The Bronx Ink

Late Friday night, Kenneth Williams, 27, was arrested for the murder of 3-year-old India Durant. Williams was the live-in boyfriend of the child’s mother and was watching her on the morning she died. Williams claims Durant was not feeling well so he placed her in a chair where she later fell off and began to have a seizure. He called 911 to reported Durant unresponsive.  She was pronounced dead at Barnabas Hospital later that morning. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Williams was charged with murder in the second-degree, manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment late last night. Durant’s biological father is looking for answers and mourning the loss of his daughter. “I am deeply upset. I am hurt,” he said. “I lost my world. That was my only child.”

Flashback: Bush at Yankee Stadium after 9/11

On October 30, 2001, the Yankees played the Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the World Series. The Boston Herald recaps how, as President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch, everyone was considered a potential terrorist – even George Steinbrenner and Joe Torre.

Bronx has 4 of NYC’s most ‘dangerous’ schools

The New York State Education Department posted a list “persistently dangerous” schools on its website last week. The New York Post reports that of the nine New York City schools on the list for 2011-12, four are in the Bronx – Aspire, Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship, PS 11 Highbridge, and IS 190. The Post says that Aspire Prep’s 554 students tallied 88 “violent and disruptive” incidents in 2009-10. These included sex crimes, robbery and assaults.

Bronxites help farm devastated by Irene

Two busloads of Bronx families traveled to Schoharie in upstate New York on Saturday with emergency supplies for a farm devastated by the remnants of Hurricane Irene, says an Associated Press report in the Wall Street Journal. These families from the South Bronx were just a few among the 1,000 and more that Richard Ball’s farm has been feeding since 2009.

Underground filmmaker George Kuchar dies at 69

Bronx-raised filmmaker George Kuchar died on Tuesday after a long battle with prostate cancer, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today. He was 69. Believed to have inspired the likes of Andy Warhol and John Waters, according to the Hollywood Reporter, George and his twin brother Mike made over 500 films that defined a unique genre of low-budget cinema. They moved out of the Bronx in 1971, when the deceased George accepted a teaching position at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Last of 4 Bronx bombing plotters gets 25 years

A New York court sentenced a Newburgh man to 25 years in prison on Wednesday, a Reuters report said, for plotting to bomb a Bronx synagogue and shoot down military planes. Haitian Laugerre Payen, 29, was the last of four men arrested in May 2009, in an operation that The Wall Street Journal says involved more than 100 law enforcement agents.

Flooding closes river parkways in the Bronx

The Bronx River parkway and one lane on the Saw Mill remained closed on Thursday, due to the heavy rain this week. A Patch.com report said the Bronx River Parkway is closed between Scarsdale Road and Desmond Avenue due to flooding. The Saw Mill River Parkway south of Exit 16 has one lane blocked due to a downed tree and flooding. Locals are advised to expect delays, and seek detours.