With the swine flu outbreak closing down a handful of schools and claiming its first local victim, Mayor Bloomberg wasted no time in naming Dr. Thomas Farley as the new commissioner of the health department. Farley will begin on June 8th once Thomas Frieden takes over his new post heading up the CDC. Farley was a safe and expected choice as an epidemics expert who has advised Frieden and may have also won over the mayor's (low in cholesterol) heart with his aggressive stance against obesity. The Daily News says Farley recently ran into some controversy with "a memo to Frieden noting an increase in syphilis and HIV infection among gay men and suggesting the city 'reevaluate' its policies on gay bathhouses and other venues where men have sex with men." As for the swine flu situation, a twelfth school has shut its doors because so many students were sick. However, Upper East Side St. David's, a Catholic school for boys, closed voluntarily with the mayor saying, "They chose to close, we did not recommend they close." more ›