Fernandez Organizes Food Giveaway and Sees Need for More

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

The line of people with rolling carts and hand trucks waiting to receive boxes of food filled the sidewalk of Hull Avenue. It started at the intersection of East 204th Street, and on its southern tip ended just short of East Mosholu Parkway North. Although the food event was scheduled to last an hour, the boxes were gone in less than 30 minutes. Promoted as a Food Box Giveaway and spearheaded by Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez, the outdoor event highlighted an ongoing worrisome issue in Norwood: food insecurity. “The turnout today was great,” Fernandez said. “A lot of people

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Check out the latest SummerStage Anywhere hip-hop programming for the weekend. This week there is more programming with DJ Kool Herc & Cindy Campbell, DJ Rich Medina, and Pete Rock & The Soul Brothers with Buddy! More info below: Friday, August 21st: Culture Talk Artist: DJ Kool Herc & Cindy Campbell Time: 7:00PM ET Where to Watch: SummerStage Instagram, SummerStage YouTube, Facebook page and Twitch Info: Join one of hip-hop’s forefathers Kool Herc & his sister, the self-proclaimed “First Lady of Hip-Hop”, Cindy Campbell, for a historic walk through of the home of hip-hop around Cedar Park, and the now-legendary 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Sistas and Brothas United (SBU), the youth organizing arm of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, a 46-year-old organization of students, parents, clergy and community members across the Bronx are organizing a rally to take action against school policing, and what the organization says are all the practices and policies that criminalize young people in schools. For the last two decades SBU has been working to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, organizing to eradicate suspensions, arrests, metal detectors, and school safety agents in schools that the organization says pushes young people out of school and into the prison system.

By SÍLE MOLONEY

The non-profit, Abbot House, is to honor Daanyal Agboatwalla with the Joseph M. Pastore, Jr. Difference-Maker Award for his work in the community. Agboatwalla is a senior at Horace Mann School in the Bronx and is fiercely committed to supporting marginalized communities and fighting inequality wherever it exists. His passion led him to Abbott House, where he spent a summer working with migrant children as a teacher’s assistant in its Transitional Resource for Children (TRC) school. Abbott House is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization working with children, families and adults with complex needs. It supports nearly 2,800 children in

By SÍLE MOLONEY

As part of a set of legislative election reforms to address voting problems that arose in the June 23 primary election, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed bill S8015D into law on Aug. 20 which will temporarily expand New York voters’ ability to vote by mail in upcoming elections, including the presidential election in November, and other elections taking place in 2021. The new law temporarily alters the definition of “illness” with respect to absentee voting eligibility to include “risk of contracting or spreading a disease that may cause illness to the voter, or to other members of the public,” such

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

On Aug. 14, in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, associates from Montefiore Westchester Square Campus were joined by State Sen. Luis Sepulveda, Assembly Member Michael Benedetto, and Council Member Mark Gjonaj to distribute masks, hand sanitizers, and lunch to the local community at their Raymond’s Avenue location. Lunch was provided by Montefiore cafeteria staff, and information on the importance of going to the ER for health emergencies was distributed to those in attendance, including information about how the staff at Montefiore are keeping Westchester Square COVID safe for their community. Thank you to our healthcare heroes at @MontefioreNYC

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Audrey Strauss, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Philip R. Bartlett, inspector-in-charge of the New York field office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), announced the unsealing of an indictment on Aug. 20 charging Brian Kolfage, Stephen Bannon, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea for their roles in defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” that raised more than $25 million. The defendants were arrested this morning, Aug. 20. Kolfage will be presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hope T. Cannon

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Peter C. Fitzhugh, special agent-in-charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced the indictment and arrest on Aug. 19 of Yoel Abraham, Heshl Abraham, Zishe Abraham, and Shmuel Abraham, who are brothers, on charges of engaging in a scheme to systematically defraud Amazon.com, LLC, (“Amazon”), an online retailer and e-commerce platform. Through the course of the scheme, the defendants manipulated Amazon’s vendor system in attempts to fraudulently induce Amazon to pay for goods that Amazon had not ordered. In executing

By SÍLE MOLONEY

The New York State legislature will hold a virtual hearing on the impact of Tropical Storm Isaias on New York State on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. On Aug. 4, the storm hit New York with heavy rain, tornadoes and winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour. Isaias left hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers without power across New York City, Long Island, Westchester, Rockland, the Hudson Valley and other areas of the state within the service territories of PSEG-Long Island, Con Edison, Orange and Rockland, National Grid, Central Hudson, New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG) and other