New Bronx Family Feud?

100 PERCENT

By Robert Press

Martinez for The 78^th Assembly Seat

The Chairman of the Committee of 100 Democrats, State Committeeman from the 78^th A.D., and our good friend Mr. Ricardo “Ricky” Martinez has announced that he will be running for the 78^th Assembly Seat. This was found out by us at the Bronx Puerto Rican Day parade when current 78^th Assemblyman Jose Rivera snubbed his State Committeeman to photograph his daughter's opponent Mr. Mark Gjonaj in the 80^th Assembly race while Mr. Gjonaj was speaking to the crowd. 

We spoke to candidate Ricardo “Ricky” Martinez to find out exactly why he decided to run this year against a man who he called at one time his mentor. Mr. Martinez said that his friendship with Assemblyman Rivera goes back to when he used to go out with the assemblyman's daughter now Assemblywoman Rivera. Mr. Martinez said that while he and many others have been very loyal to the assemblyman that the assemblyman has not as proven by his actions, the latest being redistricting his son Councilman Joel Rivera into the 78^th Assembly District so Jose can pass the assembly seat down to his son when his son is out of a job in 2013. Candidate Martinez continued that the the 78^th A.D. is not a kingdom that gets passed down to the next generation.

Many people and political insiders have said that they thought Ricardo “Ricky” Martinez would run for the assembly seat in 2010, and have encouraged him to run this year. Now that word is getting out that he is running, Martinez said that his support is growing every day. Candidate Ricardo “Ricky” Martinez said that Assemblyman Rivera knew that he wanted to run in 2010, but that he was diagnosed with an early stage of cancer that he has survived and is now ready to run for the assembly seat. By the way Rivera, who we were told is 75, allegedly has health problems so it would be easy for him to say that he has to retire in midterm so his son could run in a special election. However if that were to happen we have been told that there is another person close to the current Democratic County Leader (that took control of the county leadership away from Rivera) who was redistricted out of the 78^th A.D., but has moved back into the new 78^th A.D. and could be waiting for such an opportunity.

Ricardo “Ricky” Martinez is running on a platform of “The Community and the People First.” Mr. Martinez, unlike the current assemblyman, is in favor of term limits for all elected positions. “If there are term limits for the President and the City Council, why are there no term limits for statewide offices.” Better education, more and better jobs, better housing, better transportation, are only a few of candidate Martinez's goals, and he said that some of those in office often think of themselves or their family first and Assemblyman Rivera is a perfect example of that.

Staying on the subject of Assembly races we have been told that incumbent 80^th State Committeewoman Diane Cerino will not be on the petition of the current assemblywoman but will be on the petition of Mark Gjonaj for the 80^th Assembly District. We now have three assembly races in the 78^th, 80^th, and the open 87th assembly districts that we will be watching. In two weeks we will get out our crystal ball to predict the winner in the 13^th Congressional race that is on Tuesday June 26th, which has now turned into a real battle. 

If he is reelected Congressman Rangel may need to take several weeks or even months to recuperate.

Lastly go to my blog at www.100percentbronx.blogspot.com to see photos that I took of the Bronx Puerto Rican Day parade along with the details of how the parade went. It looked like a washout for a few minutes as the rain started to pour, but the sun quickly came back out after the brief shower. Thousands marched, and thousands more enjoyed those who marched with the cars and floats.

If you have any comments about this column or would like to have an event listed or covered in this column or on my blog you can e-mail us at 100percentbronxnews@gmail.com or call 718-644-4199 Mr. Robert Press.

Wakefield News: Driving us mad

Wakefield News: Driving us mad: Wakefield Area News By Mary Lauro BRONX, NEW YORK, June 4- Owning a car in the Bronx is a real problem. Frequently, there is nowhere to park...

Driving us mad

Wakefield Area News

By Mary Lauro

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 4- Owning a car in the Bronx is a real problem. Frequently, there is nowhere to park. The reasons are many but among them is that many families own more than one car. Some own several; one for each driving age child. A private home with a two-car garage takes one parking space for the driveway and two parking spaces for the other two cars the family owns. Multiply that by the number of homes on the block and you understand why you sometimes have to park three of four blocks away from your home. At night the problem is magnified.

