Project Enterprise and the University Neighborhood Housing Program are conducting a free self-employment session at the Concourse House, 2751 Grand Concourse on Thursday, Feb. 23, from 6 to 8 p.m. Learn how to start or expand your own business. For more information or to RSVP, call (212) 678-6734 ext. 17 or visit info@projectenterprise.org.

Stoic 8-year-old Shot in the Chest
Second grader Armando Bigo, 8, was shot in the chest in a Soundview bodega yesterday when a gunman on a bike fired into a crowd of people standing outside of the store. Little Armando stayed poised and calm after he was hit, to the surprise of his mom and the bodega owner. The bullet is still lodged in Armando’s chest, but it appears he will recover.

Touchy Teachers
It’s been a touchy month for the Department of Education –- literally and figuratively. In separate incidents, four teachers have been arrested on charges of sexual abuse. The latest arrest was Chukwuma Duru, a substitute teacher at Bronx Career and College Prep High School, who was charged with forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child. Another teacher was arrested for allegedly punching a 12-year-old in the face.

Feds Bust Bronx Heroine Operation
Federal narcotics agents raided Mobile Creations, 1631 Stillwell Ave., near Morris Park, after nabbing a Suffolk County drug dealer attempting to sell 68 grams of heroin. The dealer set up a meeting with his supplier, James Gainer, who was arrested with 500 grams of heroin he planned to sell for $28,500, according to the complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court. Also seized at the shop were 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, 250 grams of heroin hidden in a vehicle, $40,000 in cash, and a .40 caliber handgun.

Beer Distributor Stays in South Bronx
Manhattan Beer Distributors, who have been in the Bronx since 1979, was awarded nearly $24 million from the Industrial Development Agency to buy and renovate four parcels of land in Hunts Point. Its new headquarters will employ 620 people after three years, with 528 relocated from Walnut Avenue, 67 relocated from Brooklyn and 25 new, according to the New York City Economic Development Corp. Manhattan Beer will pay its new full-time workers $29,400 a year on average, plus benefits.

In 2009, the firm threatened to look for property outside the city when it requested public benefits. “It would be much cheaper to operate across the river in New Jersey,” said CEO Simon Bergson

Ball Tossing Cops Get Disciplined
When Catherine Guzman, Mariana Diaz and two other police officers began tossing a football with a 7-year-old at the Webster Houses in Morrisania, last 4th of July, they didn’t think anything of it. Their commanding officer had other feelings about it.

What are you doing? Do you realize you’re on overtime?,” he yelled at them, according to the Daily News. The two other officers were each docked two vacation days, but Guzman and Diaz appealed their rulings.

“If a police officer can kiss Jenny McCarthy in front of millions and not be charged . . . I don’t see how throwing a football to a 7-year-old can result in disciplinary action,” said lawyer Eric Sanders. The trial date has been set for April 13.

Bronx Pol Gets Taxed
According to the NY Post, Democratic State Sen. Jeffrey Klein’s law firm, which is nestled on a residential street in affluent Morris Park, has run afoul of zoning codes.

An audit by the Finance Department, apparently prompted by a NY Post inquiry, found Klein’s firm listed as a residential property which carries a lower tax rate. It will be reclassified as a commercial property and will now have to pay thousands more in property taxes, the city said.

Espada’s Clinics Get a Reprieve
The health clinic network founded by indicted ex-Bronx State Senator Pedro Espada will continue to receive Medicaid payments from the state, at least until March 5. Espada’s trial on charges he bilked money from the network is expected to begin March 13. The state has been trying to cut off Medicaid reimbursement funds to the network because Espada is still on the payroll.

The Bronx continues to have the highest teen pregnancy rate of any New York City borough. (Project courtesy NYC DOHMH)

As federal lawmakers in Congress continue to debate over whether health insurers should be required to cover the costs of birth control, a recent city initiative is looking to curb teen pregnancy rates in the Bronx, where it is higher than in any other borough.

The program, called Bronx Teens Connection, will offer affordable reproductive health services to the borough’s teenagers, as many here lack health insurance coverage and live below the poverty line. In New York City overall, one out of every 10 teenagers is uninsured, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

“Teens in the Bronx face many challenges as they approach adulthood,” said Dr. Jane Bedell, assistant commissioner at the Health Department’s Bronx District Public Health Office. “A community-wide effort will allow us to work together to invest in the well-being of our teenagers by providing access to services and making sure that teens are knowledgeable about sexual health and empowered to act on this knowledge.”

