Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, Aug. 4

Weather: Not too hot today: sunny with some clouds. Unlike last night, it should stay pretty clear through the evening.

Story of the Day:
A second water main break this morning on Jerome Avenue less than a mile away from where last week's was. The Daily News reports that the break occurred around 6 a.m. and was shut off by 7:45 a.m. This break caused far less damage than last week's, but still left two inches of water in the street. According to the Department of Environmental Protection, the two breaks are not related or an indictment of a failing water main system. Nope, simply just a freak coincidence.

Quick Hits:
An elderly priest from Eastchester has been accused of molesting a 16-year-old girl.

Former State Senator Pedro Espada's Bedford Park co-op is still up for sale. The Daily News' Bob Kappstatter reports that Espada may be getting desperate to sell his former home with the beginning of his federal trial for embezzlement charges looming on Sept. 12 and that the property could be a bargain. Plus, other political tidbits.

Bronx News Roundup, Friday, July 8

Weather: It says on weather.com that it's 77 degrees out this Friday morning in the Bronx. But my sweat-drenched body and wardrobe begs to differ. If it is, it's a thick, muggy, shirt-sticking-to-your-back 77.  Thunderstorms are expected later today and tonight.

Story of the Day: From a Window and a Bucket, the 'Best Ices' in the Bronx
During these sweltering dog days of summer, Providence Lamuitt, an 81-year-old gramma, is probably making a a small fortune selling ices -- some say the "best ices" -- out of her apartment window on Tiebout Avenue near E. 181st Street. Lamuitt, known as "gramma" to customers, grew up experimenting with ice mixtures while growing up in her native Puerto Rico. She moved to her current apartment 30 years ago and began selling ices out of it in the mid-1990s. Her business model is simple. Customers yell up to her window for a certain flavor. She lowers a metal bucket down to the street with a rope to retrieve the money, a bargain at 50 cents a pop. Moments later, your order arrives in the same bucket. "My ices are the best because I have lots of experience," she tells the Daily News. See video below:

Quick Hits:

Bronx News Roundup, Friday, April 22

Happy Earth Day! Go out and do something good for Mother Nature today. Send her a card made out of recycled paper or hug a tree or clean up your dog's poop or here's a bunch of other suggestions.

Weekend Weather: Very cool, in the 50s, on this Earth Day. The nearly-certain arrival of rain is supposed to hold off until the middle of the night and then continue through Saturday. Temperatures will rise into the 60s tomorrow and could hit a cloudy 70 on Sunday.

Story of the Day: The Best Roasted Pork in the Boogie Down
Roasted pork as the Story of the Day? You betcha, as my dad loves to say. We'll get to some gloom and doom in the Hits, but not here. Here we're talking about pork. Luscious, mouth-watering Puerto Rican-style roasted pork at El Nuevo Bohío. BxNN friend David Gonzalez's descriptions in this NY Times "Neighborhood Joint" feature are downright poetic. A snippet: "Veiled by vapor rising from the steam tables, platters emerge like apparitions, handed over to waitresses who balance them on forearms that would frighten a championship arm wrestler." Wow. Gonzalez is on top of his game. After reading this piece, I almost stopped this roundup and immediately headed over to the corner of East Tremont and Mapes avenues. Maybe I'll walk there later in honor of Earth Day. Plus, there's a slide show.

Quick Hits: 
Echoes of Sean Bell in Highbridge early this morning as police opened fire a 20-year-old man, who reportedly would not drop the pellet gun he was holding, striking him 10 times. Amazingly, Mamadou Valve, he's still alive as of this posting.

More on the fatal car crash on Fordham Road, which we reported on yesterday afternoon. The woman who died has been identified as 61-year-old Carmen Ahmed, who was shopping when the livery cab crashed into Cee & Cee Department store.

The NYPD ticket-fixing investigation centered around Bronx police officers received a big boost from two "hapless" rookie cops.(The Post has been all over this story.)

City Hall calls Bronx DA Robert Johnson a "winner" this week for his role in ticket-fixing investigation and endorsement from the Bronx Democrats.

Police are looking for a man who was caught on tape snatching the purse of a 78-year-old woman.

Cops arrested and charged a suspect with murdering a young Bronx mother.