Then, of course, there is alternate side parking which we believe is the number one cause of heart attacks in the Bronx. While the Mayor worries about sugar consumption in oversized sodas, he neglects the unhealthy effects of alternate side parking. And, incidentally, its phantom necessity.

But, for the elderly and the disabled, the chief cause of stroke, heart attacks and early death is the muni meter. They look innocent enough, but they are lethal. They force those who have difficulty walking to walk back and forth, first to put money in its greedy face and then to place the receipt on the dashboard. In the winter, with snow on the ground, in the spring with the rains and in the summer thunder storms, that walk back and forth becomes a route to knee and hip surgery thus increasing the burden on Medicare and Medicaid, to say nothing of how it steals money more slickly that an experienced pickpocket. Surely, there should be a law against muni meters.

However, there may be a knight in shining armor that plans to joust with the muni meters. His name is Councilman Jimmy Vacca who has introduced a bill in the City Council to use the muni meters to buy “parking time.” What this means is that when an hour's parking time is not consumed at the first stop, the driver can move the car to another area and use the same receipt to show he has paid for the time. This plan may be entirely too sensible for the Mayor to approve.

For the disabled, it means that when the cars moved to a new location, they don't have to get out and walk back and forth again. For them and for the strong and healthy, it may save a few nickels since they will not lose the time they had purchased and did not use. But that is precisely why our Mayor, whose pastime, it seems, is to nickel and dime us, may veto this bill which we understand has been cleared in the City Council.

Wow! Wouldn't that be wonderful? And it also would be wonderful if our representatives in government took time out to dream of these small ways that would simplify life for us rather than spend time trying to put pie in the sky.

Regarding the parking problem, we think some surcease can be achieved by more angle parking which would double parking space. Many streets, especially one way streets can accommodate angle parking at least on one side. Angle parking will also assist in calming traffic. The speed limit in city streets should be no more that 20 miles/hr.

Finally, regarding alternate side parking, our city leaders should stop the madness and face once and for all that Sanitation does not and cannot clean all the streets designated for the day. Alternate side should be reduced to one or two days a week. That should lower blood pressure.

Pharmacy Burglarized

PHARMACY BURGLAR: Cops are asking for the public’s help in trying to catch a man who broke into a Riverdale pharmacy. Surveillance video shows the suspect breaking into the Hudson Parkway Pharmacy at around 3:30 a.m. on May 31.

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls are confidential..

Finally for Mets Fans

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Santana no-hitter one of those good moments for a Mets fan

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 3- There I was, night off from the ballpark, listening and watching my favorite alternative rock band “Weezer” in Atlantic City New Jersey in the Bogata Hotel showroom. It was planned, the birthday gift from three weeks ago. What wasn’t in the plan was Johan Santana throwing a no-hitter at Citi Field on the first day of June.

A Friday evening at Citi Field where, I would usually be situated, upstairs in my perch in the comfortable press box, but the first no-no in New York Mets history, 50-years of futility and I was not there to see it.

Yes, frustration. And moments after Mets SNY Television voice Gary Cohen said after being questioned, ‘did he ever think it would happen, his response, ‘No, but now it has’ Weezer would finish their last number.

That number, “Say it Ain’t So.”

But it is true. After 8,020 games, Mets radio voice Howie Rose, and fans of the second baseball team in New York, can now say, the New York Mets have made baseball history. They are no longer one of two teams to not have a pitcher throw the illustrious no-hitter.

It is so, and the San Diego Padres have that lone distinction.

Mike Baxter, the kid from Queens, crashed into the center field wall on the warning track to keep the suspense going. The Carlos Beltran ball that hit the chalk beyond third base appeared to be an extra base hit. The umpire, according to replays may have got it wrong.

To Mets’ fans, and to Santana, the call went their way. The no-hitter is in the record books and well deserved for a pitcher who many said was finished.

It was back in late March. Santana was not supposed to come north with the team at the end of spring training. The comeback from shoulder surgery, which shut Santana down all last year, was slow and cautious. However, it was soon, according to Santana, working according to the plan.

That plan, which was heard since his opening day start in early April, was continue to make adjustments as this Mets team had trouble scoring runs, but staying competitive. Then the last three starts you sensed the plan was ahead of schedule.

Santana was throwing more pitches, going deeper into games. The change up was effective, so was the slider. The fastball was getting close to his velocity, clocked close to 90, or more.

