With Homecoming and Halloween squeezed into one weekend, students most likely appreciated the extra hour of sleep - or party time - that daylight savings time allowed. As the days get shorter, the leaves turn colors, and as the temperature drops, flip flops and shorts are replaced by Ugg boots and sweatpants.

Running for Auditor General of Pennsylvania are incumbent Democrat Jack Wagner, Republican Chet Beiler and Libertarian Betsy Summers. Wagner has been Pennsylvania's Auditor General for the past three years and has a combined total of 30 years of political experience.

Senator Obama is not our savior. He will not solve all our problems in his first hundred days. He will not restore the economy overnight. But while Senator McCain is a candidate with a compelling history of public service, Obama offers a compelling vision for the direction of this country.

It was a frightful Halloween for the Penn women's and men's cross country teams. The Quakers fell short at the Ivy League Heptagonals on Friday in Van Cortlandt Park in New York, as the men finished in eighth place with 193 points, while the women came in sixth with 179 points.

Democrat Chaka Fattah has served Philadelphia well over the past 14 years. His opponent, Republican Adam Lang, simply doesn't match up to his legislative experience. We believe Fattah deserves another term. While we disapproved of his politically-selfish move to run for Mayor while still serving as our Congressman, Fattah has taken a leading role on education initiatives for lower-income students and for health care reform.

It's the economy, stupid. In the wake of significant financial losses, a massive federal deficit and weak job growth, this election's most pivotal issue is, not surprisingly, the economy. Here's where the candidates stand: TAXES McCain McCain plans to maintain the current tax rate structure in which the highest income tax rate is 35 percent, and he plans to maintain the capital gains tax rate at 15 percent.

For students hoping to snatch the elusive summer internship in business, there's a new company for hire. Today marks the launch of Get Ahead Advice, a service founded by four Wharton seniors to guide students through the job search, application and interview process for banking, consulting and other popular business sectors.

For 60 students, encouraging their peers to vote is more than civic engagement - it's homework. Introduction to American Politics, a Political Science course, is offering four special recitations this semester, in which students are required to participate in Penn Leads the Vote activities in addition to extra coursework.

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Should the City charter be amended to merge the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation into a newly created Department of Parks and Recreation? Philadelphia currently has two separate organizations charged with overseeing the city's parks and recreation facilities.

It was a fitting end to Senior Day. Ten minutes into overtime, senior Rachel Eng took a pass from classmate Nina Ferrier on a two-on-one, shimmied around a diving Brown keeper, Caroline Washburn, and lifted the game-winner over an onrushing defender. "Nina gave me a great pass," said Eng, who scored in her fifth-straight game.

McCain McCain wants to expand domestic oil and natural gas exploration and production by lifting restrictions on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and building the necessary infrastructure required to transport the natural gas available there. To reduce our dependency on foreign oil, McCain wants to transform the transportation sector.

Too many turnovers on offense, poor kickoff coverage and blown coverage in the secondary amounted to what Penn coach Al Bagnoli labeled "a total team loss" on Saturday, which is a fair assessment of what happened. But the real problem with the Quakers this season - a problem that came to a head when Kyle Olson's knee gave out on him in the second quarter on Saturday - is the lack of a steady option at quarterback.

Engineering students interested in research now have an opportunity to look beyond the classroom. The Rachleff Scholars Program, established this fall by a gift from Penn trustee Andrew Rachleff, aims to create a "scholarly community" in the School of Engineering, said Electrical and Systems Engineering professor Jan Van der Spiegel, who is also the director of the program.

Penn's efforts to spruce up the west end of campus may have been a little too successful. The increasingly attractive 40th Street corridor has drawn more business to the area. But it's also drawn larger crowds, both from Penn and the surrounding community.

With the decisive fifth set deadlocked at 14, Penn libero Madison Wojchiechowski watched Cornell's hottest hitter, Meagan Tatum, reach high and deliver a hard strike across the court. "Mojo," as her teammates call her, dove to her left, extended her arms just within reach of the ball and popped Tatum's swing straight up for her 40th dig of the match, setting a new school record.

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