The DOT is attempting to curb speeding on Bruckner Boulevard in Country Club by installing a new "speed board."

Often incendiary Post political columnist Frederic U. Dicker, who grew up in the Bronx, has been "surprisingly gentle" with Gov. Cuomo thus far, the Times report.

And finally, in a wide stretch of an editorial today, the Daily News links the impending loss of the Bazzini nut roasting plant jobs to the political fight to stop the Kingsbridge Armory from turning into a shopping mall and criticizes city politicians -- specifically Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. -- for not being more business-friendly.

Two problems with this editorial. One, the loss of Bronx jobs is never a good thing, but Bazzini CEO Rocco Damato said: "It's nobody's fault." And two, it says the living wage bill supported by 28 Council members is an "insane idea" that has "taxpayers subsidize wages in the private-sector." That's simply not true. The living wage legislation, known as the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, would require developers (not taxpayers) to provide living wage jobs when they receive big subsidies and tax breaks from the city. In that way, taxpayers already subsidize the private sector. But that money goes into the pockets of developers and doesn't translate into better jobs. So, on behalf of Diaz, Jr., I'd like to say, Oh yeah, Daily News, what do you have to say about this:


The Bronx, the Brooooooooooooonx!

Bronx Weekend News Roundup, Monday, April 18

Welcome back to the program, ladies and gentleman of the Bronx and beyond. Just a reminder, today is the official deadline to file your taxes. So, get it done or risk the wrath of the IRS.

Weather: High of around 60 today with clouds obscuring the sun as the day goes on. A strong chance of rain tonight through Wednesday.

Story of the Day: Bronx Cops on the Hot Seat
Yesterday, the Post unveiled its "exclusive" look into the NYPD ticket-fixing scandal that apparently is almost exclusively focused on Bronx police officers. The report claims 400 cops, most of them from the Bronx's 12 precincts, could face internal disciplinary action and two dozen officers, many of them union delegates, could face criminal charges. The investigation began in 2008 after a Bronx cop suspected of selling drugs was heard on a wire tap asking another cop, a union rep, for help fixing a summons. The investigation ballooned from there. Today, the Times delves into the matter, quoting several unnamed "law enforcement officials" and a couple of named lawyers who say ticket fixing has been around since ticket issuing began and that the matter should be handled within the department. It's unclear when the Bronx District Attorney's office will complete its grand jury investigation, while an Internal Affairs Bureau probe continues.

Quick Hits:
Victor Toro, a South Bronx activist who face deportation back to his native Chile where he was tortured in the late 1970s, remains outspoken even as the U.S. government is intent on removing him from the Mott Haven area he now calls home.

New Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who officially starts his new job today, spoke at Harvest Fields Community Church in Westchester Square yesterday and assured teachers: "You will never, ever hear me say  a bad thing about you," according to the Daily News. But he also said he would go through with Bloomberg's plan to cut 4,000 teachers and fight to end their seniority protections.

Three Bronx teens were injured, one critically, while driving a mini van along Bruckner Boulevard early Saturday morning.

Boxing is coming back to the Loew's Paradise Theater.

A new study found that tax filers in several low-income zip codes in the Bronx and Brooklyn saw more than a million dollars of their refund money go to high-interest "refund anticipation loans." Jumelia Abrahamson (her name is misspelled in the article [and was again misspelled in this post earlier, but is now, finally, corrected]), who works for University Neighborhood Housing Program, a Bronx-based nonprofit that offers free tax prep precisely because they want filers to keep more of their refunds, said the for-profit companies who push these loans often obscure how much of a cut their taking.

Broxite David Vizcaino will compete in the 2011 Special Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, April 14

Weather: Enjoy the mid 60s temperatures and sunshine broken up only by the occasional cloud.

To the news!

Story of the Day:
During a 9-year-stretch between 1986 and 1995, 65 bodies (65!) were found in the Bronx's Pelham Bay Park, the city's largest park at 2,700 acres. "It’s vast, vast territory,” Lloyd Ultan, the Bronx borough historian, told the Times in an article about the New York area's many body-hiding hot spots. “A lot of it is wild. It would take a long time for anybody to find anything there that shouldn’t be there.” The article, which stems from the 10 bodies recently found in the Long Island shore brush, says that Pelham Bay Park used to a be a dumping ground for bodies and gives a couple of examples of the grizzly discoveries made at the east Bronx park. But with all that vast, wild land, how do they know it's not still being used in such a manner?

