Democrats looking to add another seat to their Election Day victory should brace themselves for disappointment - Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter is sticking with the GOP.

For the second time in five days University officials have released a security warning to students, this time involving one crime adjacent to campus and three just east of campus. The second security warning, released earlier today, comes after a series of four incidents which may be connected.

It was one of the first things I learned in my time at the DP: Be careful of criticizing athletes in the newspaper. They're amateur athletes, and, in the Ivy League, they're non-scholarship athletes, doing what they do for the love of the game. But this past weekend, an athlete at Penn made a pair of mental mistakes so bad in such a clutch situation that the guideline has to go out the window.

The Ivy League player of the week and the Atlantic 10 and Big 5 player of the week will face off against each other when Penn (2-0) takes on La Salle (2-0) in its third game and first Big Five contest of the season.

Chaka Fattah has officially put himself on next year's mayoral ballot, and he'll likely have more company there soon.

When asked about the snowflake lanterns that line the tops of trees on Locust Walk, College sophomore Jordan Cohen's face lights up.

Admissions policies are stacked against Asian applicants.

At yesterday's NWCA All-Star Classic, fans witnessed a tale of two Matts. The invitational, which hosts nationally top-ranked wrestlers in each weight class annually, featured two Quakers for the first time. Matt Valenti, last year's NCAA national champion and top-ranked wrestler in the country at 133 pounds, faced Oklahoma State's No.

Two members of the suspended Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity were convicted of harassment and simple assault yesterday.

Ivy League universities are about to get a whole lot larger. Physically, for one. Penn will acquire the postal lands, a 42-acre swath of land directly east of campus, next year; construction will span the next few decades.

College senior Aaron Weissman won't be on the Undergraduate Assembly any more.

When the Penn swimming teams take on La Salle tonight, the women's team (3-2, 1-2 Ivy) will expect a win while the men's team (2-3, 0-3) will look forward to a close meet.

An official Penn wall calendar says students get an additional day off during Thanksgiving break. Courses resume, the calendar reads, on Tuesday Nov. 28. Unfortunately for students who booked flights based on the wall calendar, this is not the case. According to the official University-wide calendar available on Penn's Web site, classes actually resume 8 a.

Sometimes, a little competition can go a long way. The College House Cup Fall Fest, held yesterday afternoon in the Quadrangle, gave students the opportunity to compete against residents of other dorms to gain points toward becoming House Cup Champions.

The 2007 Rhodes scholars were announced on Friday - and Penn students are conspicuously absent from the list.

There was no need for dramatics this time around. Monica Naltner posted a double-double, Joey Rhoads led the way with 25 points, and the Penn women's basketball team rolled to a 77-65 triumph over Rider yesterday.

Members of some Christian sects have been known to utter a meaningless language of sounds that they say are divinely inspired. According to some Penn researchers, these people really do experience an altered consciousness.