With veteran leadership, great depth, family-like chemistry and one of the best athletes to ever wear the blue and white, the Lehman College women’s basketball team is poised to defend their CUNY Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) Championship this season.

A listing of arts and entertainment events and programs in the northwest Bronx.

In an effort to beef up policing of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods, the New York Police Department is sending reinforcements to the 52nd Police Precinct’s southern areas.

Norwood residents are urging the Parks Department to renovate the dog run in Williamsbridge Oval Park, which they feel is inadequate and causing harm to their pets.

Fourth and fifth graders from the Bronx New School, led by team captains Andrew Jackson and Lindsay Gonzalez, performed well enough to move on to compete in the Mad Hot Ballroom semifinals in Manhattan, Dec. 14, and then the fall semester finals on Dec. 17, achieving gold medal status in both events. They are now headed to the Grand Finals at the World Financial Center Winter Garden this June.

Three days after Bedford Park resident Kathie Fidis died on Dec. 19, her wake at the John Fox funeral home was packed, standing room only, with family, friends and a gaggle of regulars from Rose’s Luncheonette, the tiny coffee shop Kathie and her husband, Michael, turned into a neighborhood institution.

Leading up to Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, two prominent Bronx pols campaigned for Hillary Clinton in Manchester. Assemblymen Jeffrey Dinowitz and Jose Rivera were in the Granite State last weekend.

This past December, the House of Representatives passed a bill that will extend the State Children’s Health Program, called Child Health Plus in New York, through March 31, 2009. The bill will provide additional funding to ensure no child currently enrolled with the program will be dropped from coverage.

Congressman Eliot Engel said he is glad to see the bill passed. However he wishes to do more for uninsured children.

Council Member Oliver Koppell recently co-sponsored City Council legislation that enables the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to sell liens on the residential and commercial property of unscrupulous owners who have exploited the system by refusing to pay their water bills.