With just under a month to go before the Aug. 15 deadline to declare candidacy for this September’s State Assembly primary election, Assemblyman Luis Diaz (86th District) has resigned from his post to work for Gov. David Paterson as his downstate government and community affairs person.

Bronx TV personality Gary Axelbank will be adding a radio beat to his schedule this August.

On Wednesday morning, at 12:01 a.m., Montefiore Medical Center officially acquired the bankrupt Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center in the Wakefield section of the Bronx. It will be renamed the Montefiore North Division.

Gooseberries, Japanese turnips, baby dandelion, and red Russian kale all made their debut at the opening of the Norwood Farmers Market two weeks ago.

Local residents and politicians are locking horns as the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) pushes ahead on a controversial and widely disparaged new plan to use explosives for a looming construction project at the Jerome Park Reservoir.

While local activists rev up their arguments for a potential lawsuit to stop the city from blasting at the Jerome Park Reservoir (see main story), they also are considering suing the city for not having a buildings permit to construct the water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park.

In the trees behind the Shandler Recreation Area at the southeast corner of Van Cortlandt Park, 20 Bronx teens with gloves and shovels work around a growing circle of cleared brush.

In the midst of the bustle on Gun Hill Road has emerged an urban oasis – a new garden, right in front of the main entrance of the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC). Teens in the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) have revamped what one participant called a "dirty, disgusting" plot into a thriving patch of greenery.

It’s hard to believe, but this coming October marks the 20th anniversary of the Norwood News. Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit support corporation of Montefiore Medical Center, launched the paper as a monthly in 1988 so that neighborhood residents and organizations could communicate, raise issues and have a source of information for the news that matters most – local news!

Despite a zillion cable channels and four daily newspapers, most city neighborhoods are starved for local news they can use.

Just take a gander at the newspaper in your hands from front to back. Imagine there were a farmers market in a part of the neighborhood that you don’t usually frequent and nobody told you about it. Or what if there was a hearing about blasting at the reservoir and there was nowhere to find out that it was even happening? Ditto a hearing about the fate of a massive vacant landmark like the Kingsbridge Armory. And speaking of the Armory, the Norwood News has been covering the Armory relentlessly since it was vacated by the National Guard in 1993.

Think a developer would have ever been selected if a newspaper hadn’t held the city’s feet to the fire all that time?