Quick Hits:
Residents and police say a deli in Concourse Village is the root of many evils.

More details on the neighbor who was arrested for killing Bronx grandmother Ethel Parrish.

The Bronx Children's Museum will make its mobile debut at the Bronx Day Parade on May 22. (More on this later today.)

Starting Saturday in the Bronx and other outer boroughs, the 929 area code will be given out  to new landlines and cell phones.

Kappy has details on the ticket-fixing scandal that's centered around Bronx cops. But he says this is bigger than the Bronx: "With tickets now computerized, the informal 'courtesy' system no longer works. But the problem for Bloomberg, Kelly and the cop unions is the tix-fix system has been around just about forever, with the current Bronx probe a potential Pandora's box."

He also says Councilman Fernando Cabrera is finding it difficult to pay back the tax breaks received on his Westchester home while living in the Bronx.

Bronx Weekend News Roundup, Monday, April 11

Weather: Dense fog in the Bronx today will give way to a partially cloudy, partially sunny afternoon with highs in the low 70s. Chance of thunderstorms later tonight.

Story of the Day: Bronx's MS 223 Embodies Public School Challenges
Spent a good chunk of this morning reading Jonathan Mahler's extensive NY Times Magazine piece about MS 223, a South Bronx school opened during the early days of former Chancellor Joel Klein's reform movement. Through his profile of 223 and its energetic and highly-optimistic principal, Ramon Gonzalez, Mahler, who wrote the fabulously entertaining "The Bronx is Burning," deftly captures the challenges of not only running, but improving, public schools in the Bronx (and much of NYC, for that matter). If you don't have time to read the piece (as I mentioned, it's "extensive," to the tune of 20 printed out pages), I'll summarize the key take away points.

--The charter school paradox: Gonzalez uses many ideas and strategies promoted by charters schools. MS 223 starts school early and entices kids to stay late. Gonzalez hires young, bright, inexperienced and tireless teachers from groups like Teach for America and NYC Teaching Fellows. He partners with nonprofits and uses resources to raise funds for 223. He instituted a dress code. At the same time, charter schools are plucking many of the most promising local students -- whose parents want all the structure and personal attention charters have to offer. Plus, Gonzalez doesn't have the flexibility of a charter because he's more bound to union regulations. Now, he's fighting to keep a charter school out of his own building.

--MS 223 is a good example of the city's controversial strategy of shutting down schools and starting over. Gonzalez's school undoubtedly represents a large improvement over the middle school it replaced. Math and reading scores have spiked exponentially.

--On the other hand, MS 223 is also taking on students dispersed when the city shuts down other low-performing schools. As Mahler puts it: "the endless flow of underperforming students drags down test scores, demoralizes teachers and makes the already daunting challenges of transforming 223 into a successful school, not not just a relatively successful one, that much more difficult."

--The most overwhelming challenge at schools like MS 223 remains poverty and lack of parental involvement.

Quick Hits:
A look at the Bronx Zoo's celebrity cobra, which was recently named "Mia," following an online contest to brand the former escapee:


A look at MTV's new upcoming reality show, "Son of a Gun," which will follow the life and career of Bronx rapper Corey Gunz.

During the rough winter months, a stretch of two- and three-story homes in the Bronx -- on Freeman Street, between Union and Prospect avenues -- could very well have been the Most Neglected Block in New York City.

A grand jury is looking into a police ticket-fixing scheme that may have involved some 40 Bronx cops.

The animators for the new movie "Rio," went to the Bronx Zoo for inspiration.

A Bronx Science senior contemplates a buffet of Ivy League college choices while trying to avoid "hubris."

A 16-year-old Bronx boy was arrested and charged with murder following last Thursday's triple shooting near the corner of Fordham Road and University Avenue.

The family of a Bronx man who died of heat stroke while incarcerated at a boot-camp-style detention center is suing the state for $18 million, saying missteps and abuses led to his death.