The new program will team the DOH up with the Department of Education to implement a new sexual education curriculum to be taught in ninth and tenth grade classrooms at 20 different Bronx high schools. Called “Reducing the Risk,” the lesson plans will stress the importance of using birth control and condoms, the risks involved in sexual activity and the benefits of waiting until they’re ready to have sex. A similar curriculum will be introduced through the city’s Administration for Children’s Services to reach teens in foster care.

“We want to help young people reach their full potential and make better choices in life,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who is a partner in the program. “I believe that this community effort will help our youth improve their knowledge and understanding about sexual health, making them more confident to make the choices that are right for them.”

Additionally, the program will partner with high schools, youth-serving organizations, and teen-friendly community-based health centers, to help young people easily gain access to birth control and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. The city’s Human Resources Administration will work to enroll Bronx teens in the Family Planning Benefits Program, an insurance program that covers reproductive health care services.

The pregnancy rate for 15 to 19-year-olds living in the South Bronx dropped by more than 23 percent between 2002 and 2009, though more teens get pregnant in the Bronx each year than in the other four boroughs.

Editor’s Note: For more information on teen health or to find out where teens can go for confidential teen-friendly sexual and reproductive health services call 311 or search “NYC Teen” on NYC.gov.

Ask Be Healthly! Send Us Your Health Questions.

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Photo by Adi Talwar

There’s less than a month left for those vying to take over the Kingsbridge Armory to submit their proposals to the city, and a number of organizations have come forward with ideas for filling the long-vacant, 600,000-square-foot building.

Recently, a group of cycling enthusiasts who have been campaigning to turn the Armory into a giant bicycling center have teamed up with New York Gauchos, a Bronx-based youth basketball program, as well as several other sports-oriented groups, with the intent of converting the structure into an enormous sports, recreation and wellness center.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm for our vision,” said Rocky Bucano, vice president for the Teamwork Foundation, Inc., the nonprofit that runs Gauchos. “They know the previous roadblocks were the pure retail plans, which were not a good fit for the community.”

It’s been two years since a previous plan to turn the building into a giant shopping mall was killed by the City Council after a tense political battle between the developer and local activists over wages. During his State of the City speech in the Bronx in January, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city would once again be seeking pitches from developers interested in the Armory, with a deadline of March 22 for submitting proposals to the Economic Development Corporation.

The current Request for Proposals does not rule out the possibility of another mall project, though local activists and politicians have long-advocated for a more community-based use for the building.

Since last fall, the National Cycling Association (NCA) has been trying to raise money to build a velodrome inside the Armory — an angled, oval bicycle racing track — in the hopes of turning the space into the site of a 6-day professional bike racing event the group wants to host this spring.

That original plan was met with some skepticism from local activists. Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, a member of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevlopment Alliance (KARA), a coalition of residents, clergy and community groups advocating for responsible development of the Armory, told the Norwood News in November that the NCA’s plan seemed to offer little benefit to the community.

“This is a temporary idea for next spring that does nothing for the surrounding community,” Pilgirm-Hunter said at the time. “They will make money, the community will not.”

Now, NCA is teaming up with New York Guachos, indoor rock-climbing gym Brooklyn Boulders, and a BMX skate group from Staten Island — under the umbrella name the Armory Sports and Entertainment Group — to submit a proposal for a massive recreational center that would offer a variety of sports programs for neighborhood residents, according to Bucano.

In addition to the proposed velodrome, the group’s vision includes a 5,000-seat sports arena, professional basketball courts, rock climbing walls, a skate park, a “hostel-style” hotel for visiting sports teams, sports medicine clinic and wellness center, Bucano said.

“This is all community focused,” he said. “We would offer low-cost youth programs where the kids could get training. We would have a recreation center open to the community, where they could get fitness work. The community programs are essential to what we’re doing.”

The coalition is in talks with a number of developers to finance the project, Bucano said, and is conducting a feasibility study to determine the plan’s economic viability.

The New York Gauchos has been operating since 1967, offering a competitive basketball program to hundreds of children and teens each year, with a focus on getting the students into college. The group has been working out of a gym in the South Bronx for the last several decades, Bucano said, but has long since outgrown the space.

“We’re kind of stretching at the seams over here,” he said.

Other sports groups have expressed their interest in setting up shop at the Amory. As the Norwood News reported last month, a group of investors — including New York Rangers star Mark Messier — want to turn the space into an ice rink and the region’s biggest hockey complex. World Changers Church International, an Atlanta-based, nondenominational parish led by television evangelical preacher Creflo Dollar, has also been eyeing the space, and sent several representative to a walk-through of the site earlier this month, according to Crain’s New York.

But to Bucano, basketball is a natural fit for the Bronx.

