Bronx News Catch-Up Roundup, Sept. 13

Good afternoon, Bronxites! Yes, it's been quiet here on the blogging front. We're short-staffed at the moment and in-between intern sessions, and we've also been gearing up for a new semester of the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative (speaking of which--we've extended our application deadline to Sept. 21! Tell your kids/students/friends!)

So: blogging might be on the light side for a bit. But here are some Bronx headlines that you may have missed this week/weekend:

Yet another Bronx Zoo animal escape went down on Sunday. An African antelope, also known as a Kudu, joins the ranks of the Bronx Zoo peacock and the Bronx Zoo cobra. It broke free of its enclosure just in time for professional photographer Andrew Litchenstein to snap its photo.

The Times' Lens Blog highlights a photo slideshow of teenagers attending the prom at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore.

A Bronx Surrogate Judge is in hot water for approving attorney fees for a friend--who also happens to be his campaign fundraiser--for work on estate cases the lawyer never performed.

Bronx News Roundup, May 5

Happy Cinco de Mayo! And sorry for the late round up. Lots going on today.

Weather: Mostly sunny today with a few clouds with temperatures in the high 50's.

Story of the Day:

Bronx Museum is currently featuring an exhibit called Stargazers, which features work by Elizabeth Catlett. The exhibit celebrates the struggles and the beauty of African American and working-class Mexican women. In honor of Mother's Day and Catlett's 96th birthay, her son Francisco Mora Catlett, a musician and his band will be playing two free sets at the Museum this Friday.

Quick Hits:

Joe DeGuardia,longtime fight promoter and head of STAR Boxing hopes to turn the Paradise Theater located on the Grand Concourse and E. 187th St. into a boxing venue. He claims that the Bronx has all the elements for a big-time fight scene: homegrown talent, a splendid venue in the Paradise, and a built-in fan base.

87 year old Nancy Lynch spoke today at Lehman College about her experience in the Navy during World War II. Lynch enlisted WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service)and attending service training at what is now the campus of Lehman College.

Controversy continues to spread in the case of Bronx assistant DA, Jennifer Troiano, who has been charged with drunken driving and is still prosecuting 75 cases. "She should be fired outright. Anyone else would have been dismissed from their job a long time ago," a police source said.

Some residents at the Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation & Care Center believe they are not being treated properly. Two residents have taken matters into their own hands and started recording what they consider troubling incidents at the facility.

Bronx Weekend News Roundup, Monday, May 2

Welcome back to the program, ladies and gentlemen of the Bronx and beyond. Lots of news to get to, so let's get to it. To the weather!

Weather: Cloudy and cool this morning, high in the mid-60s, with rain expected overnight and tomorrow morning.

Story of the Day: Bronx Homeless Intake Center Opens
Tomorrow, the city is set to open a new, $65.5 million homeless intake center in Melrose, on East 151st Street in the South Bronx. The new center replaces a former one on the same site, which was shuttered five years ago and criticized for being dirty, dangerous and inadequately staffed. Officials from the Department of Homeless Services say that at the old center, a family could wait up to 20 hours to be processed, while the new site predicts wait times of about 6  hours.

New studies show that homelessness in the city is on the rise, and that last year, 16 percent more families were turned away from the city's shelters than the year before.

Quick Hits:

Members of St. Stephen United Methodist Church, one of four Bronx parishes that was burglarized in recent months, say they're willing to forgive whoever is responsible for the crimes.

Some 32,000 cyclists rode through the streets of the Bronx yesterday, one leg of the annual Five Boro Bike Tour.

An 11-year-old Bronx girl, who was abducted from her home seven months ago and forced to have sex with her captors while being held in an apartment on the Lower East Side, tells her heartbreaking story to the Daily News.

Dramatists are taking their purchase of two Co-Op City storage lockers -- bought at auction after their owners missed monthly payments to keep the space -- to the stage of a Chelsea theater.

New Yorkers keep a bevy of weird--and illegal--animals as pets, according to according to Health Department records obtained by the New York Post. Found in the Bronx:  A large Colombian red tail boa constrictor, two ball pythons, a 2-foot-long Australian children’s python, and 11 crowing roosters.

Soccer club South Bronx United has formed the first-ever traveling girls' soccer team to represent the Bronx.

After a string of Bronx bodega robberies, the Bodega Association of the United States is urging deli owners to keep guns on hand for protection.

Bronx prosecutor Jennifer Troiano, who was arrested last summer on a DWI charge after getting into a three-car accident on the Major Deegan Expressway, may have skirted a similar arrest years earlier. 

--Compiled by Jeanmarie Evelly