64 freshmen candidates are vying for 74 student government-related positions for this academic year. They gathered last night in Logan Hall to confirm their candidacy with the Nominations and Elections Committee. Ten of the candidates are especially ambitious, running for both an Undergraduate Assembly seat and a position on the Class Board.

Forget Poe and Shakespeare - Tom Murtha prefers potatoes to poetry and soybeans to soliloquies. Murtha, a former College student, turned in his textbooks for tractors eight years ago when he set out to farm his way across the country. An English major slated to graduate in 1995, Murtha spent harvesting seasons in Connecticut, Oregon, Delaware and New Jersey before settling down on his own plot of land in Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania, not too far from his (almost) alma mater.

Theft Sept. 13 - A male student reported that an unknown suspect removed items from his unsecured room at Rodin College House, located at 3901 Locust Walk, at about 4:30 p.m. Sept. 13 - A female employee reported that she placed her pocket book unsecured on a bench on the 300 block of 40th Street at about 2:05 a.

WILMINGTON, Del. - Defense lawyers made a surprise move yesterday when they chose not to cross-examine Robert Bondar following the conclusion of his testimony in the case against his ex-girlfriend and Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya. Unlike the two previous trials, in which the defense grilled Bondar in one of the more crucial moments of the proceedings, attorney Joe Hurley said he would instead call Bondar back to the stand as a defense witness later in the trial.

With a calm demeanor and smooth delivery, Penn alumnus-turned-politician John Hinck urged a group of 21 students to actively seek leadership roles and become involved in legislative issues yesterday evening in Leadership Hall. Hosted by Fox Leadership, the conference was the first in the Lessons in Leadership series aimed at teaching students theories and principles behind leadership.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System has appointed William Welch to Chief of Neurosurgery at Pennsylvania Hospital, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Welch is a professor of Neurosurgery in the Penn School of Medicine and part of the neurosurgery team at the Penn Neurological Institute.

The Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships recently experienced staffing changes after three employees, including former director Arthur Casciato, left over the summer. In August, Casciato joined Rutgers University, where he is now the director of external fellowships and post-graduate guidance.

It's New York, 1967. You turn onto 128th and Lexington Avenue and right on the corner is Dizzy Gillespie and his coterie of jazz musicians playing up a storm. Their audience is a mix of housewives in aprons, old couples sitting on front porches and children dancing in the street.

Dartmouth alum makes Olympics Jarrod Shoemaker might have counted his 2002 Heptagonal championship in cross country as one of his greatest achievements. He's got something a little more notable now. Shoemaker ran the ITU BG Beijing World Cup triathlon in 1:49:44, good for 11th overall.

Joe Sandberg's hamstring injury in the opener against Lafayette could have been a costly one for Penn, depending on the evaluation. And while the result wasn't all rosy for the Quakers, the team can breathe a deep sigh of relief. "He didn't pull anything -- he just hasn't practiced much and his leg got fatigued," coach Al Bagnoli said yesterday.

Amira Fawcett is an Engineering junior from Houston. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Many of those who have followed the AlliedBarton guard unionization controversy have been subtly manipulated into believing that workers should only organize in response to labor-rights violations. But unionization "is not only for money, benefits, power .

The U.S. Department of Education announced last week it will stop sending paper copies of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to high schools next year unless a school requests them. The Department will instead encourage use of the online version of the application - one that is already used by over 90 percent of college aid applicants.

Engineering freshman Conor Walsh unzips his pants on Locust Walk, and everyone looks. In fact, they stare. A small audience has gathered at 2:15 on a recent Sunday morning as Walsh, returning from a night of drinking at off-campus parties, urinates all over the statue of Penn's beloved founder.

Braden Lepisto's hold was wobbly, and the first field-goal attempt of freshman kicker Andrew Samson's Penn career plonked off the upright on Saturday. Right away, Quakers coach Al Bagnoli realized he hadn't given enough thought to one variable. It was Lepisto's first hold in a game since his sophomore year of high school.

Although Tobi Olopade's accomplishments freshman year as a dual-sport, walk-on athlete are already impressive, he wants to have a greater impact on the soccer team in the coming years.

Penn engineers have developed nanowires capable of retrieving data a thousand times faster than existing portable memory devices, according to a University news release. "This new form of memory has the potential to revolutionize the way we share information, transfer data and even download entertainment as consumers," said Ritesh Agarwal, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.