The Bronx Ink

St. Pius is one of the 32 schools — and the only high school – slated for closing.  Despite its reputation for academic success and small class sizes, enrollment is declining and tuition is rising at the Mott Haven school.  That makes in increasingly dependent on the Archdiocese for funding, said Fran Davies, Assistant Superintendent for Communications in Education (Mott Haven Herald).

When the South Bronx Food Co-op formed in 2007, it was hailed as a watershed in bringing nutritious, organic, and locally-grown food to a densely-populated Bronx neighborhood starved for fresh produce.

But the project that began with great hope and fanfare has run aground. Its storefront on Third Avenue and E. 158th Street is closed and is not likely to reopen. Its entire inventory has been sold (Mott Haven Herald).

In order to block the Bloomberg administration’s plan to turn the Muller Army Reserve Center into a homeless shelter, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. once again decided to boycott a scheduled meeting of the three member authority that controls the Muller Center’s fate (Bronx News Network).

Tuesday, 50 workers outside the Morris Park psychiatric center protested planned layoffs set for Jan. 1.

The protesters displayed signs that read “No Layoffs” and “Show Some Respect.”

Under the plan, about 12 employees will lose their jobs. In addition, there will be fewer care providers to deal safely with hundreds of violent patients, the workers charged (Daily News).

The ex-con accused of shooting an off-duty Bronx narcotics detective in a parking dispute was out on just $5,000 bail for five felony charges of assault and robbery, according to court records. A grand jury indicted Samuel Ventura, 22, of The Bronx, on charges that he and several friends jumped, beat and robbed a man on East 152nd Street on July 5 (NY Post).

State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, were indicted earlier today on five counts of embezzlement and one count of conspiracy.

They’re accused stealing more than $500,000 from Soundview Healthcare Center, a nonprofit health care network in the Bronx, founded by Espada in 1978 (NY1).

Workers at the Bronx Psychiatric Center, a 360-bed facility in Morris Park, will hold a rally today to protest recent layoffs (Bronx News Network).

The borough’s public access network is seeing red over deadlocked talks with Cablevision, and claims the Dolan family cable company is lowballing it despite multibillion dollar borough revenues.

The city is renewing Cablevision’s Bronx and Brooklyn franchise agreement with Knicks and Rangers owner James Dolan. But separate negotiations between Cablevision and Bronxnet have stalled (Daily News).