New York News - NY Daily News

Precious Paris goes from troubled youth to emerging artist

IRVING DeJOHN — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:42 GMT

She walks through Baisley Pond Park with a certain swagger, her six-inch stiletto heels maneuvering the mid-winter mud. It’s the stride of someone who knows what it’s like to lose their footing, but regain their step.

Free & Cheap in New York: Thurs., Feb. 23

Alison Maney — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:41 GMT

R2, TEA, TOO? Brisk Iced Tea will sponsor “Brisk Bodega,” a 24-hour “Star Wars” popup exhibit that will feature movie memorabilia from the vaults at Lucasfilm. The display will celebrate the re-release of “Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace” in 3D. 3-6 p.m. Free.

Newly-minted Timothy Cardinal Dolan to visit San Vicente senior center Thursday in Bronx

KERRY WILLS — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:32 GMT

A South Bronx senior care center is gearing up for a visit Thursday from Timothy Cardinal Dolan, his first official appearance in the city since his elevation.

Parents push for citywide gifted middle school

CLARE TRAPASSO — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:24 GMT

Parents of some of the borough’s brightest elementary grade students are pressuring the city to make good on a promise to extend a popular gifted program in Astoria. Public School 85 parents are circulating a petition to convince the Department of Education to create a citywide gifted and talented intermediate school in western Queens. The primary school program was created in 2009.

Struggling Gompers HS nixed to make way for five other career and technical schools in the Bronx

CORINNE LESTCH — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:22 GMT

To placate angry parents and students about the soon-to-be-closed career and technical education schools in the Bronx, the city Department of Education is highlighting four such schools in the borough that will fill the void next year.

Legendary John’s Boxing Gym will move to a new South Bronx site as it tries for non-profit status

KERRY WILLS — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:19 GMT

A storied boxing gym that will soon be knocked out of its current home will reopen nearby next month. For 30 years, John's Boxing Gym has been a haven for city youth. It’s also where two IBF world champs trained, Joshua Clottey and Joseph Agbeko.

Life of Harlem Renaissance icon to be celebrated at Woodlawn Cemetery for Black History Month

TANYANIKA SAMUELS — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:17 GMT

At the height of the Harlem Renaissance, A’Lelia Walker was uptown’s “it” girl. Lavish parties at her salon, The Dark Tower, drew the likes of author Langston Hughes and poet Countee Cullen.

NYC apartment copy of of Sistine Chapel ceiling

BARRY PADDOCK — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:15 GMT

It took Michelangelo four years to create his masterpiece murals that cover the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. A Manhattan artist believes he can recreate the soaring images in just two months on the ceiling of his cramped studio apartment.

Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. to highlight Bronx business deals in 2012 State of the Borough address

DANIEL BEEKMAN — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:08 GMT

The Bronx is back in business, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will declare Thursday in his third State of the Borough address.

Sharon De La Cruz, artist and activist from The POINT, honored for community work in the Bronx

KIM WHITEHEAD — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:04 GMT

Much like the programs she runs, Sharon De La Cruz is the very definition of "unique." The 25-year-old Dominican artist and activist, with eyeglasses that take up half of her petite face, coordinates the program WOMEN (Where Our Minds Empower Needs) at The POINT in Hunts Point.

Trapped in mold-infested Jamaica home

VERA CHINESE — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:01 GMT

Inky-black mold spores speckling a Jamaica home have left a Queens family unable to breath easy. Patrina Smith, who receives Section 8 rent subsidies first noticed the toxic fungi in February 2011, a month after she, her two daughters and granddaughter moved in to the two-family home.

Rockaway boardwalk slated for long-awaited repairs

LISA L. COLANGELO — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:01 GMT

The Rockaway Beach boardwalk — battered by Hurricane Irene — will be fixed in time for the summer season, Parks Department officials said Wednesday. But local activists are pushing for a long-term beach replenishment and protection program, worried the shoreline will be whittled away by future storms.

