A general view of the Hunts Point Riverside Park is seen at the 2009 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize special outdoor tribute on September 3, 2009 in New York City

Residents around the Hunts Point neighborhood in the Bronx can literally breathe a sign of relief.

A sewage treatment plant located in the neighborhood didn’t have its contract renewed with the City on Friday. The City canceled the $34 million per year contract in order to save money, while it finds ways to close an approximately $5 billion budget gap.

The New York Organic Fertilizer Company (NYOFCo) has received a bad reputation for producing unpleasant odors in the neighborhood for many years. Raw sewage was taken to the plant to be converted into fertilizer pellets from 14 sewage plants across the city.

U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), who represents parts of the Bronx, said the City’s decision was a victory for the residents.

“NYOFCo has polluted our community’s air for 16 years, and today is the beginning of the end,” said Serrano in a statement. “It is an end to the burning eyes, the coughs, the missed school days, even the asthma attacks, all conditions triggered by NYOFCo acrid odors.”

The congressman added that the plant was the cause for complaints about the smell, as well as a public safety concern for the past 10 years. He has been rallying for the plant’s closure. According to Serrano, the plant not only produced an unpleasant odor but also polluted the area. (more…)

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The system Urban Health Plan uses is an iris recognition system provided by Eye Controls wherein patients are greeted with a scan of their eye upon their arrival to determine who they are and bring up the correct medical records.

One of the reasons such a system is so invaluable to this clinic is due to its heavily Hispanic client base wherein few submit social security numbers and others speak limited English. These lapses in information and clear communication have led to a number of cases of mis-identification before the system’s installation. Other issues the new system has been thwarting include opening of duplicate records and medical fraud. (more…)

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Set in a section of The Bronx called City Island, Vince Rizzo (Andy) is a corrections officer who is taking acting classes behind his family’s back. The movie unfolds as secrets and lies told by family members and his social circle are foiled and the truth comes out. Andy told ET, “…It’s a movie about interrelationships and behavior and predicaments. It’s about the construction of the story, how that tapestry of through lines of all the characters intertwine and sort of like emotional farce and the comedy of errors or lies.”

Also serving as a producer, Andy explained why Julianna was perfect for the role of his wife, Joyce. “I know she has this character in her; this sort of working class character,” he said. “She didn’t want to do her normal hair. She had this wig that she had done for a job that never came through or something and when she put on the wig…it was like perfect.”

‘City Island’ also stars Alan Arkin, Steven Strait, Ezra Miller, Emily Mortimer, and Andy’s real-life daughter Dominik Garcia-Lorida who plays his on-screen daughter. The comedy opens in theaters on Friday, March 19. (more…)

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Kevin Velasquez, 21, drove a knife into Marcos Cruz’s chest early Saturday in front of Glen Roy’s Sports Bar and Tavern on E. 149th St., police said.

Velasquez was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

Cruz was stabbed about 3:30 a.m. after stepping in between Velasquez and another man during a melee. Cruz didn’t know either man, police said. (more…)

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Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx in his first State of the Borough speech.

 Taking on development, jobs, living wages, gun violence - and a snowstorm - Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx today in his first State of the Borough speech.

Key among his goals, says his office, will be a new plan to develop the Kingsbridge Armory, after he and others led the fight to kill a plan for a mall there.

A thousand invited guests at the Evander Childs High School campus are expected to hear Diaz announce a task force to develop new ideas for the cavernous, white-elephant armory’s future, such as manufacturing and recreation.

Diaz was pilloried by Mayor Bloomberg and construction unions for pushing the City Council to kill the plan for the heavily subsidized mall, over his insistence retailers there pay “a living wage” to workers - $10 an hour with benefits, or $11.50 without benefits.

He is expected today to again raise the issue of living wages for projects receiving heavy city subsidies and tax breaks, and announce he has partnered with Bronx City Council members Anabel Palma and Oliver Koppell on legislation requiring that developers who receive taxpayer help make their project pay workers a living wage.

The borough president also is expected to announce a long-held dream of former borough presidents and business leaders - to bring a quality hotel to the Bronx, working with developers and the New York Hotel Trade Council to identify sites, and generate interest from hotel operators.

Former Borough President Fernando Ferrer had a master plan calling for a hotel as part of a Yankee Village near Yankee Stadium. The new Gateway Center Mall near there has been viewed as a possible site. Some have suggested a hotel near Fordham University, with the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden and Arthur Avenue as nearby draws. (more…)

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Embattled Gov. Paterson speaks to reporters on Thursday.

ALBANY - It’s another black eye for the state police.

