We are now in the 30th month of the Iraq war. Will it take us another 30 months to admit and correct our mistake?

DeWitt Clinton High School fired up its new metal detectors and scanning equipment for the first time this week, resulting in long lines and a growing sense of resentment among students. Clinton’s staff generally support, or feel resigned, to the changes, but hundreds of students staged a walk out last Monday in protest.

Students went back to school on Sept. 8 in what many officials and parents have said was a particularly easy first day. "It was probably one of the smoothest school openings in anyone’s recollection," said Joel DiBartolomeo, a local instructional superintendent for the area, last week.

It’s a rapid-fire exchange familiar to any Bronxite needing a cab to go to the doctor’s or across town. It’s a simple transaction – a phone number is called and a car comes – but one wonders about the anonymous operator and their clairvoyant knowledge of where the cabs lurk. And how’d they learn to talk so fast?

After more than 30 years in politics, Oliver Koppell is understandably quite confident in his ability to win elections. "Quite honestly, I’ve run a lot of campaigns and I think I know what to do," said Koppell, 64, wearing a large "Koppell for City Council" button on his lapel.

Ari Hoffnung prides himself on his math abilities, and in the last days of his bid to unseat Councilman Oliver Koppell in the 11th District, numbers are on his mind. "About 20,000 [people] will vote in the election," said Hoffnung, 31, a Riverdale resident and investment banker. "Can I meet all of them? No. But I’ve been meeting a lot of people and it adds up."

With the media assigned to their campaigns in tow, the mayoral candidates helped a coalition of advocacy groups bring attention to a problem all too familiar for many Bronx residents – neglected apartment buildings.

Community Board 7 (CB7) members gathered at summer’s end to set goals for the coming year. Led by Greg Faulkner, CB7’s new chair, the session preceded the full board meeting, scheduled for Sept. 20.

The controversy concerning statements by Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the Bronx Democratic Party chairman, has mainly been fueled by his comments about Jewish politicians reprinted in The Riverdale Press. In an interview with a student from the Columbia Journalism School, Rivera made comments clearly insensitive to Jews.