We’ll get to a few news links in a minute, but first I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about why you should click on this link right here and pledge your support to the nonprofit Bronx News Network today. You may have noticed we didn’t post a roundup yesterday. It broke my heart, but it had to be done and it was not just because I spent a large chunk of my day out on the streets delivering the Norwood News, a BxNN affiliate, in my car.

We’re taking this last week of our annual fund-raising appeal to remind you why we’re here and to ask for your support in keeping this valuable Bronx resource going and growing. Just like how NPR puts on an annual pledge drive to ask people to financially back “listener-supported” radio, we’re doing our pledge drive to enlist your help in backing reader-supported news!

Without your support, we won’t be able to continue to sift through, gather, read and put all the Bronx news into an easily digestible roundup every day. Let alone produce the original reporting that tells you not just that some old Bronx lady died in a fire last week, but that the woman who died was Mary Mullen, a former teacher at PS 5 in Port Morris who lived near Poe Park for the past 30 years, ate at Louie’s Dale Diner on 231st Street, worshiped at St. Philip Neri on the Concourse and dressed to the nines even after a stroke late in her life.

We can’t do this for all the fire, gunshot or car accident victims, at least not yet. But, and this is our pledge to you, we will do our best.

Here’s another pledge from us, just so you know you’re getting something for your hard-earned money: We will follow the stories you want us to follow. All you have to do is ask – leave a comment or send us an e-mail at bronxnewsnetwork@gmail.com – and we’ll do our best to find out what’s going on. This website and our programs isn’t just fueled by your dollars, but also by your suggestions, tips and desires.

Bottom line: We need your help and can not do this without you.

If you’re reading this right now, for whatever reason, then please, take a minute to click on this link and donate to Bronx News Network. This is the last week we’ll use this space to appeal to you, our readers, for help financially. Anything you can spare – $5, $10, $20 – will put us in a better position to continue our programs and grow as a nonprofit organization. Help us reach our goal and help us provide the type of news and information that makes the Bronx a better place.