No injuries were reported, and the occupants of the two-family home returned to their apartments after firefighters took care of the emergency. Minor damage to the wood-framed house could be seen from the street.

The house is across the street from the Bridgeport Correctional Center.

At the same time, firefighters responded to an alarm that was triggered in an apartment building about four blocks away, also on North Avenue. But nothing out of the ordinary was found, officials said.

To commute by bike, you’ll need a couple things besides a bike –– a serviceable floor pump and a pretty good lock. Let’s talk about the lock.

If you want to keep your bike, you’re going to have to learn a thing or two about bike locks.

When you buy a bike, it’s a good idea to have at least $40 to $130 left over for a good lock. I’m always amazed at all of the cheap, almost useless bike locks that I see at railroad stations.

Cable locks like this one can be defeated in less than 10 seconds with a hacksaw.

One particularly ineffective lock type is the cable lock, even the thick ones. These can be defeated with a hacksaw or even a pair of wire snippers in about 6 seconds. I know because I’ve done it. And cheap chain locks can be cut without much trouble, too. Remember, you’re buying time. Most bike thieves will pass up a lock that they figure will take more than 10 minutes to defeat.

If I can make a blanket statement, you can’t by a good bike lock for less than $35. Even on-line.

So, if you want your bike to be waiting for you at the end of the workday, get yourself a nice, hardened steel, flat key U-lock, or a heavy-duty hardened chain lock. The type of lock you get depends on where you plan to lock up your machine. U-locks are great for bike racks, but are useless if you have to lock your bike to a light pole. So scout out parking spots for your bike and figure out how you’re going to secure it. If you can get away with a “mini” U-bolt, like the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboutit Mini, so much the better. Mini U-locks can’t be defeated by so-called “leverage attacks” (i.e. car jacks) because there’s no room for a sufficiently powerful jack.

As for chain locks, my favorites are the Abus Steel-O-Chain 880 (good), the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboutit 1415 (better) or the Abus Granit City 1060 (even better, but hefty).

Also, make sure you’re locking up the frame to the rack, not just one the wheels. You don’t want to return to find your front wheel, minus the rest of the bike.

You can use a “looped cable” in conjunction with your main lock to secure your front wheel and seat. Or, a separate armored cable with a built-in lock. Using an armored cable lock, like the Abus Milleninioflex 896, along with your U-lock, will make your bike very difficult to nick because different tools are needed to defeat these two different locks.

This is the Presta valve. It's smaller, lighter and more elegant than the far more common Schrader valve.

The concept is simple: Get to work without a car. A few Post reporters will be doing just that next week. The rest of them will be taking buses and Metro North. I’ll be the only one using human-powered transit.

I have commuted by bike to work before and I’ve done quite a bit of cycling, so there won’t be much of a learning curve that I’ll have to absorb.

For the benefit of those who would like to take their bikes to work, but don’t know where to start, I’ll be writing a few blogs on the subject.

Today, we’re going to look at inflating your tires, or “tyres” as they say in the UK.

This assumes that you already have a bicycle. And if you do, I’ll bet folding money that your bike has soft tires. If you’re going to commute by bike, the first step is to make sure your tires are up to pressure.

So, to do this, you’ll need a bicycle pump. A floor pump with a gauge works best. They are sold at bike shops. Don’t inflate your bike tires at a gas station because you’ll blow them to pieces. Bike tires need only a small amount air, and gas station pumps aren’t designed with bike tires in mind.

This is a Schrader valve. It's just like the one on your car. It's fatter and heavier, but it gets the job done.

Those emergency electric tire pumps that plug into your car’s cigarette lighter will usually work out well, too.

OK, so you have a pump. Now check the tire sidewall for the maximum pressure that the tire is designed for. Attach the chuck to the valve (there’s usually a little lever you’ll have to flip up or down), and begin pumping. You’ll want that maximum air pressure in your tires to reduce your rolling resistance as much as possible. Then add a few more pounds for good measure.

