Welcome to the latest edition of the Bronx New Roundup! Really, it’s been too long. These are the stories we are following this week.

According to the latest Census figures, the Bronx gained 23,365 people in past two years and now has 1,408,473 residents, the Daily News reports. This pace of growth is slower than Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, but the NY Times points out that fewer people are “abandoning” the Bronx. Reporter Sam Roberts explains: “Not only did the borough’s population rise, but more people moved there in the year ended July 1, 2012, than left, according to the estimates. While the net gain in migration was only 115, it contrasts starkly with annual losses that were regularly in the thousands and neared 20,000 two decades ago.” A couple of locals were quoted in this article, including Gregory Lobo Jost of the University Neighborhood Housing Program and Shannon Lee Gilstad, a Bedford Park resident.

The Bronx leads the city, by far, in housing court cases and also in outcomes that favor landlords, according to a recent report. [Times]

Here’s the Riverdale Press story on the new co-locations at DeWitt Clinton High School.

Get your new Pope Francis cookies, right here in the Bronx, CBS News reports.

Bronx scuba instructor Mike Carew’s been helping out with Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts throughout the region, NY1 reports.

Manhattan College’s men’s basketball team fell just short in its quest to get to the NCAA Tournament, the Riverdale Press reports.

Several Bronx teenagers were selected to star in director Michel Gondry’s “The We and the I,” a film set on a fictitious Bronx bus line, BX66. The teens were linked to the Oscar winner through the Point, a community center in Hunts Point. The movie premiered last Friday. Read New York Times reporter, David Gonzalez’s story on one of the movie’s young teens, Alex Barrios. Below is an audio story from WNYC:

Members of the Rebel Diaz Artists Collective (RDACBX) were evicted from their South Bronx loft space used to keep art collections safe for the community’s use. Earlier in February, the activists were working on opening a library that would give youths of color the opportunity to read books about the history of their people. One of the founding members of RDACBX told Fox News in February that Latin youth do not enjoy reading because they cannot and do not see themselves in what they learn at school, which was why the group was creating the Richie Perez Radical library. RDACBX have rallied against the eviction and are asking supporters to send personal testimonials about the effectiveness of the loft space. And more on this story from City Limits.

Big turnout for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Throgs Neck last Sunday, the Bronx Times reports.

An event at TriBeCa’s Three Sixty° supported and celebrated the success of the Bronx Museum of Arts’ complimentary programming. With a “The Bronx in Venice” theme and in front of artists, collectors, and additional members of the art community, executive director of the Bronx museum, Holly Block shared good news–the museum received a private gift of $500,000 from Donald and Shelley Rubin to enhance school and community outreach programs. According to the Wall Street Journal article, the museum also raised an additional $500,000 in tickets sales and live and silent auctions.

Visit the Wall Street Journal to read about installation artist Sarah Sze’s and her coming U.S. representation at the 55th La Biennale di Venezia.

A coalition of community groups and residents sue FreshDirect over its plans to create a new warehouse site in the Bronx’s Harlem River Yard. According to the New York Times, in February of last year, state officials suggested FreshDirect move its facility to the Bronx instead of New Jersey, offering a $127.8 million deal in tax breaks and cash to do so. The coalition, South Bronx Unite, filed a lawsuit against FreshDirect in the Bronx Supreme Court stating that officials had “relied on a 1993 environmental review of the site” and had disregarded residents’ health concerns and the neighborhood’s environmental impact.

The New York Post reports that three Bronx judges were “benched” to make way for three upstate judges part of the judicial “SWAT” team brought in to help with the Bronx court backlog. Several are angered by the call which was made by the Office of Court Administration stating that solely increasing the number of judges and not court officials, such as clerks and officers, is ineffective. Inversely, OCA spokesman David Bookstaver denied benching local judges and said that the judges brought to town were supplied with adequate resources.

More about the Bronx court backlog judges here.

Chazz Palminteri’s “A Bronx Tale” was Robert De Niro’s 1993 directorial debut and will now mark the actor’s Broadway directorial debut. De Niro and Palminteri will both work on preparing the musical. Palminteri will rewrite the story into a show and De Niro will director, and as the New York Post reports, co-owner of Casablanca Records, Tommy Mottola will produce.

Bronx Science hired two new athletic directors in the wake of the school’s hazing scandal, Daily News reports.

And finally, lots of good juice from Bronx Times editor Bob Kappstatter, who weighs in on the contentious 15th District Council race, Adolfo Carrion’s waning support from the GOP and Charlie Rangel spending some time in the Bronx.