Talk Bronx New York

It’s been an embarrassment of political riches these days.

Latest is Mayor Bloomberg shaking up Bronx and other pols by saying voters (with guidance from his $100 million-plus campaign checkbook) can fairly (?) decide if he and those hardworking (?) City Council members should glom a third term to save us all from financial implosion.

Bronx BP Adolfo Carrión is still playing coy whether to back out of the controller’s race if it happens. Not to mention the fallout down the boro political ladder.

Then there’s that schizo leadership battle involving Bronx Democratic Party Boss “Jose Heastie.”

While we await expected court action, the rebels opened “the new Bronx Democratic headquarters” Friday in Longwood.

Advice to rebel Party Boss Carl Heastie: After Jose Rivera camp’s thuggery at that stacked vote, we’d keep the records safe elsewhere.

The whole third term thing seems to have bitten Riverdale Councilman Ollie Koppell on his, er, nose, since his bill would abolish term limits instead of Mayuh Mike’s plan for a one-term extension.

Ollie told Crain’s Insider the mayor’s plan “would make this thing look so self-serving that I think it would be on the borderline of offensive.”

One thing for sure, Ollie’s in the Ben Franklin Reform Democratic clubhouse doghouse for backing Jose.

He finally woke up and smelled the cafe con leche, trying last week to get Jose “to step down gracefully.”

If Ollie wants a third term, he’ll really have to do some serious groveling to club leaders and “rebel” County Chairman Jeff Dinowitz.

“There are a lot of people extremely unhappy,” said District Leader Bruce Feld. “Ollie could face big problems.” Read more..

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Bust 12 in Bronx Insurance Scam

A dozen people who scammed auto insurance companies by faking accidents were busted Tuesday in the Bronx, police said.

The crew got involved in five minor, two-car accidents, then claimed injuries and went to at least four different medical centers, where complicitous employees bilked insurance companies for as much as $25,000 a patient.

Each alleged victim was paid $300 to $500. The medical center employees also promised that the patients would be able to sue the insurance companies for more money if they attended 20-30 appointments.

The patients are all charged with insurance fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records. Police expect to charge three more people with those crimes.

Cops are also preparing an indictment against the ringleader of the scam, who made as much as $2,500 a person for steering them to the medical centers.

Members of the NYPD fraud accident investigation squad are also planning to arrest employees of the medical centers.

SOURCE

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Montefiore is ‘Keeping Kids Healthy’ in the Bronx 

Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 to Focus on Wellness and Safety

WHAT:

For families with children 12 years old and younger, the themes for this year’s Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 are: wellness promotion, health education, and safety and community. This FREE, fun-filled afternoon is sponsored by The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center and HIP Health Plan of New York. While offering an afternoon of entertainment, games and refreshments, important health education and health screenings will be provided.

Great visual opportunities

The Children’s Health Fair will include:

Child Health History I.D. Cards and Fingerprinting

Asthma and Diabetes Information

Nutritional Information

Medication Safety

Hearing and Vision Screenings

NYPD Representatives

FDNY Representatives

Face Painting and Activities

WHEN:

Sunday June 1, 2008

Noon - 3PM (Rain or Shine)

WHERE:

Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center

Corner of East Gun Hill Road and DeKalb Avenue

Bronx, NY

Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 is open to children ages 12 and under who are accompanied by an adult.

SOURCE: PRNewsWire.com

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Bronx Neighborhood Shocked By Graffiti On 9/11 Mural 

Two women walk past defaced memorial mural to Firefighter Peter Bielfeld.

Over several nights this month, a graffiti vandal stared into the face of Firefighter Peter Bielfeld, who lost his life rushing into the World Trade Center - and coldly spray-painted right over it.

Now the Olinville community where Bielfeld lived, the South Bronx community where he worked and Bielfeld’s family are raging, and out to punish whoever defaced the memorial wall mural of Bielfeld.

“It’s ridiculous. It is very personal,” said Bielfeld’s father, Ernest, 73, who held memorial services at the mural in memory of his son on Olinville Ave., before his son’s remains were found. “It’s such an emotional thing for us. Angry? I’m pissed off.”

The defaced mural is at Thwaites Place, down the street from where the 44-year-old Bielfeld lived on Barker Ave., on the wall of a bodega where he regularly bought cigars.

Bielfeld’s face and much of the rest of the mural was obliterated by the bubble-letter tag - “SIPS.”

“How could you do something like that? 9/11 has touched everyone,” said Victor DiPierro, community affairs officer for the 49th Precinct, who has added his own $250 to the NYPD’s $500 reward to catch the defacer. “It’s just so disrespectful. It’s blatant.”

DiPierro calls graffiti his “forever arch nemesis.” He goes out on the street weekly, cleaning graffiti off walls. But, graffiti on a memorial mural? DiPierro compared it to defacing a tombstone.

He warned “SIPS” that he will most likely have the same fate as a similar defacer whose tag was “SNEZ.”

DiPierro spent a year hunting for SNEZ, who defaced a 9/11 mural in Morris Park. When he found the 14-year-old at the end of the spray can, he was punished by the law and his parents. DiPierro said he will similarly canvas the area’s schools to find SIPS.

DiPierro is also working with Eddie Rodriguez, who painted Bielfeld’s mural, and who has agreed to restore the image, which has a twin near Ladder 42, Engine 73, where Bielfeld worked. The firehouse, the 49th Precinct Community Council and DiPierro plan on splitting the cost of the restoration.

Ernest Bielfeld hopes the mural will be a permanent record of the story of his son, who had been injured the weekend before Sept. 11 and was visiting the fire department’s medical office when the planes hit.

He rushed downtown, borrowed equipment from a different firehouse and left behind a note for his family expressing his love in case he did not make it back.

“It tells a story of a good guy who did above and beyond the call of duty,” Bielfeld said. “When one of your kids goes, it’s indescribable. But it is not in memory of just Peter, but the 343 firemen who were murdered.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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Lawsuit challenges NYPD stop-and-frisk policy

A civil liberties group filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the NYPD’s practice of stopping hundreds of thousands of people each year for questioning, saying it is racially biased.

The New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit lists New York Post reporter Leonardo Blair as the sole plaintiff, saying he was stopped and frisked by police officers as he walked from his car to his Bronx home last November.

He was taken to a police station, where officers expressed surprise that though he was black, he was not from “the projects,” the lawsuit said. Blair, 28, has a master’s degree from Columbia University.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan said the NYPD has stopped people in New York nearly 1 million times over the last two years. It said more than half of the people targeted were black, and some 90 percent were either black or Latino.

U.S. Census Bureau statistics show 25 percent of the city’s population is black, 28 percent is Hispanic and 44 percent is white.

The lawsuit asks that the stop-and-frisk practice be declared unconstitutional and that Blair be awarded unspecified compensatory damages.

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