“What?” you ask? Have I lost my mind? Actually, it turns out that the number on the sidewall was set by the tire company’s legal department, and the tire will actually take a good deal more pressure. So, if the tire says 100 lbs., the tire can easily handle about 115 pounds per square inch of pressure.

Note: Because of the physics of tires and air pressure, fatter tires don’t need as much air pressure as skinny ones. This is why car tires need only about 35 pounds of pressure, even though your car weighs about 3,000 pounds.

The author's bike pumps. The one on the left was made in Italy and is only for Presta valves. The other one will work with both.

When you remove the chuck from the tire, you’ll hear a very brief “pffssst” sound. Don’t worry –– this is just the air escaping from the pump, not the tire.

One more thing. Bike tires lose about 5 to 10 percent of their air every week, so, top off your tires once a week.

BRIDGEPORT – The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which provides free tax preparation for eligible families, will kick off the new tax season with an opening event on Friday, Jan. 27, at Housatonic Community College.

Under the program, volunteers are trained by the Internal Revenue Service to prepare income tax returns for households earning less than $50,000. HCC students typically participate in the program.

Highlighting Friday’s program will be addresses by HCC President Anita T. Gliniecki; Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch; Peter Yazbak, outreach coordinator for Cong. Jim Himes; IRS senior tax specialist Ron Peruzzi and Merle Berke-Schlessel, president and CEO of the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County.

The event begins at 1 p.m. in the Atrium in Lafayette Hall. Free parking is available in the Housatonic Garage, 900 Lafayette Blvd in downtown Bridgeport.

The event is set to begin Monday at 8:30 a.m. at Mount Aery Baptist Church, 73 Frank St.

Peters, the retired leader of the New Hope Baptist Church in Denver, was in the thick of the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s. He was at the founding meeting in 1957 of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and he worked directly with King during the marches in Albany, Ga., and in Selma and Birmingham, Ala. He also participated in the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, when King delivered his “I Have a Dream’’ speech.

Peters was pastor of East End Baptist Church in Bridgeport from 1960 to 1973.

The two-hour celebration at Mount Aery usually attracts more than 600 people, including a number of VIPs from the region.

It will be followed at 10:30 a.m. by a community breakfast in the lower level of the church. Tickets for the breakfast are s $12 for adults and $7 for youth 17 and under. Tickets may be purchased at Ms. Thelma’s Restaurant, 140 Fairfield Ave., or by calling 203-526-8086. There will also be a coat drive during the event.

That’s because the group Bridgeport Black Pride has gotten together with kids from the city’s high schools and students at the University of Bridgeport for a Christmas party that will take place on Saturday, Dec. 10, in the UB Student Center, from 11 a.m. to about 3 p.m.

“These are kids that the staff at Roosevelt School identified as being the most needy,” and Gwen Brantley, the president of BPP. “We’re hoping that this will make the season just a little more special for them.”

She said that each one of the students hosting the party picked a child’s name out of a hat, and purchased a gift for the child. There also will be food and decorations to add to the merriment.

Brantley also told us that the speaker for this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 16 will be the Rev. James D. Peters Jr. of the New Hope Baptist Church in Denver. Peters was pastor of the East End Baptist Church in Bridgeport from 1960 through 1973, and also worked with King. BPP sponsors the event every year, which takes place at the Mount Aery Baptist Church.

We’ll have more on the King Day events in the Post as the date approaches.

Adolescents report that being overweight is a primary reason that students are teased at school, according to a study from the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. Published online in the Journal of School Health, the study is the first to examine adolescents’ observations of weight-based teasing at school and suggests that students view weight-based teasing to be even more common than teasing because of sexual orientation.

Researchers surveyed more than 1,500 high school students about their perceptions of teasing and bullying at school. Students were asked their views on how common weight-based bullying is compared to other forms of teasing at school, what types of weight-based teasing are most common, and how they typically react to observed teasing incidents.

