Kingsbridge Heights: Police Appeal in relation to Shooting

The New York City Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance identifying the individual depicted in the attached photograph and video in connection to a shooting that occurred within the confines of the 50th precinct.   On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, at approximately 4:30 a.m., inside of a residential lobby within the vicinity of Sedgwick Avenue and West 197th Street, two unidentified individuals were involved in an altercation. A 66-year-old male tried to intervene and was shot one time in the left leg.   The individual with the firearm then fled the scene in an unknown direction. The victim


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COVID-19 Webinar on Treatments & Implications for Public Health: Where Do We Stand?

Community members are invited to a webinar hosted by Montefiore Nyack Hospital on Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2020 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. to learn about various drug treatments for the treatment of COVID-19 and their current place in therapy.   This presentation will also explain the importance of chronic care management in the community setting during a pandemic, and the benefits of telehealth in overcoming barriers to healthcare in a post-COVID era.   The panelist will be Nirvana Awad, PharmD, BCPS Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Transitions of Care Department of Pharmacy, Montefiore Nyack Hospital.   Advance registration for this webinar is


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Biaggi Moves to Repeal Governor’s Nursing Home Immunity Provision

State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Ron Kim have introduced a new State bill that would repeal an amendment in the state budget that gives blanket corporate immunity to nursing home owners, shareholders, and trustees during the COVID-19 pandemic.   If passed, repealing the amendment would enable families to pursue a legal pathway that could uncover evidence of poor care by nursing homes. To date, over 5,600 families have lost a loved one living in a nursing home due to COVID-19.   On Friday, Jun. 12 at 12.30 p.m., Kim and Biaggi will hold a virtual press event and vigil


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New York Public Library creates Black Liberation Reading List

In response to the uprisings across the globe demanding justice for Black lives, New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has created a Black liberation reading list. The 95 titles on the list represent books that the Center and the public regularly turn to as activists, students, archivists, and curators, with a particular focus on books by Black authors and those whose papers the center stewards.   For 95 years, the Schomburg Center has preserved, protected, and fostered a greater understanding of the Black experience through its collections, exhibitions, programs, and scholarship.   Most of the #Schomburg95 books


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Two Men Dead in early morning Bronx River Parkway Crash

Two people have died as a result of an early morning crash on the Northbound Bronx River Parkway at East Gun Hill Road in Norwood.   The incident was reported at 1:38 a.m. on Thursday, Jun. 11, when police were informed that a car was on fire at the location. Soon afterwards officers from the 47th precinct and the NYPD’s Highway Patrol quickly shutdown the roadway and attempted to remove one victim from the burning vehicle.   One police official reported a male driver was pulled from a burning 2019 Dodge Challenger, “unconscious and unresponsive”. The man whose identity has


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Black Lives Matter: Peaceful Protest in Riverdale As More Legislation Advances

A peaceful Black Lives Matter protest took place in Riverdale on Saturday, Jun. 6, 2020 as part of the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the country following the death of George Floyd on March 25, 2020.   Approximately 200 protesters, made up of different races, and including members of Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition started the day in Ewen Park and later proceeded through the Riverdale neighborhood to Van Cortlandt Park, gathering by the tortoise and hare statue where they sat, stood, and knelt down at various moments during the event.   Opec Vistle captured the protestors marching


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Montefiore Honors George Floyd in Nine-Minute Silent Tribute

On Friday, June 5, 2020, Montefiore University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine stood in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the call for a more equitable and just society, when staff held a nine-minute silent tribute to George Floyd, the unarmed African-American man who was murdered at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.   Floyd died of asphyxiation after a White police officer, who has since been charged, pinned him face down on the ground and knelt on his back and neck for nine minutes, even as he pleaded for air and


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New Bill to Protect Contact Tracing Data from Law Enforcement

New Important legislation has been introduced to ensure that contact tracing in relation to COVID-19 achieves its public health goals and is not weaponized against communities of color. State Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, chairs of the Senate and Assembly Health Committees, introduced the bill to ensure confidentiality of contact tracing data and prohibit access by law enforcement and immigration enforcement.   Rivera said he was honored to have worked with Neighborhood Defender Services, Center for Community Alternatives, The Bronx Defenders, and the New York Civil Liberties Union in drafting the new bill, based on powerful testimony he


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Bronx Pediatrician Seeks to Reassure Parents about COVID-19 Syndrome Affecting Kids

  When much of the world was still coping with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a worrisome, new pediatric condition potentially linked to the coronavirus started to manifest in some children in Europe in April. When the first suspected cases started to present at New York hospitals, swift action was taken by both City and State officials in early May to warn parents of the symptoms, as reported by Norwood News.   In a matter of days, by May 9, three children had died, and New York case numbers had quickly risen. The Empire State now accounts for about


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