Frances Alberta Lewis, a tireless community activist and a Norwood resident for more than half a century, passed away peacefully, Sept. 8, in Norfolk, Virginia. She was 91.

As the school year starts, over three million children in the Bronx are on their way back. Growing concern over the nation-topping asthma rates in the schools has led to a new bill signed into law by Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Once a supporter of the war in Iraq, Congressman Eliot Engel declared at a congressional hearing that it is “someone else’s civil war.” At a joint Congressional committee hearing on Iraq, Engel disagreed with the rosy assessment given by General Petraeus, stating that, “The American people are fed up and I’m fed up.”

Last Saturday, Congressman José Serrano came home from Washington, D.C. to deliver the keynote address at the Latinos for National Health Insurance Forum in the south Bronx. "Health care should not be viewed as a luxury but a basic human right," Serrano told his audience at Lincoln Hospital. "In New York City, more than one million of our neighbors are without medical coverage – 18 percent of whom live right in the Bronx." He went on with more sobering data. According to Census data, one third of all Latinos in the United States and 20 percent of black and Asians

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Two weeks ago, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn ventured into the Bronx (for the third time that week), to take a tour of the long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory, a giant castle in the middle of Community Board 7.

• Croton Facility Monitoring Committee will meet on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center. The new developer and union representatives will be there to discuss jobs. For more information, call the DEP outreach office at (718) 231-8470. • Community Education Council 10 will meet on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 6:15 p.m. at PS 9, 230 E. 183rd St. The topic will be Charter schools. For more information, call (718) 741-5836. • 52nd Precinct Community Council will meet Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Muster Room at the 52nd Precinct, 3016 Webster Ave. For more information,

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VIP’s Café, a popular lunch spot near Montefiore Medical Center on Gun Hill Road, has had free wireless Internet now for more than a month.

On Sept. 11, six years after the terrorist attacks, a group of local residents, including David Berger (above) braved wind and rain to gather outside St. Ann’s Church, on Gun Hill Road and Bainbridge Avenue, to remember those who lost their lives at the World Trade Center.

Community Board 7 is looking to revamp its committees and take a more proactive and visible role in the district.