“I’m not against hockey but I don’t know anyone in that neighborhood who plays hockey. It’s like putting a round peg in a square hole,” he said. “Basketball is a very cheap game to play. It’s the sport of New York City. But I’m biased.”

One Bronx Church Gets Reprieve
Turns out only one church, University Heights-based Bronx Household of Faith, was able to worship in a New York City public school this weekend.

On Thursday, it appeared dozens of congregations throughout the five boroughs would be allowed to worship inside schools during their off hours after Judge Loretta Preska issued a temporary restraining order on a city policy that bans religious groups from worshiping inside city school buildings.

But on Friday evening, the judge clarified the restraining order, saying, in so many words: actually, um, the only church/religious group this applies to is Bronx Household of Faith, which filed the original lawsuit against the Department of Education and its policy 17 years ago.

The result was mass confusion. Some churches who had applied and were approved for permits received cancellation notices and spent the weekend scrambling to find space to hold services on Sunday. Others did not receive cancellation notices and went ahead with services in the schools they’ve been using.

Pastor Mark Gregori of the Cross Way Church in the Bronx told the AP that if they couldn’t meet at Middle School 101, as per usual, then the congregations would have to trek to a Catholic girls’ high school several miles away.

“That would be a little difficult for the people from our community,” he told the AP. “We’d much rather stay close to where they are.”

Judge Preska is expected to rule on whether to issue a formal injunction on the city’s school worship ban on Feb. 27.

Many Bronx elected officials, including Councilman/Pastor Fernando Cabrera, who has made keeping churches in school buildings his own personal political crusade, are hoping they can overturn the DOE’s policy legislatively.

The State Senate passed a resolution that would do just that, but the assembly has yet to bring its own bill, sponsored by the Bronx’s Nelson Castro, to a vote and is on hiatus until Feb. 28. (Because, you know, unlike our students, our legislators need half of February to relax and unwind after spending an entire six weeks trying to figure out how to improve our state government.)

The bottom line is: whether an injunction is issued or not, this problem is not going away unless the rules are changed legislatively.

Say, for example, the judge decides not to issue an injunction, which would uphold the city’s ban. Who’s going to stop churches from circumventing the rules by changing the way they word their application? What if they just said they were going to sing hymns and read the Bible — two actions not outlawed by the DOE’s policy, but part of all Christian worship services? How would the DOE decide what to reject and what not to reject? Would they hire a theologian to attend these gatherings and deem them “worship services” or not? Will they simply start rejecting any religious group from using school buildings? These are all legitimate questions that will arise.

My problem with the DOE’s policy is a practical one. Practically, it has been, and will be, difficult (and probably expensive based on the extensive time city lawyers have spent on this) to enforce this ban. Practically, who’s really being affected by letting churches worship in schools. The New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union appears to be the only outside group vocally supporting this policy. On the other hand, as I’ve mentioned here before, local parents could care less about it.

If city lawyers had not continued vigorously pursuing appeals of Bronx Household of Faith’s original lawsuit, which resulted in a decade-long injunction on the city’s policy (and only ended this past summer), you would not have heard a peep about this issue. Parents, it turns out, have a lot more to worry about than what goes on at their child’s school on Sunday mornings.

Plus, these churches pay rent! Hundreds of dollars every week. It’s not millions of dollars a year. But it adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. You can’t tell me our schools couldn’t use an extra few hundred thousand dollars.

Debating the FreshDirect Deal
Speaking of a few extra hundred thousand dollars, here’s what Comptroller John Liu estimates the city could pay for with the nearly $100 million in subsidies the city is granting FRESH Direct to move to a prime Bronx location on the Harlem River:

• 4,385 students full, four-year scholarships to CUNY

• hire 1,458 new teachers

• pay for 350,000 GED test-prep programs

• launch a micro-lending program for minority and women entrepreneurs

The subsidies will reportedly protect 600 Bronxites from having to commute to New Jersey and produce another 964 jobs by 2020 that Bronxites can compete for (with a stated goal of hiring 30% Boogie Downers). In addition, FRESH Direct intends to buy 10 fuel-efficient trucks from the newly-transplanted-to-the-Bronx, Smith Electric, and will think about expanding to actually service the borough in which it will reside. Currently, FRESH Direct serves Riverdale, which really prefers not to be called part of the Bronx whenever possible.

So, without even getting into how it will impact plans to make the Harlem River accessible and usable for Bronxites (which we will tackle another time) or how the Council’s living wage deal will not apply to this, was it worth it?

Ridiculously Sad Crime Story of the Week
Two weeks ago, we ran an entire Bronx Breakdown dedicated to negative news, most of it about crime. We strive to be informative and provocative, but we would hate to be known as a dumping depot for Bronx crime stories (you can get that in any city tabloid). So, from now on, the Breakdown will only pick out one ridiculously sad crime story each week.