Hire Me! Veterans: A veteran from the Bronx has been job hunting for seven months with no luck

PHYLLIS FURMAN — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:00:21 GMT

Like many young veterans, Tomas Canela, from the Bronx, faces a rough economy and stiff competition for jobs.

Brooklyn’s “bad boy” trainer keeps kids out of trouble

MARK MORALES — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:59 GMT

A body-building bad boy from East Flatbush who did time in federal prison for armed robbery is trying to help teens get fit and stay out of trouble. “Bad Boy Trainer” William Crandall, 37, is coaching nine city kids as part of his personal mentoring program.

It’s girl power Brooklyn style: performance group travels city acting out womens’ issues

SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:48 GMT

Brooklyn young women are bringing the streets to the stage sharing the borough’s grittier side. The 90 members of Project Girl travel the city showing off plays, poetry, raps, and stepping routines, centered around sex trafficking, domestic violence, and other taboo topics associated with growing up in big, tough Brooklyn..

Too-tall building bugs neighbors

CONOR FEBOS, ERIN DURKIN — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:47 GMT

They're Marine Park’s most hated developers - and they just won’t give up. Despite nearly seven years of rejections by city officials, the Kimball Group is still pressing for permission to finish an illegally tall building on Kimball St., infuriating neighbors.

East Harlem mother of teen killed by stray bullet wants justice

MICHAEL J. FEENEY — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:40 GMT

Lisa Baez just wants justice. The East Harlem woman’s 17-year-old daughter, Cheyenne, never got the chance to finish high school - or to attend her dream college - Howard University - where she hoped to study business.

MTA to reopen Park Slope subway station

JOSEPH TEPPER and ERIN DURKIN — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:37 GMT

A long shuttered entrance to a Park Slope subway station is set to reopen Thursday, allowing straphangers to avoid a tricky trek across 4th Ave.

Seniors sing in Valentine’s Day

MAXINE SIMPSON — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:31 GMT

Members of the Sunnyside Community Services’ Center for Active Older Adults joined Marc Leavitt and other members of the the Sunnyside Kiwanis Club, at the piano for a song-filled celebration on Valentine’s Day.

Civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer honored in one-woman Uptown show

Clem Richardson — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:25 GMT

“I wanted to change the world through singing,” Mzuri Moyo-Mzuri said. “I always saw myself doing something extraordinary through singing.”

Museum plans auction of gold coins

DOUGLAS FEIDEN — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:24 GMT

The world’s most spectaclar collection of gold coins — owned by a Washington Heights art museum for 63 years but rarely seen by the public — is about to go on the auction block at Sotheby’s.

Doorman keeps Harlem home in foreclosure battle

ROCCO PARASCANDOLA — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:10 GMT

Vincent Jackson was the underdog in his foreclosure battle against a big bank — but he kept his Harlem home thanks to the gumshoe work of a retired city cop turned private eye.

Fire at illegal hotel in Manhattan shines light on longstanding problem; city vows crackdown

BENJAMIN LESSER — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:08 GMT

Tenants of an infamous uptown hotel the city has been trying to close for years averted tragedy earlier this month when the building caught fire - prompting efforts to shutter it.

Family holds annual vigil for Bronx girl killed by drug overdose

Patrice O'Shaughnessy — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:04 GMT

Patti Damm Chucka and her daughter, Nicole Schiaffo, stood Wednesday outside the house on Roberts Ave. where Chucka’s other daughter, Danielle Chucka, died six years ago today. They clutched piles of paper and photographs of the pretty, promising 17-year-old girl who was bound for college.

Developer presses on as neighbors fume over illegally tall eyesore on Marine Park block

BY CONOR FEBOS AND ERIN DURKIN — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:01 GMT

They’re Marine Park’s most hated developers - and they just won’t give up. Despite nearly seven years of rejections by city officials, the Kimball Group is still pressing for permission to finish an illegally tall building on Kimball St., infuriating neighbors.