Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 16

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.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 4

Congressman Jose E. Serrano says he went to work yesterday with the goal of getting back a Democratic majority in 2012, after this Tuesday's election saw a Republican takeover of the House.

On the local level, it looks like Republicans in the State Senate could be on the verge of taking the majority, or at least ending up with a tie. More here.

A woman discovered an old military explosive while cleaning out her deceased uncle's Throgs Neck home. Police came to dispose of the mortar round, which may have been from the uncle's days in World War II.

Four members of a family from Mott Haven died in a car accident yesterday in Maryland, as they drove back to New York from Virginia Beach. Carmelo Dominguez, his wife Evelyn Morales, daughter Natasha Dominguez and 2-year-old grandson Jose were killed in the wreck.

Students and teachers at Herbert H. Lehman High School, in Westchester Square, worry an 'F' the school received on its DOE report card could mean closure for the school, or at least interfere with a longtime campaign to renovate their unusable football field.

The Post says the replacement of a longtime principal at Lehman two years ago is to blame for its slipping grades, according to some parents.

Mayor Bloomberg says he was unaware of an old city rule that banned cars with city plates from being towed--the regulation meant Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who has $8,600 in unpaid parking tickets, could park without fear.

Bronx Weekend News Roundup, Oct. 25

The Bronx Bombers cleaned out their clubhouse yesterday after a painful loss to the Texas Rangers ended their season Friday night.

Speaking of the Yankees: Grim LeRogue, the, um, eccentric fan who was arrested for storming the field at a game, says it was just a booze-fueled and harmless publicity prank. (Interesting side note: some of LeRogue's statements to police--including bizarre rants about Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston and Osama Bin Laden--are oddly similar to a letter the Norwood News received last week.)

A 25-year-old man was found shot to death in his Olinville apartment on Saturday, one of five separate killings that took place across the city this weekend. 

6,000 cyclists rode through the borough yesterday at the annual Tour de Bronx. This years' event was held in honor of beloved community advocate Megan Charlop, who was killed in a biking accident in March.

Volunteers across the city planted thousands of new trees in their parks yesterday, with 3,500 planted in Van Cortlandt park alone.

Director Gary Weis talks to BlackBook.com about his documentary "80 Blocks from Tiffany's." The 1979 film, which chronicles street violence in the South Bronx of that era, is being released on DVD this month.

An enraged man smashed about eight cars with a 20-pound pick-axe on a street in Co-op City Friday morning. He was arrested shortly after.

A hit-and-run driver who struck a pedestrian in Fordham on Friday was caught by police on an unrelated drug-bust yesterday.

An argument with officials and the opposing team had Lehman High School football coach Michael Saunds pull his players from the field on Friday, with just a few minutes left in the game.

Eva Moskowitz, whose Success Charter Network runs schools in Harlem and the South Bronx, argues the need for more charter schools on the Upper West Side.

South Bronx native Misra Walker was one of six people to receive the environmental Brower Youth Award for her campaign for a shuttle bus to Baretto Point Park. 

A Bronx related-bit at the end of this piece on Democratic conference leader John Sampson: investigators are looking into the Democrats' hiring of Sen. Pedro Espada's son, Pedro G. Espada, last year. According to the Daily News, The Legislative Ethics Commission is investigating whether the younger Espada got the $120,000-a-year-job--which he quit last August--as a means to get his father to end the Senate stalemate.

Bronx News Roundup for August 26

A Bronx man is being held without bail after fingerprints from a minor charge were found to match those sampled from a rape victim in 1993. In 2007, the man's cousin was charged in connection to the crime and now faces up to 25 years in prison.

A worker for Tri-State Electrical Contracting was struck by a lift on the Throngs Neck Bridge. The worker's company was ironically a subcontractor of E.E. Cruz Contracting, the company found responsible for the July 10th fire that shut down Bronx traffic to and from the bridge for more than two weeks.

According to a poll done by the New York Daily News, 76% of baseball game and park-goers rated most of the parks in the Bronx area outside Yankee Stadium with D's or F's on a scale from A-F in terms of maintenance. Residents say they haven't seen where much of the $220 million has gone that was allotted in 2004 by Mayor Bloomberg to revitalize city parks.

Councilman G. Oliver Koppell of the Bronx calls on Sen. Diane Savino to make an apology for remarks that Gov. David Paterson's vision is affecting his ability to govern.

Leaks persist after $32 million was given to do repairs at the Grand Concourse tunnel at 161st Street. The situation has residents wondering where their tax dollars are going and Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. calling it "an ice skating opportunity" for cars.

Mosquitoes infected with the West Nile Virus have been found in the east Bronx. Health officials advise residents of the Ferry Point Park area near Whitestone Bridge as they plan to spray for bugs in the area tonight.

A Bronx team proves the game of cricket will continue to have a big following as the Bronx Lions, the cricket team for Lehman High School that was nonetheless eliminated from playing in the tournament, showed up with hundreds of others to watch the NYPD youth cricket match that was reported on by NBC News.

Some residents of the South Bronx have started up a small farm to raise organic produce as well as interacting with the community to raise cultural and historic awareness of the land.