About 41 percent of students identified being overweight as the primary reason that students are bullied, followed by sexual orientation, intelligence and ability at school, race and ethnicity, physical disability, religion, and low socio-economic status.

At least 84 percent of the students surveyed observed overweight students being called names, getting teased in a mean way, and teased during physical activity, such as gym class. Two thirds of the students observed their overweight and obese peers as being ignored, avoided, excluded from social activities, having negative rumors spread about them, and being teased in the cafeteria. The majority of students also observed verbal threats and physical harassment toward overweight and obese peers.

While the majority of students reported willingness to help an overweight peer who has been teased, approximately half of the students surveyed remained passive bystanders in these situations, leaving overweight students to cope with these experiences on their own.

The authors assert that these findings are cause for concern, and underscore the need for effective school-based interventions to protect overweight students.

“While many schools have anti-bullying policies in place, there is clearly a need for more awareness and education about weight-based teasing in the school setting, and increased vigilance from educators and school staff to protect these students,” said lead author Rebecca Puhl, director of research at the Yale Rudd Center.

Gloria Nash of Bridgeport turned out with her 3-month-old daughter, Evangelina.

BRIDGEPORT –– The ongoing Occupy Wall Street series of protests, which have spread to from Los Angeles to Boston, made a brief appearance downtown Tuesday as about 30 people turned out in front of the Bank of America building to demonstrate against tax breaks for the wealthy and jobs that are sent overseas.

“We’re here because the Senate is voting today on whether they’re going to raise taxes on the rich and create more jobs for the middle class,” said Andrea Arroyo, an organizer with the public policy advocacy group MoveOn.org. “And it’s time that the wealthy and the corporations paid their fair share.”

Most of those at the gathering only learned about the protest a few hours earlier. Arroyo said, however, that more protests will take place.

“I would love to occupy Bridgeport within the next two weeks,” she said. “We could camp out behind City Hall. Even if I have to do it myself. One spark. That’s how this universe came into being.”

When the protest began at noon, only about a dozen people were present, but the crowd soon swelled to about 30 by the time it was over about an hour later.

“We see our country being stolen from us by greedy politicians,” said Ryan Lee of Bridgeport, who was with his wive and infant daughter.

“The wealthy on Wall Street and the Republican Party like to call this ‘class warfare,’ but we can no longer go on setting the rich against the poor and white against black. We are in this together,” said Mike Cameron of Milford. “I spent eight years of my life defending my country, and I would bear arms to defend it again. We all love our country, but we can’t have a nation that exists just for the enrichment of a few,” said the Vietnam War veteran.

“We are mad because we need jobs, not jobs that are exported overseas,” said longtime community activist Cecil Young. “We need jobs for people who can’t pay their mortgages, jobs for people who can’t stand up for themselves.”

Young, his bullhorn sometimes pointed towards the upper floors of the 16-story office building at 10 Middle Street, urged those with wealth and power to share some of it with others. “We’re not asking you for a handout, we’re not asking you for welfare, we’re asking you for jobs.”

MoveOn.org organizer Andrea Arroyo led Tuesday's rally in front of 10 Middle St.

Young said that it’s the working class who made the rich wealthy. “And now that you have what you got, you send all your work overseas. We are proud to be Americans, but we aren’t proud of those who are in power, and who don’t give others the same respect that they themselves have become accustomed to.”

Folksinger Laura Warfield of Fairfield sang her song “The Unemployment Line,” which chronicles the saga of the jobless.

“Well, I’m number seven and I say Earth’s no Heaven if we all can’t share the wealth. The rich get richer and the sick get sicker –– what happened to that national health?” she sang, strumming on her guitar while sitting on a concrete wall in front of the office building.

She continued as the crowd clapped in time: “Well I’m number six, and I’m in a fix –– I can’t even pay my rent. The people with money in this land of honey make up a mighty one percent.”

Some held signs that said “The 99 Percent,” “Don’t Steal Our Future” and “My Mother Taught Me How to Share!”

