Eight NYC public high school teachers who engage their students with passion, animation and scholarly studies have earned Sloan Awards for Excellence in Teaching Science & Mathematics.

The awards are presented annually by the Fund for the City of New York and sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation includes a $5,000 prize.

Among the criteria to be used in the evaluation of the candidates are:

• Student achievement, progress and outcomes
• Teaching style and effectiveness
• Innovation and creativity in the classroom environment

US MILITARY PRESENCE. Australia Bases.

SYRIAN OPPOSITION. Army Defections.

EUROPEAN DEBT. Crisis Spreading?

US SUPER-COMMITTEE. Stymied.

SLOAN AWARDS. Top Teachers.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. joined state and city officials, as well as representatives of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, to announce that electric truck manufacturer Smith Electric Vehicles will soon open a new state of the art electric truck manufacturing facility at the former Port Morris lamp warehouse at 275 Locust Avenue. Smith Electric Vehicles hopes to create more than 100 local “green” jobs.

A New York Supreme Court judge has upheld the NYC’s right to enforce rules to bar the Occupy Wall Street protesters from camping overnight at Zuccotti Park.

Michael D. Stallman said, “The court is mindful of the movements’ First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and peaceable assembly.” But he added, quoting from another case, “Even protected speech is not equally permissible in all places and at all times.”

As the Mike Bloomberg's NYPD began removing Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park this morning morning, they immediately created a media-free bubble around their police action, pushing reporters out of view and clearing the airspace of news helicopters. Bloomber and his police commissioner said they were protecting the press.

It was a cloudy morning and at times it appeared that the heavens were set to shed some tears. However, the weather held up as mother nature welcomed members of Ed Sadler's large and wonderful family, some who had traveled from as far away as California. There were local community leaders there, as well as many City Islanders (clam diggers and mussel suckers), all there to pay tribute and to participate in his wake, the Bronx funeral services and City Island burial ceremonies, where Ed Sadler was born, lived and loved or 95 wonderful years.

OCCUPY THIS. NYPD & Sanitation Clears Tents and Tarts From Zuccotti Park.

US DEFENSE SPENDING. $350 Billion First Round Cuts.

CHINA SEEKS PAYMENT. Price for Freedom.

ARAB LEAGUE ACTS. Syrian Death Toll.

NYC SUBWAY. Soaring Crimes.

US Congressman Joe Crowley (D-Queens, the Bronx) was joined by New York Metro Area Postal Union President Clarice Torrence, State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, representatives from Assemblyman Michael Benedetto’s office and the National Association of Letter Carriers, community groups, and concerned citizens in a rally calling on the U.S. Postal Service to keep the Einstein and Dreiser Loop Post Offices open.