The Village Voice’s Tom Robbins continues to shed light on the dealings of State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. with a story about how a Manhattan tailor is suing Espada for failing to pay for $7,200 worth of custom-tailored suits.In a sworn statement, Espada said he returned the suits for being “defective,” but the tailor says he’s seen Espada on television wearing his suits.

Robbins also writes about Gustavo Rivera’s efforts to unseat Espada (no mention of fellow challenger Dan Padernacht) and again points out Espada’s numerous connections to the real estate and landlord lobby, including how his part-time spokesman, Steve Mangione, was paid $270,000 to produce radio ads for the Rent Stabilization Association, the city’s largest landlord group.

The Bronx Zoo is shipping 100 rare Kihansi spray toads to Tanzania where the species is near extinction.

The Bronx detective who solved the Happy Land fire case, Kevin Moroney, retired yesterday after 42 years on the job.

The NY Times has used the word “hipster” in stories more than 250 times in the past year. They used it in connection with the Bronx “only a handful” of times, but they used it in connection with Brooklyn 96 times, Manhattan 87 times, Queens 33 times, and Staten Island, just twice. Thought you needed to know this.