This week’s winner: On Friday afternoon in Morrisania, a 4-month old baby girl was stabbed in the head with a pen during an altercation between the baby’s mom and a woman. The baby is expected to be fine after being treated for her injuries at Lincoln Hospital. But the bigger question remains: Who stabs a baby with a pen or any other object for that matter?

And finally, we will leave you with this “Bronx Beat” clip from Saturday Night Live. My wife almost cracked a rib watching this the other night.

Representing the Boogie Down
The borough playoffs are over. It’s time to find out who are the top high school hoops dogs in New York City.

The Public School Athletic League playoffs kicked off this week with a slew of early round match-ups. But now we hit the tournament pause button as the city’s schools take next week off. It will give some teams a chance to regroup, while slowing the momentum of others.

With perennial powers — Brooklyn’s Lincoln on the boys side and Manhattan’s Murry Bergtraum on the girls — having less than dominant season, this could be the year a team bring a city title back to the Booggie Down. Here’s a breakdown, by division, of all the Bronx contenders and Cinderellas.

Boys AA Division

Overview: The PSAL is broken up into divisions based mostly on competitiveness, not size. The AA Division is the best of the best. There are seven Bronx teams in AA and all but the worst team, Harry S. Truman, didn’t make the Big Dance. Even Eagle Academy, which was forced to forfeit 13 games because it allegedly used an ineligible player, and only compiled three wins total is in.

Early Action: Without the forfeits, Eagle was enjoying an outstanding season. They ended up being seeded 20th out of 23 teams, but pulled out a gutty 55-53 win over ENY Transit on Wednesday, setting up another showdown with Wings Academy. Wings beat Eagle twice this season: an early-season route (while playing with an ineligible player) and then by just four points (after they stopped using the ineligible player) in mid-January . . . Monroe (seeded 22), which slid into the tournament with just five wins on the season, lost 65-30 to Campus Magnet . . . After a furious late comeback, Lehman (17) lost a heart-breaker, 41-40, to Paul Robeson . . . John F. Kennedy (10), fresh off its convincing victory over Wings in the borough championship, routed Forrest Hills, 86-55.

Bronx Contenders: Wings (4), JFK (10). Wings finished the season undefeated (16-0) in league play before falling to JFK in the borough title game. They are led by superstar guard Justin Jenkins, one of the city’s best players, who can score from anywhere on the court and has proven clutch when the game is on the line. He and senior forward Steven Gomez (averaging 16 points and 9 rebounds per game) provide Wings with one of the most explosive 1-2 punches in New York. JFK just barely missed a first round bye (the top nine seeds automatically advanced to the second round), but the Knights appear to be peaking at the right time, kind of like the Giants. They have the talent to make an extended run deep into the playoffs and possibly cut down the nets at MSG.

Bronx Cinderellas: Gompers (15), Eagle Academy (20). If not for two extra wins forfeited to them by Eagle, Gompers would have finished the season at .500, 8-8. They play at 2-seed Boys & Girls in the second round. Barring a miracle, (which is always a possibility with scoring machine Carlos Galan, who dropped 31 in the first round win) their season will end in Brooklyn. Without the forfeits and if they were allowed to continue playing point guard Gerard Carty, Eagle would have earned a first round bye or at the very least a first round home game. Even without Carty, Eagle is dangerous. Coach Rodney Plummer said the team deserved to the penalties for what he called “a mix-up,” but added that his team won’t be intimidated going forward.

“We’ve beat people on the road all year long,” Plummer told the NY Post. “I’m confident my team can go into any gym — we could play in the park — and they’ll win.”

Bronx AA Girls

Overview: The girls AA division is even smaller than the boys. There’s a Bronx/Queens/Manhattan division, two Brooklyn AA divisions and a A Division team (McKee) from Staten Island that is included in the AA playoffs. Murry Bergtraum has won 13 city championships in a row. This year they’ve shown some chinks in their armor. Tayshana Murphy, their best player going into the season, was murdered in September.

Early Action: The AA playoffs don’t start until after next week’s break. JFK Coach O’Neil Glenn isn’t concerned about the long layoff. “I don’t think it matters,” Glenn told the Post. “Once you start playing, you start playing. It gives the girls a chance to refresh their legs. I like it. We have time to work on things.”

Bronx A Boys

Overview: In the A Division, the road to the Big Dance is simple. If your team wins as many games as it loses, you’re in. That means there are 45 teams in the A Division tournament, eight from the Bronx. Last season, DeWitt Clinton, seeded 29th, came out of nowhere to crash the Final Four before falling to eventual champion Midwood.

