people get the news in a more dire way — when they end up in the emergency room.

The Bronx has the highest rate of diabetes in the city, with 12 percent of people here diagnosed with the disease. Many more probably have it, but just don’t recognize the symptoms; the city’s health department estimates that some 200,000 New Yorkers are diabetic, but don’t know it.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and health advocates are stressing the importance of screenings in catching the disease early. Unregulated diabetes can cause a number of health problems, like blurred vision and fatigue, to more serious complications over longer periods of time, like heart disease, kidney failure, nerve and eye damage.

“What we would like to avoid are the patients who get hospitalized because their blood sugars are dangerously high,” said Dr. Rita Louard, medical director of clinical diabetes at Montefiore Medical Center.

“For many people, by the time they get the blood test that tells them they have diabetes, they already have the damage,” she said.

News Roundup for July 26

The organization Rocking the Boat and Joseph Rachlin of the Lehman College biology department are featured in a story about efforts to restore urban rivers in the current issue of the Nation. A preview is available here.

NY1 has an update on a fire that gutted some Jerome Avenue stores in May. The police are searching for a group of teens that were captured in a surveillance video.

Bronx parents, students and council members rallied at City Hall yesterday to protest overcrowding in the schools, News 12 reports.

News 12 also reports on plans to improve bus service in the Bronx. The changes come 6 months after State Senator Jeff Klein released a study criticizing express bus service.

The Daily News reported yesterday about the contentious search for a new home for Peace and Diversity High School, which outgrew its space on Lehman's campus last year.

And the NY Times looks at the Diabetes epidemic in the city, noting that "New Yorkers in East Harlem, Williamsburg-Bushwick and certain parts of the South Bronx are hospitalized for diabetes at 10 times the rate of residents of the Upper East Side."