In a slew of press releases over the summer, Bronx Congressman Eliot Engel has made it clear that he has no intention of maintaining the status quo in terms of health care reform.

The Bronx County Democratic Committee voted to endorse Queens Councilman John Liu in the Sept. 29 runoff election for the citywide Comptroller position.

A listing of local meetings for our readers in the northwest Bronx and beyond.

The commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct, Deputy Inspector James Alles, will be retiring in the middle of next month.

In mid-August, the 52nd Precinct lost its Impact officers to the 40th Precinct, which was dealing with an outbreak of shootings. With only a small class of police cadets scheduled to graduate in December due to budget constraints, it is unclear when the successful program will return.

What students want, students get. After Monroe College student surveys showed a strong interest in developing a master’s program in criminal justice, the college responded by creating a Master of Science program to accompany their Bachelor of Science program in criminal justice.

Newly elected AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, the nation’s top labor leader, touched down in the Bronx on Tuesday afternoon to stand with local activists and union members in their ongoing struggle to exact significant concessions from The Related Companies, the developer of the Kingsbridge Armory project.

We just had a very competitive primary election in two City Council districts.

But the turnout was pathetic.

Less than 10 percent of registered Democrats – i.e. those who were eligible to vote – went to the polls. The citywide turnout was similar, not that that’s much of a consolation.

Why is that?

It’s hard to know exactly.

Maybe part of the problem was that there was such a low-profile Democratic primary for mayor and no Republican primary.

Or maybe the extension of term limits really turned people off since they had already voted twice for two-term limits for city politicians.

But we suspect that the main reason is that most people just don’t know who their City Council member is or what he does. And maybe that’s the fault of each individual voter.

But we can’t just leave it at that.

In the most recent issue of our sister newspaper, the Tremont Tribune (covers the neighborhoods of Community Board 6), we report on a troubling trend of over-leveraged landlords finding themselves in hot water in buildings they paid way too much for. Fordham Towers is exhibit #1, but it is only one of many buildings facing, or on the brink of, a crisis.