The Philadelphia Police Department is adding to its arsenal of crime-fighting techniques. For the first time in the department's history a select group of officers will carry tasers on duty as part of a new public-safety initiative, the Philadelphia Crisis Intervention Team.

Freshmen are quickly learning the joys of free food and merchandise during NSO. Upperclassmen can now take part by grabbing a free notebook around campus. All By Students, a student-run notebook company founded in Chicago, will be partnering with Penn Student AProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 ncies to distribute 12,000Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age%3

Penn President Amy Gutmann welcomed what she called the "mighty class of 2012" to Penn yesterday evening by giving them the "license to take their first test flight" and asking them to "enjoy the view." The ceremony, held every year to officially introduce the freshman class to the University, wa

Alicia Puglionesi is a College senior from Havertown, Pa. Her e-mail address is puglionesi@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Philadelphia may be home to a few more founding fathers this year as a new fraternity arrives on campus. Phi Gamma Delta, also nicknamed FIJI or Phi Gam, was recently approved to restart its Beta chapter on campus. The fraternity, FIJI's second chapter, was colonized on Feb.

Philadelphia public schools reported significantly higher crime rates in 2007 than in previous years, but some say those statistics distort the actual environment in the schools. Penn officials and students who have worked in Philadelphia schools are worried that the latest round of statistics might deter potential me

The Joe Sandberg Era is officially over in the Penn backfield. But the mourning period is long over, and the first touch is less than three weeks away for the former all-Ivy running back's heir apparent. Or, perhaps more accurately, his heir apparents. Prior to preseason practices, sophomore Mike DiMaggio seemed like the sure successor - he performed more than admirably in Sandberg's place at the end of last season, taking home Ivy Rookie of the Week honors twice.

The reporter recounts her experiences at the Democratic and Republican conventions. DENVER - Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama stood on a stage in a football stadium packed with more than 80,000 cheering supporters. Waving to the crowd were his wife and two daughters as confetti rained down and fireworks went off.

A daunting winter notwithstanding, Jonathan Goodman, a freshman in the College, left the beaches in San Diego last week for Penn's campus in West Philadelphia. Like Goodman, more California high-school seniProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 s than ever before are hoping to make the move

In just under two years, the pieces have finally fallen into place. On Aug. 31, residents of the Radian - a 14-story apartment building located at 39th and Walnut streets - will move into the new building. Though construction crews are still working on the building this week, students who will live in the Radian say they are excited about their new home.

By PAMELA ELLERMANN Staff Writer pelle@dailypennsylvanian.com A recent study has found that annual HIV infection rates are higher than originally anticipated. A report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention revealed HIV incidence - the number of new infections that occur per year - to be 40 percent higher than first estimated for the year 2006.

Filming of the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took place on campus June 10-15, drawing large crowds of passersby struck by the Hollywood scene and hoping to catch a glimpse of the film's director Michael Bay and star actor Shia LeBeouf. The Transformers 2 production crew was "overwhelmed" by their reception at Penn, University spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said.

Penn has fallen from the top five in this year's U.S. News & World Report national university rankings. Now ranked as the sixth best national research university, Penn ties with with the California Institute of Technology and places right behind Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Students returning to Penn will probably notice some of the bigger changes - new faculty, more housing and even a building name change. Even with the new developments, Penn's still the same exciting place you've grown to love. As for the Class of 2012, welcome! With higher SAT scores and impressive leadership experiences, you're as talented as they come.

The School of Arts and Sciences has seen a "drastic drop" in the number of student e-mail accounts compromised by a wave of spam messages that targeted Penn students' inboxes this summer, university officials said this week. In late July and early August a round of spam e-mail attacks - known as phishing scams - that mimicked official University messages were sent out to students.

The Blackstone Group and AlliedBarton Security Services announced on July 25 that the private equity fund managed by Blackstone will acquire AlliedBarton, the University's security partner since 1997. The details of the pending deal are not yet announced.

A number of violent crimes plagued the area around Penn's campus in the weeks before students returned for the fall semester. Police are still looking for the man who robbed Cosi, located at 140 S. 36th St., at gunpoint on Aug. 9. Two Cosi employees reported that a black man robbed the re