Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, April 21

Weather: Enjoy the windy warmth today, high around 60, because rain is expected tomorrow and through the weekend.


Story of the Day: Bronx Loses Another Food Manufacturer 
The A.L. Bazzini Company, which provides peanuts at Yankee Stadium, announced Wednesday it would be moving it's Hunts Point manufacturing plant, and 57 Bronx jobs with it, to Pennsylvania in July. The 125-year-old nut roasting company, which started out in Tribeca before moving to the Bronx in 1997, will continue to keep its accounting, distribution and customer service operations -- about 50 jobs -- in the Bronx. Bazzini CEO Rocco Demato said the move to a larger, safer plant in Pennsylvania was necessary. The loss deals yet another blow to the Bronx manufacturing industry, which has recently seen the departure of cookie makers Stella D'oro and melba snack maker Old London. 

Quick Hits:
Juicy stuff in Kappy's politics column today as he hedges on predicting Councilman Jimmy Vacca's future: Borough President? A state senator opening? He also says his "spies" spotted former Bronx state senator, Pedro Espada, Jr., pulling slots at the Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway. Come on, daddy needs a new defense attorney!

Kappy, a Facebook junkie himself, reports that a young Bronx mother was killed by a man she knew on the social network. Apparently, she wasn't the intended target.  

In response to a flurry of bodega robberies in the borough, the NYPD held a crash safety course for owners last week. The most important tip: don't fight back; you might get shot or stabbed.

Riverdale-raised physical therapist Jon Weiss brings his services to the Bronx's most neglected home-bound patients.

Tonight, PBS will run a segment on Co-op City's PS 176, which caters to some 700 students with autism.

Heart-warming story of the day (from Sunday's NY Post): Lissedia Batista, a teacher at Explorations Academy, a high school on Boston Road near Crotona Park, who miscarried following an injury suffered during a classroom brawl, said she held no ill-will or grudge toward the students involved in the tussle. "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger, and I always try to teach that to my students," she told the Post. "I always try to tell them that we are always going to have rough times in our lives, but it's what we make of it that makes us who we are."

A new report backed by South Bronx community groups urges NYCHA to open up a green jobs institute in the Bronx to get residents to get back into the workforce while, at the same time, greening the borough. 

Story of the Day: Mott Haven Herald Looks at Green Jobs Prospects

The Mott Haven Herald, on-line and on the streets now, takes a look at Bronx green jobs prospects now that the federal government has given $4 million in stimulus money to the Consortium for Worker Education.

Bronx News Roundup, Jan. 29

Happy Friday everyone! Breaking news alert: It's cold! According to weather.com, it's about 19 degrees in the Bronx this morning, but should warm up to a balmy 25 sometime this afternoon. As my wife said this morning: "But it looks so nice out."

Anyway, on to the news.

Let the games begin in the 86th Assembly district where embattled incumbent Nelson Castro finds himself up against Democratic party-backed challenger and district leader Hector Ramirez. City Hall reporter Andrew Hawkins starts his story off with: "Nelson Castro is in trouble."

But Castro's not backing down and says there is nothing to the Bronx DA's investigation into charges that he lied under oath while testifying in connection with a voter fraud case in 2008 (when it was discovered that nine voters claimed Castro's apartment as their residence.)

Here's James Fergusson's 2008 story on Castro. Here's the Norwood News' story on Ramirez's challenge.

In other news:

Four bear cubs rescued in Alaska made their debut at the Bronx Zoo.

State Senate Democrats, including Bronx pols Jeff Klein and Pedro Espada, are pressuring Gov. David Paterson to collect taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian Reservations. To demonstrate how this issue affects local commerce, the Daily News reports that Espada had an aide go buy two packs of Newports for $10 (with taxes one pack of smokes in NYC is about $10). The question on smokers' minds: which bodega did they go to?

The Daily News reports that state investigators have found "credible evidence" that a 14-year-old boy was sexually assaulted at Bronx Children's Psychiatric Center.