Welcome to today’s Bronx News Roundup. We’ll make up for yesterday’s lack of a roundup with a super roundup that includes the bombshell report on Bronx Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera and it’s fallout. Lots to get to, folks, so let’s go. Weather: humid, high of 87, chance of thunderstorms throughout the day.

Oh boy toy. We’ll get through this mess as accurately as possible. In it’s Sunday edition, the New York Post splattered its pages with sultry photos of Bronx Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera and Tommy Torres, a Democratic city council candidate in Brooklyn who the 80th Assembly District rep is reportedly dating and who she employed for a time almost two years ago. The photos were mostly taken from a personal Facebook page Rivera kept under the name Daniela Rivera, Daniela being Rivera’s middle name. The Post plays up some salacious details, which we won’t get into, but the article does point out that Rivera paid Torres $18,123 for four months of work as the assemblywoman’s full-time community relations director. At the time of his employment with Rivera, the Post reports, Torres was also employed as a full-time gym teacher who made extra money coaching sports after school.

Here are Rivera’s comments to the Post: “Mr. Torres did work part time for my district office. It was for a period of four months ending in 2010. Because of his background in education, during those four months he was actively involved representing me in educational and at community events.”

She didn’t comment on whether her and Torres were in a relationship: “The Facebook page you are referring to is my own personal page, having nothing to do with my professional career, and I wish you would respect my privacy.”

The page has since been deleted from Facebook. We checked.

In any case, this is bad PR for an incumbent up for re-election against a very determined opponent. Almost immediately, Rivera’s well-funded primary challenger Mark Gjonaj, a Bronx realtor, seized on the scandal, calling for an investigation into the hiring of Torres. “The public has the right to expect a full investigation into the conflict of interest by all appropriate government agencies,” Gjonaj said in a statement, according to the Post.

Politicker has more on Gjonaj’s reaction as well as reaction from fellow challenger Adam Bermudez, who wrote on his Facebook page: “What is this god? Why did you give me something so unholy to be gleeful about moments after getting home from church? Btw, welcome home Will Newman. We need to discuss this now. Not page 6, PAGE 7 OF THE SUNDAY POST. Full disclosure: I presently have no secret girl-toy or boy-toy on any tax paid payroll unlike my opponent. I also have never donated to the RNC or John McCain like my other opponent. I’M ACTUALLY THE BEST DEMOCRAT IN THIS RACE! I KNOW ITS CRAZY, BUT VOTE FOR ME, MAYBE?

Meanwhile, government watchdog Common Cause New York also criticized Rivera: “Assemblywoman Rivera’s flagrant misuse of tax dollars demonstrates a casual disregard for her constituents and the public trust,” the group’s executive director, Susan Lerner, told the Post.

The Post editorializes that there should be an investigation into Torres’ hiring.

Political blogger and interviewer Roberto Perez says the Post story outing Rivera’s Facebook page and relationship with Torres may be payback for Rivera throwing her support behind Councilman Erik Dilan, who is challenging Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez. Perez is on top of this. He posted about Rivera-Torres and the Brooklyn politics angle four days before the Post story dropped.

Stay tuned. We’ll be following this closely.

In other Bronx news:

Despite a disappointing London games, Olympic gymnast John Orozco, who is from Harding Park, will come home today to a hero’s welcome, the Daily News reports. At just 19, Orozco is already looking toward the future and setting his sights on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, site of the 2016 games.

Low-cost gyms see an opportunity in the Bronx, a borough with staggeringly high obesity rates, the Daily News reports.

NY1 is celebrating two decades of reporting in the Bronx this week. As part of that celebration, they reported on the Bronx River’s resurgence and the still-vacant Kingsbridge Armory.

A Chase bank manager in the Bronx pleaded guilty in a $3 million scam using bogus income tax refund checks, the Post reports.

A Bronx super was killed while trying to flee cops on a dirt bike, the Post reports.

Five struggling apartment buildings in the South Bronx are getting a much-needed makeover, WNYC reports.

A series of recent attacks have Bronx seniors on edge, the Post reports.

DNAinfo highlights a youth-based program in Morrisania aimed at combating the Bronx’s high obesity rates.

Student participants in Rocking the Boat, a Hunts Point-based program that teaches teens boat-building and environmental sustainability recently returned from their 35-mile boat trip, which started in Connecticut and ended back in the Bronx. It’s the third year the group has taken the journey. “This trip is phenomenal, because kids literally get to board boats they built and sail off into the Bronx River and on to the rest of the world, which is a great power,” Director Adam Green told the Daily News. “That sense of accomplishment rarely happens for any of us.”

USA Today has a slide show on Drew Gardens, which is cultivated along the Bronx River by refugees.

Salsa legend Willie Colon will be back playing in the Bronx for the first time in a decade on Saturday night at Lehman Center, NY1 reports.

That’s it for today. Send links and news tips to us at norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org. We’ll leave you with this video of Colon performing: