When women's basketball senior captain Carrie Biemer sees her team show flashes of exceptional play to stake an early lead, she senses that her team is on the verge of turning the corner. But suddenly - and without explanation - the Quakers revert to their wildly inconsistent ways.

The Penn women's basketball team may have thought it was experiencing déj… vu. For the second consecutive game, Penn held a small lead in the closing seconds, this time at home against Navy. Once again, the Quakers forced a missed shot, scrambled for the rebound and dove on the loose ball.

Free use of laundry machines in College Houses lets students save money when they wash their clothes. And with new online alerts that track the status of washers and dryers, students will be able to conserve their time as well. The new service, called Laundry Alert, lets residents check the status of laundry machines in their building.

Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Paul Tressler denied former Economics professor Rafael Robb's appeal of his five- to 10-year prison sentence for killing his wife, Ellen, according to The Times Herald of Norristown. Frank DeSimone, Robb's attorney, filed a motion for reconsideration of Robb's sentence on Dec. 1.

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

It's been a tough grind to start the season for the Penn men's basketball team. First, there was the trip down to Dean Smith Center to open up against the No.1 North Carolina Tar Heels. Then, the Quakers got taken down a few blocks away from the Palestra at Drexel in a game that finished right as many Penn students were just waking up.

November saw a continuation of crime trends from earlier this year - violent crime and overall crime are both down significantly from 2007, but some types of property crime have risen. Violent crimes, like robberies and assaults, are down 39 percent for the year, according to the Division of Public Safety.

With six losses in its first six games- and with only six more to go before the Ivy League opener against Princeton - the women's basketball team has been to hell and back. But despite their demoralizing start, the Quakers are confident that they will make the necessary improvements before heading into league play.

The South Street Bridge will close at 9:30 a.m. on Monday so Driscoll Construction Company can begin its projected two-year reconstruction of the bridge. Since the entire structure will be demolished, no traffic - cars, bicycles or pedestrians - will be able to use the bridge after Monday morning.

Explaining a matter of integrity To the Editor: The University Honor Council understands that the University's policies towards academic integrity may be unclear to students. In light of the Math 104-002 mandatory first midterm retake, we will explain the role of the University Honor Council as well as a student's options if charged with a violation of the Code of Academic Integrity.

Breyten Breytenbach grasped the edges of the podium with a stack of his books before him. "We poets are lucky, we don't carry too much luggage. We can carry our tortuous lives in 500 pages." Breytenbach delivered a reading of his printed "luggage" at the Kelly Writers House Arts Café last night as part of KWH's new "Writers without Borders" series.

There's that old sinking feeling again. Desperate to notch its second win of the season against a perennially mediocre Navy squad, Penn was dominated on both ends of the floor en route to a 76-65 loss at the Palestra on Friday.

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

Wharton students celebrated the end of classes in style yesterday with the school's third annual Winter Whartonland. The Wharton Council and Wharton's cohort mentors marked the last Thursday of classes with hot chocolate, Insomnia Cookies, holiday candy and Wharton-branded gifts at the event in Huntsman Hall.

As classes wrapped up before Thanksgiving, alert students still caught one final lesson: Unplug your appliances, even if they're not turned on. The brothers of Pi Kappa Phi learned that better than anyone. Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush blamed last week's fire in the fraternity on a circuit overload caused by a large number of refrigerators and microwaves.

The closest most Penn students have ever come to hunting is probably watching Looney Tunes' Elmer Fudd try to catch that "wascally wabbit." But this past Monday, when most were still recovering from their post-Thanksgiving celebrations - or beginning to study for finals - high school students throughout Pennsylvania got the day off in honor of the first day of deer-hunting season.

With six losses in its first six games- and with only six more to go before the Ivy League opener against Princeton - the women's basketball team has been to hell and back. But despite their demoralizing start, the Quakers are confident that they will make the necessary improvements before heading into league play.