The manager, Terry Collins was more concerned about the pitch count. Last Saturday, at Citi field, Santana threw 94 pitches, the complete game shutout over the San Diego Padres. Collins let him continue, as he did Friday night with a career high 134 pitches, concerned about the shoulder.

After that sixth inning, Collins asked Santana, “How do you feel?” The ace, who said afterwards, he came to New York “to win a championship for the organization and fans,” told his manager, ‘I feel good, let me continue.’

It was a momentous occasion for a franchise that has been troubled with financial issues .And nothing has seemed to go right since that last game of 2006, when Beltran struck out with runners on base, at Shea Stadium, in game seven of the National League Championship Series. 

That was against the same St. Louis Cardinals who go in the record book as victims of the Santana no-hitter.

It was the first and real significant moment at Citi Field for Mets baseball. Santana erased the close calls of Tom Seaver, the last Mets pitcher to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning. The first one, of three close calls, a perfect game broke up by Jimmy Qualls of the Chicago Cubs in 1969.

It will be remembered what Johan Santana did Friday night. The umpire, Adrian Johnson, at third base, may have missed that Beltran call in the sixth inning. But that does not matter now. Johan Santana may have put the New York Mets back on the map with that outing on the mound at Citi Field.

Just hope “Weezer” does not get in the way again for another possible and maybe another no-hitter in New York Mets baseball history, or perhaps another first, a perfect game as they go into game number 8,021.

E-mail Rich Mancuso:  Ring786@aol.com

Mother Remembers Fallen Son

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By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 1- Emily Toro, the mother of a fallen hero in the second Iraq war, was on hand, Sunday, to add poignancy to Co-op City's Memorial Day observance at the Veterans' Memorial Park on Bartow Avenue.

Among the local dignitaries joining Sunday's local observance of Memorial Day were Rep. Eliot Engel, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, and Community Board 10 District Manager Kenneth Kearns.

Toro, who became as Gold Star Mother after her son, Private Isaac Cortes, was killed in Iraq in 2007, said that she really did not understand the importance of taking time out to observe Memorial Day until her son was killed at the age of 26.

Toro, commenting after Sunday's observance, said that her son, who grew up in Parkchester, was killed as a soldier in the Army's 110^th Mountain Division.

“My son, who had worked as a security guard at Yankee Stadium, saw joining the Army as his path to joining the New York Police Department,” Toro noted.

Along the way, Toro pointed out, the Army nurtured a sense of patriotism in her son that burned deeply within him at the time he was killed.

Lirio, for his part, said, after Sunday's Memorial Day observance, that he is extremely proud of his daughter, Capt. Jasmin Lirio, 29, a career military officer who previously served in the second Iraq as a platoon commander.

In his remarks at Sunday's local observance of Memorial Day, Assemblyman Benedetto stressed that those who have served in the military throughout the nation's history deserve special praise for answering the call of duty without asking questions about their missions.

Benedetto said that most Americans do not fully appreciate the way those in the military have sacrificed their youth, the healthy bodies, and even their lives to keep American free.

Rep. Engel, for his part, stressed that too few Americans take time out to reflect, even on Memorial Day, on the sacrifices that those in the military have made to maintain the freedoms that Americans enjoy.  

Third Time’s Not the Charm

Third Time’s Not the Charm for Check Cashing Chump

By Dan Gesslein

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 1- Guess he thought the third time would be the charm in trying to rob an East Tremont check cashing place. However, cops say the crook struck out all three times at the same store.

According to investigators the same man tried to rob the same Pay-O-Matic check cashing place at 890 East Tremont Avenue three separate times in the same day. The first attempted robbery occurred at 12:45 a..m. on May 30. The man, whose image was captured on surveillance video, walked into the check cashing place and demanded money. The suspect was unable to complete the robbery and fled.

Then about 10 hours later the same man tried to rob the site. Once again the would be robber left empty handed. Then again that night the suspect walked into the same Pay-O-Matic and again demanded cash and again left empty handed. 

The only thing cops say the robber was successful in was that he got a clear image of his face caught on surveillance video. Now investigators are asking for the public’s help to catch this robber.

The suspect is described as a black male, 6 foot 1 to 6 foot 2. He weighs between 175 and 180 pounds. He was wearing a black

du-rag, black shirt and black pants. 

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. The public can also summit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

All calls are strictly confidential.