When Monroe College opened the King Graduate School of Business on its Bronx campus two years ago, the program was spread throughout the college’s five buildings.

Now, after eight months of construction, the graduate and undergraduate business schools have a building to call their own.

As New York City heads into a period of budget deficits, there is a common perception that all city agencies are being forced to trim back 5 percent from their budgets. But there is one agency that gets a pass from City Hall and will actually increase its spending dramatically.

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), purveyor of a massive filtration plant on our neighborhood parkland, will increase its spending by almost 17 percent in the coming year – a $347.3 million rise over the current year. Since the lion’s share of DEP’s budget comes from water rate payers and not from city coffers, Bloomberg and the city budget office are happy to turn a blind eye towards DEP’s spending increases. In fact, thanks to a stipulation known as the "rental payment," the more DEP spends, the more rate payers actually subsidize city coffers (this year it will be to the tune of $77 million)!

The majority of media attention on the double digit water rate increases (last year it was 11.5 percent – a 15-year high – and this year DEP is proposing 14.5 percent) has gone towards so-called "deadbeats" who have not paid their water bills. To deal with this issue, DEP authorized shutoffs for single family homes and in December convinced the City Council to pass lien sale legislation for multifamily properties, promising it would help with collections and keep rate increases down.

This month we began to learn the truth: The real reason behind the massive increases is not the deadbeat factor but rather DEP’s unchecked spending.

With all the hearts and flowers and loving sentiments issued on Mother’s Day, it has occurred to me as a mom that I wouldn’t be celebrating this special day if it weren’t for my own two kids … and the journey they traveled to make this happen.

With this in mind, I was inspired to write the following, dedicated with love to my daughter Maya and my son Gideon, which presents Mother’s Day from a different point of view.

In celebration of Arbor Day, SoBro’s Green-Jobs and Greater Environment (GAGE) participants plant trees with Parks Department gardeners Ida Levy at St. James Park (pictured above). Two days later, they did the same at Williambridge Oval Park. The Norwood News applauds these efforts.

Fordham Prep senior Philip Spano flew to Miami last month to get a behind-the-scenes look at professional golf and write about his experiences on a daily blog. "One thing was: It was pretty awesome," Philip said in an interview the day after he arrived back in his home in the east Bronx.

Eager students can’t wait to talk about the project they have helped run at PS 94. Many of the school’s students helped raise money and awareness for Pennies for Patients, a three-week project for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, a charity that helps children diagnosed with blood cancer.

Students and staff at two Bronx colleges are looking to change the world for the better, one low-energy light bulb, one newly planted tree, one recycled shopping bag at a time.

Food is a way to cultural understanding, says Eunju Baek Kim, a native of Korea and owner of KBBQ on West Kingsbridge Road.   Think about it, we all have to eat. Why not explore other cultures by trying their food?   Before opening KBBQ last fall, Kim worked for the Korean government for 10 years, researching ways to introduce Korean food to the rest of the world.  In other words, she not only knows authentic Korean cuisine, but she’s trained to bring her country’s food to Bronxites.   When you walk by KBBQ, succulent-looking barbeque chicken and ribs are

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A listing of programs, events and services in the northwest Bronx.