Talk Bronx New York

The number of confirmed and suspected swine flu cases spread today beyond the Queens high school that has been its epicenter here, with new cases now suspected at a Queens public school for autistic children and a Catholic school in Manhattan, and additional scattered cases in Brooklyn and the Bronx.More over, Gov. David Paterson and state health officials said possible swine flu cases were being investigated in all regions of the state.

New York City remained the hardest hit, with now 45 confirmed cases and many more suspected. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) said the numbers likely include “hundreds” of students, staff members and family members from St. Francis Preparatory school in Queens who have become ill. He said the city would be testing only severely ill people, because most of those hundreds of others can be assumed to be suffering from the virus and testing was not necessary. The school was closed Monday and Tuesday. Read more..

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The FBI has charged a Bronx mailman in a massive tax refund scam run out of the Dominican Republic that’s already cost taxpayers $40 million.

Lacy Bethea, 51, was nabbed Monday after he left his Jerome Ave. post office with a stash of 75 bogus refund checks planted by the feds that he planned to hand off to two of his cohorts.

“I pulled the plastic bag from Bethea’s left jacket pocket, after which Bethea gasped loudly,” FBI Special Agent Seamus Clarke reveals in a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court.

In the Dominican Republic, authorities rounded up 19 people and seized more than a dozen computers. Read more..

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This was supposed to be a great week for Washington and Wall Street. The administration had leaked in advance that it was going to put a full-court press on for its stimulus and bailout programs. That led to intense anticipatory buying by the stock market bulls.

Monday night’s primetime news conference with President Barack Obama only heightened anticipation ahead of the main events on Tuesday: A big speech from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and testimony before Congress by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

But shortly after Geithner opened his mouth, stocks began to fall. Then they fell further. By the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrials had plunged 382 points, or almost 5%.

What the Heck Happened? Read more..

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The dollar was mixed versus other major currencies on Tuesday as traders moved to defensive positions after Wall Street reacted negatively to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s plan to attack the financial crisis.

The major tenets of the plan include requiring banking institutions to go through a “comprehensive stress test,” which will allow the government to have a better idea of which institutions need additional capital. However, the markets wanted something more concrete.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate passed an $838 billion fiscal stimulus plan Tuesday by a vote of 61-37. The measure passed a key procedural hurdle Monday evening when the stimulus garnered 60 votes needed to pass cloture. The legislation is now one step closer to President Barack Obama’s desk, as both
bodies of Congress - the House and the Senate - must now reconcile their two versions of the bill. Read more..

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Father Alexander Agyepong who is originally from Ghana with friends Gloria Bai and Tomasa Mendes at Papaye Restaurant in the Bronx

Largely a Puerto Rican and African-American borough for several decades, the Bronx has become a mecca for immigrants from all over the world, according to new Census Bureau numbers.

Some 31% of the borough’s almost 1.4 million residents are foreign-born, making the Bronx one of the top-10 largest and most diverse cities in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 American Community Survey, released in December.

“A borough which was, at one time, largely native-born is now a mix of groups that, in the history of the Bronx,  could be unprecedented,” said Joseph Salvo, population director of the city Planning Department.

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