The anti-Wall Street protests, now in its 25th day in New York, have spread from Portland, Me., to Los Angeles. In Boston, just about an hour before the Bridgeport protest began, about 100 people were hauled off by police in a demonstration that attracted 3,000 people.

Also there was longtime local activist Cecil Young.

Post reporter Vinti Singh contributed to this report. You can reach John Burgeson at 203-330-6403 or by email at jburgeson@ctpost.com. Follow twitter.com/johnburgeson.

Street signs in memory of Bishop Kenneth H. Moales Sr. are now in place along Central Avenue.

BRIDGEPORT –– Central Avenue, the major north-south street in the city’s East End, now has an honorary name: Bishop Moales Way.

Bishop Kenneth H. Moales Sr.,  who died on Sept. 20, 2010 at 65, was not only the founder of the Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love and later the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, but also was a national figure in the Pentecostal Church, serving on the executive board of the Joint College of African American Pentecostal Bishops. He also was a giant on the gospel music scene; he’s one of the inductees of the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Detroit, and was also president of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses from 1993 until his death.

His four-hour funeral, at the Arena at Harbor Yard, now called the Webster Bank Arena, was one of the largest in the city’s history, with about 4,000 in attendance, many from out-of-state.

At the urging of the Mayor Bill Finch, the City Council’s Public Safety and Transportation Committee voted to approve the new Bishop Moales street signs on Jan. 4.

The new commemorative signs, which sit atop of the existing “Central Ave.” street signs, were installed in recent weeks, but were kept under shrouds until recently. The one on the corner of Stratford Avenue was unveiled in a ceremony that took place at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, 729 Union Ave., on Sept. 17. Now, the 11 intersections along Central Avenue from Stratford to Boston avenues bear his name.

Major institutions on Central Avenue include Bridgeport Hospital and Harding High School.

You can reach John Burgeson at 203-330-6403 or by email at jburgeson@ctpost.com. Follow twitter.com/johnburgeson.

They’re the people who give rides to the polls on election day, and on Tuesday, dozens found themselves driving all over the city to pick up the home bound for a ride to the polls.

Just about all of them work for either the campaigns of incumbent Mayor Bill Finch, or his challenger, Mary Jane Foster.

“I’ve given about 10 rides so far,” said Bonnie Roach, who had just dropped off an elderly voter in front on Longfellow School on the city’s West End at about noon. “For many of them is’s a confusing day for them. Unless you say to them, ‘Do you know what today is?’ many of them don’t get it. But once you talk to them for five minutes, they’re on board with the election.”

Roach, a Finch supporter, said that she was volunteering her time, and her car expenses. “Look, I’m on ‘E’ –– I gotta get some gas.”

It was a long day for Finch supporter and former Bridgeport City Council member Mike Marella.

“I started at seven o’clock,” he said after dropping off a voter at the JFK Campus on the East End, “I’ll be doing this until eight. They wanted to pay me, but I’m, doing this because I’m an old-time politician.”

Marella is in charge of the Bridgeport Police Athletic League.

The JFK Campus, which includes the High Horizons and Multicultural magnet schools, has a long driveway and it’s at the end of Palisade Avenue, so most of those voting there need rides if they don’t have their own cars.

Driver Odalis Inoa, 19, another Finch supporter, said that he was driving exclusively to the JFK Campus. “They gave me a full tank of gas. And it’ll look good on my resume.”

For Foster booster Terry Conroy, now of Stamford, helping out her campaign was an assignment that he couldn’t turn down.

“I was employed by Mary Jane at one time, and I was on the on-filed announcer for a season,” he said after dropping of a voter in front of Harding High School. “I was Capt. L.I. Sounder for a season. I met my wife at a game, so Mary Jane will; always have a place in my heart, because she’s at least partly responsible for hooking me up with my wife.”

You can reach John Burgeson at 203-330-6403 or by email at jburgeson@ctpost.com. Follow twitter.com/johnburgeson.