Group Launches Anti-Pedro Campaign

Bill Samuels tries to convince residents to hit the polls for Gustavo Rivera his fall.Bill Samuels has pledged $250,000 to help get Gustavo Rivera elected, though he’s only ever met the man for 30 seconds, total. Samuels, a businessman whose family has political roots and founded the plastics company Kordite (think Hefty Trash Bags), is on a mission to get State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr., voted out of office. His group, called the New Roosevelt Initiative, is an independent expenditure campaign trying to reform Albany, they say-one bad politician at a time. The first on their list is Pedro Espada. A leaflet the group hands out to passersby outside of subways and in parks in Espada’s 33rd District argues a laundry list of the Senate Majority Leader’s misdeeds: the Cuomo lawsuit against him, his history of snubbing renters’ rights, his role in the Senate coup last summer.

Bronx News Roundup, July 20

A 15-year-old Bronx boy was shot and killed in a shooting Monday morning in Brooklyn.In the wake of this weekend’s drownings, the Times takes a closer look at the Bronx River and its re-emergence in the public eye in recent years.The part of the river where the two teens drowned-near the Bronx Zoo, in West Farms-is a popular swimming spot, according to the Daily News.Police are looking for a man who raped and assaulted a 79-year-old woman in the elevator of her Westchester Square apartment building. State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. is holding a press conference today at 1 p.m., at Benson Street and East Tremont Avenue, to rally for the community’s involvement in catching the assailant, according to press release sent this morning.Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the Working Families Party, writes that the best way to change Albany is to vote Pedro Espada out of office.