Early Action: All of the Bronx teams who didn’t earn a first round bye lost in their tournament opener, including Roosevelt (26), Columbus (31) and Morris (42). (One caveat: It’s unclear what happened in the Bronx Science-Francis Lewis match-up on Wednesday night.)

Contenders: Mott Haven (1), Evander Childs (5), Clinton (11). Mott Haven, which is moving up to the AA Division next year, has been the best A Division team all year and will be tough to beat in the tournament. Their high-powered offense routinely hits triple digits, a rare feat in high school hoops. If they don’t take the title, it will be an upset. Evander enjoyed an exceptional season, finishing 16-3, including two close loses to Mott Haven. They face Grand Street Campus in a second round game on Feb. 28. Up-and-down Clinton can’t be counted out after last season’s unlikely run. After a four-game mid-season losing streak, Clinton reeled off six straight wins before falling to AA contender JFK in the borough playoffs. They play Stuyvesant at home on Feb. 29.

Cinderellas: Adlai Stevenson (17). Stevenson is another interesting team that may make some noise. They were trounced by Evander at the beginning of the season, then came back to beat them later on. Mott Haven destroyed them twice, but they also have a win over Clinton on their resume. They have a tough second round match-up, playing at High School for Graphic Communication (14-2 on the season) on Feb. 28.

Girls A Division

Overview: The girls A Division is off to an early start, having already completed most of the first two rounds by the break. Out of the Sweet 16 still remaining in the field, three Bronx Schools remain.

Contenders: At this point in the girls A Division, everyone is a contender. Third-seeded Wings Academy takes on Mott Haven (14), while Lehman (15) awaits the winner of Curtis (2) and West 50th Street Campus (31).

Enjoy the action. We’ll be following as best we can on Twitter, @norwoodnews.

The ban was supposed to go into effect Sunday, Feb. 12, following a federal court’s decision last spring that the Department of Education could legally evict the religious groups on the grounds of separation of church and state. Bronx Household of Faith, a small University Heights-based church that has held services in the auditorium of PS 15 since 2002, has been been fighting the city’s policy for over a decade. This week, a Christian legal group representing the church, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), requested the injunction after the city’s Law Department denied a judge’s request Monday to let the churches remain while the court considered the issue.

“The court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups,” said ADF lawyer Jordan Lorence. “ADF will continue to fight this battle relentlessly until the city no longer unconstitutionally prohibits activity for purely religious reasons.”

Opponents of the ban, including many of the city’s religious leaders and Bronx City Councilman and pastor Fernando Cabrera, are hoping to have the issue resolved legislatively, and have been campaigning in support of a state bill that would reverse the city’s ban. The legislation was passed by the State Senate but has not been approved by the Assembly, where it was introduced by Bronx Assemblyman Nelson Castro. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who decides what bills come up on the Assembly floor for a vote, is looking for a more narrow version of the bill than the one that’s been proposed, according to a spokeswoman.

“He feels that the Senate bill is very broad, and would allow any organization to come into the school,” said Sheldon staffer Kerri Biche. “He’s glad it’s being addressed in the court since it’s a constitutional issue. He looks forward to the court’s decision as a guide for any legislation.”

The Croton Facility Monitoring Committee will meet tonight, Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. at the DEP Office, 3660 Jerome Ave. For more information, call (718) 231-8470.

For the full agenda, click on the “Read more” link.

I. Welcome & Remarks of New Chair: Paul Foster, Chair

II. Consider, Adopt This Meeting Agenda:  CFMC Representatives

III. Consider, Adopt 1/12/12 Meeting Minutes: CFMC Representatives

IV. Continuation, Further Discussion about Croton: Hector Aponte, DPR & CFMC Funded Parks and Costs Representatives

V. Construction Update, Schedule & Costs: Bernard Daly, P.E., DEP

VI. Explanation of Croton Design Contract Increases & Change Orders: Lauren Competello, P.E., DEP

VII. Croton Jobs & Bronx Purchases: Thomas Farrell, P.E., Construction Manager

VIII. CFMC Discussion, Set Next Meeting: CFMC Representatives

IX. Adjourn

Bronx Community College‘s Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), offers aspiring middle and high school students classes in the fundamentals of crime scene investigating. Funded by the NYS Education Department, the program offers free Saturday workshops providing enriching, academic support to seventh to 12th grade students in math and science disciplines such as algebra, earth science, biology, and calculus. Along with scientific research and application, students strengthen writing, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills. For more information or to enroll your child, call (718) 289-5952 or contact Eugene.adams@bcc.cuny.edu.