Editorial – We’re Just Getting Warmed Up

Neighborhood Notes: Free Immigration Service

Repealing the Affordable Care Act. Building a wall. Holding federal funds to New York City hostage. A temporary ban on refugees. All this happened in one week of President Donald Trump’s America. And though his executive orders were theatrical at best (except the ban), they’re just getting warmed up. And so is the media. Since the Inauguration, there’s been a wake-up call among career politicians who believed none of this could happen. The reversal of fortune is tough to stomach for Democrats, who are now banding together to stymie the fallout of the Republican president’s policies, which appear to be

Greetings Loyal Readers! The latest edition of the Norwood News is out with plenty of community news you can use. We begin, of course, in the beginning with page one: coverage of the September Primary in the Bronx. It was a pretty predictable ending for the candidates, with no upsets. Typical for incumbents and party-backed candidates in the Bronx. Read up on the five races that could impact residents of the northwest Bronx. Inside the cover you’ll read on the opening of a dormant pizza stand in Norwood, and a stalwart saloon in Norwood that could be serving its last

It was a big night for the Norwood News, picking up three awards at the 14th annual Ippies Awards on June 2. The awards ceremony, sponsored by the Center for Community and Ethnic Media and CUNY School of Journalism, is the only awards show to honor multi-language newspapers and community press. The almost 28-year-old newspaper once again took home a First Place prize for Best Small Circulation Publication, this time tying with The Riverdale Press. “Both Bronx news outlets prove that small independent news outlets that serve their communities well can survive and thrive in this era of journalistic turbulence,” read Tom Robbins,

Shorts, shirts, pants and tank tops; everyday pieces of clothing that serve the same purpose. But while one student is told to go home for wearing a certain item of clothing at school, another just skates by. The only difference between the two? Their gender. Dress codes, instituted in various forms, vary in scope and restriction within New York City’s public school system, though the general rule that appropriate attire must be worn applies to all schools. The New York City Education Department, which regulates the school dress code, states on its website that dress codes are intended to “provide

Bronx teenagers are getting hit by Cupid’s arrows. Many teens see being in a romantic relationship as beneficial because it offers them emotional support, care and security. Even though relationships have pros and cons, when speaking with Bronx teens, some dating factors resonate. Teenagers in relationships often develop a sort of dependence on their significant other. Anthony Garriga, a single 17-year-old with past dating experience, said he has developed an attachment to a former girlfriend. “She got to comfort me, and is actually there for me. That’s really all I need from a girl. When my friends aren’t there, she

Working while attending school, overcoming misplaced perceptions, and struggling to learn English often leaves young English language learners (ELLs) with the tough decision on whether or not to stay in school. It’s a decision that frequently hits children of foreign-born parents. “I didn’t know anyone here. Didn’t have any friends,” Lily Rivas, 18, a freshman attending Lehman College, told the Norwood News. “I couldn’t even talk to anyone because they wouldn’t understand [me] and I wouldn’t understand them either.” Rivas, a former English as a second language (ESL) student, graduated from the Leadership Institute High School in the Bronx last

Bronx teenagers crave what the borough has to offer in abundance: fast food. Often, teens prefer to eat a quick, affordable, and convenient meal and the Bronx is meeting that demand. However, many of these teens may be unaware of how various fast food restaurants often use ingredients that contain high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, carbohydrates, sodium, and saturated fat, to prepare a meal. The high presence of fast food eateries in the Bronx coincides with the borough’s dead last rank in healthy New York State counties. As of 2015, the Bronx “has the strongest growing rate of fast

The number of homeless people in the Bronx has increased since last year, with some of that number being teens, according to the Coalition for Homeless Youth, an advocacy and direct service organization based in New York City. Many of them do not have a place to lay their heads at night, an issue becoming more and more common. “As a former homeless young person, I know how hard it is to get by without a safe, affordable place to live,” said Jawanza Williams, a youth organizer at VOCAL-NY. The community organizing group took part in a January news

By KWESI SAMPAH

The ban on cell phones in New York City public schools was lifted by the de Blasio Administration on March 22, 2015. Although the ban was lifted, school principals were given discretion over lifting or keeping the ban in their respective schools. Bruce Abramowitz, the principal of the High School of Computers and Technology, one of six small schools at the Evander Childs Educational Complex in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx, lifted the phone ban in his school on the condition that they would be used during lunch, after school or when given permission in a class by a