A Bronx woman’s claim that state troopers pressed her to abandon a domestic violence complaint against a top aide to Gov. Paterson is just the latest allegation the department is doing political dirty work.

“This is just despicable,” said state Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan), one of several lawmakers to express outrage over the new allegation.

“I am unaware of any law or policy in the state of New York that authorizes this sort of conduct by the state police,” Schneiderman said.

It’s not the first time the state police has been accused of flexing its muscles inappropriately.

Back in the summer 2007, in a scandal that would come to be known as Troopergate, then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno accused former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of using troopers to spy on him.

The ensuing investigation got so heated that a former state police inspector who once headed the governor’s personal security detail, Gary Berwick, committed suicide at his home in Orange County in May 2008.

Around that time, Paterson nominated Harry Corbitt, 62, to run the state police and clean up the department.

Now Corbitt admits that one of his troopers directly confronted Sherr-una Booker, who had filed abuse charges against Paterson aide David Johnson, even though the agency had no legal authority over the case. (more…)

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Biurny Peguero Gonzalez told investigators she wouldn’t have come forward during confessional with her priest if she knew she was going to have a child. “She said that had she been aware of her pregnancy, she probably would not have confessed when she did,” the papers state.

According to the Post, the documents filed by the prosecution also reveal that after learning of her pregnancy, Gonzalez tried to avoid contacting authorities. The 27-year-old—who claimed she was raped in Upper Manhattan in 2005 to cover up a fight with her girlfriends and make them feel sorry for her—reportedly lied to her priest by saying she couldn’t confess to her lawyer because she had lost her cellphone.

When she finally called her attorney, “it was from a church phone, with the priest watching to be sure she finished the job,” the tabloid notes. Gonzalez’s admission allowed Bronx construction worker William McCaffrey, 33, to have his 20-year sentence overturned. Gonzalez was sentenced yesterday 1 to 3 years behind bars for perjury. (more…)

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If Paterson’s State Police Superintendent admits he knew about these accusations the day after the alleged incident on Halloween, did he not tell his boss?

Why did the State Police get involved in a Bronx domestic violence case?

Why did David Paterson speak to David Johnson’s ex girlfriend on the phone?

The timing of the governor’s Feb. 7 phone conversation with the ex seems quite suspicious because it took place a day after the New York Times visited her home and on the eve of her next scheduled court date, to which she never showed up.

At the time, there were rumors wildly circulating that Johnson’s ex was dishing to the press about Paterson and women in the executive mansion. Turns out that does not appear to have been her role in this story. (more…)

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What, you don’t think the 27-time world champions and the captain will agree on a multi-year extension that will keep Jeter in pinstripes until the day he retires?

If you want to bet the other way, send your wager to the e-mail address at the end of this story.

“I’ve said from Day One, this is the only organization I’ve ever wanted to play for, and that’s still true today,” Jeter said yesterday before the team’s first full-squad workout at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “I was a Yankees fan growing up. This is where I want to be. I’ve never envisioned myself playing anywhere else, and hopefully I don’t have to.”

‘I’ve said from Day One, this is the only organization I’ve ever wanted to play for, and that’s still true today. I was a Yankees fan growing up. This is where I want to be. I’ve never envisioned myself playing anywhere else, and hopefully I don’t have to.’

-Derek Jeter

(more…)

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Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson plans to seek a stay that would stop a parade of cons from flooding the courts with motions to get their old cases cleared.

  Thousands of misdemeanor convictions in the Bronx are in doubt after an appeals court ruled that the merger of the borough’s Criminal and Supreme courts was unconstitutional.

Prosecutors immediately vowed to appeal Tuesday’s decision by the Appellate Division, the state’s second-highest court.

“Today’s decision … will likely lead to chaos, at least in the short term,” Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said.

He planned to seek a stay that would stop a parade of cons from flooding the courts with motions to get their old cases cleared.

His office also was working to adjourn pending cases until there was a final resolution.

He called the timing of the decision bizarre since another challenge to the merger is already before the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.

Then-Chief Judge Judith Kaye merged the Bronx Criminal and Supreme courts in 2004, hoping to streamline clogged courtrooms.

Represented by Legal Aid, Edgar Correa - a Bronx man sentenced to 15 days after a second-degree harassment conviction - challenged the move.

The Appellate Division said that only the state Legislature - not Kaye - had the authority to merge the courts.

That meant the judge who sentenced Correa didn’t actually have the right to do so and the conviction was thrown out.

One appellate judge, in a dissenting opinion, suggested an avalanche could follow. (more…)

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