When news reports showed how many families would be without food in March, Connie Altamirano’s son, Jacob, brought his piggy bank to her and wanted to help.

“We have to feed them all,” he said. “We have to go shopping now. You have to help.” Read more

An unknown man grabbed a woman from behind and sexually abused her in Flushing Meadows Corona Park Oct. 8.

The incident occurred at 6:30 p.m. that Thursday on one of the park’s footbridges near the Van Wyck Expressway’s Exit 22. After assaulting his 34-year-old victim, the perpetrator fled northbound through the park. Read more

No one could remember anything quite like it.

A few hours after early voting began last Saturday, a worker at the Middle Village polling site on Metropolitan Avenue said there had been 80 people waiting on line to vote when he arrived at 8:30 a.m. that morning. Read more

The Flushing busway pilot plan will begin within the next two weeks, the Department of Transportation announced Oct. 23, cementing a controversial change that has been delayed five months.

The project, originally scheduled to begin in June, will close off vehicular traffic for the 0.6-mile stretch of Main Street from Northern Boulevard to Sanford Avenue to speed up bus service. Though commuters rallied behind the plan, area businesses opposed it, claiming it would reduce patronage from customers who drive into Downtown Flushing. Read more

Parents who signed their children up for remote-only instruction in New York City public schools will now only have one opportunity to switch to a hybrid schedule that includes in-person learning, Mayor de Blasio announced on Monday.

The switch represents an abrupt and major change from the mayor’s messaging on the potential to opt-in up to this point. As recently as last Thursday when Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza attended a virtual Community Education Council meeting in western Queens, the administration had promised parents that they would have one opportunity to opt in for hybrid learning per semester, adding up to four for the entire year. Read more

When Gov. Cuomo designated Ozone Park as a yellow zone, it served as a warning sign to the borough that the virus was traveling into the area south of Forest Park.

But while positivity rates of the yellow zone in the whole Central Queens area have stayed relatively low — hovering below 3 percent for the past seven days — another problem has revealed itself, which precedes the recent rash of positive cases. Read more

On Monday, Ozone Park leaders unveiled a new neighborhood sign. On Tuesday morning, it was gone. Come Wednesday, the sign was found, but the hunt for those responsible is still underway.

The rapid sequence of events involving the refurbished “Welcome to Ozone Park” sign started on Monday morning when Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach), Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Rockaway Park) and other community members gathered with workers from Cannon Signs & Awning to install the new sign near the corner of 149th Avenue and Cross Bay Boulevard. Read more

Court is in session.

After being interrupted by the pandemic, jury trials are returning for Queens Supreme Court Civil trials. Read more

South Queens leaders, legislators and members of the community gathered to celebrate the co-naming ceremony of Punjab Avenue last Friday.

The new name is intended to recognize the contributions of the residents from Punjab, a northern region of India, whose immigrant population forms a substantial part of the fabric of Richmond Hill and Queens at large. Punjab Avenue is located on 101 Avenue between 111th and 123rd streets. Read more

“It’s about helping people. Otherwise, what’s the point? If I’m remembered for anything, I want [it to be] that I saw people who needed help and I helped them,” City Councilmember Barry Grodenchik (D-Oakland Gardens) said as he enjoyed the chilly October weather, his favorite time of the year, and sipped coffee in his backyard last Thursday. It was a taste of what’s to come in his retirement. He had spent the morning meeting with constituents on the street and distributing face coverings, a pastime he found himself doing multiple times a week during the pandemic.

The two-term councilmember announced Oct. 14 he would not seek re-election for his District 23 seat, though he promised to finish out the remaining 14 months of the term. Grodenchik will be 61 when retirement rolls around, though he joked that he’d only be 36-years-old if one counted his career in public service. Read more

Between the coronavirus, civil unrest and calls to partially defund the NYPD, it’s been a trying year for many police officers.

“The morale is definitely improving from what it was during the height of COVID and during all the protests but it’s still a work in progress,” said Capt. Joseph Cappelmann, commanding officer of the 112th Precinct, encompassing Forest Hills and Rego Park. Read more

Det. Tanya Duhaney knew from an early age that she wanted to become a member of the NYPD.

“I’ve wanted to be a police officer ever since I was 5 years old and I got lost,” she said in an interview last week. “The police were so incredible. I was so happy when they found me. They put their hats on my head, and they brought me home.” Read more

An employee of an Ozone Park convenience store in the 106th Precinct was allegedly shot and killed by a homeless person who had been kicked out of the store on Monday night, police said.

Medics rushed Mohmediyan Tarwala, a 26-year-old who worked part-time at Crossbay Express, to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center after he took two shots to his stomach. He died later that night. Read more

Police have arrested the man they believe was responsible for killing a pregnant young woman and dumping her pajama-clad body next to the Long Island Expressway early Friday morning.

The NYPD charged Goey Charles of Uniondale, LI, with second-degree murder just past 6 p.m. Oct. 26, more than three full days after officers found Vanessa Pierre of Hempstead’s body in Bayside Hills. She was discovered at 6 a.m. Oct. 23 lying face down and unconscious on the ground in front of 216-13 Horace Harding Pkwy. EMS pronounced her dead at the scene. Read more

Dueling groups who have been anxiously waiting for months to learn about how competitive school admissions will change this year took to the steps of City Hall last Friday to lobby the city Department of Education on what will happen to the admissions process over the next year.

Tensions flared as the two advocacy groups held competing rallies over the city DOE’s impending decision about whether to change the rules for specialized high schools and gifted and talented program admissions. Read more