Developers' plans to build an 11-story extended-stay hotel at 40th and Pine Streets received unanimous approval from the architectural committee of the Philadelphia Historical Commission last week. The committee's decision has no legal bearing on the hotel's construction, but its recommendation will be factored into the decision of the full historical commission.

Offensive coordinator Bill Schmitz will not return for a third season with the Penn football team. The Athletic Department announced in a statement this afternoon that Schmitz's contract will not be renewed for 2009. "We appreciate his efforts during the last two years, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors," head coach Al Bagnoli said in the statement.

By ANDREW SCURRIA Senior Staff Writer scurria@dailypennsylvanian.com Andreas Schreiber played last night for the first time this year after spending weeks recovering from a shoulder injury he sustained in preseason practice. Coach Glen Miller had kept the injury, and Schreiber's status, murky.

Janice Dow is a College sophomore from Rowland Heights, Calif. Her e-mail address is dow@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Youth civic engagement in Philadelphia isn't just limited to voting on Election Day. Almost one year after it began, the Philadelphia Youth Commission - a group of city residents between the ages of 12 and 23 - has helped young people get more involved in politics and made plans to work with City Council on key issues.

There was an eerie feeling last night at the Palestra, even before the game tipped off. Scanning the arena from press row, I saw completely empty sections in the second tier of the historic gym. Penn's cheerleaders moved their seats from the baseline to the front rows of the student section to fill the rows of sparsely-filled bleachers behind the basket.

Nov. 27 - A man unaffiliated with the University, 63, reported that someone stole his CD player from his secured vehicle on the 4300 block of Chestnut Street at 10:30 p.m.

Jay Wright is starting to like this Palestra joint. "I always take the guys for a tour," said the Villanova coach. "They said, 'Coach we did this last year.' I said, 'We're gonna do it anyway because I like it.'" You might, too, after six straight triumphs over the custodians of College B

Alex Jacobson is a College junior from Los Angeles. His e-mail address is jacobson@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Though the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India last week were thousands of miles away, for some students, they hit close to home. And for some, the Thanksgiving break meant they were in Mumbai on Wednesday when a group of terrorists stormed the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident hotels, the popular Café Leopold and a highly c

ALBANY, N.Y., Nov. 29 - Down just three points at the half, Penn had reason to be optimistic about the second frame of its Saturday night game at Albany. That was until Great Danes guard Anthony Raffa introduced himself to the Quakers. Nice to meet you, Zack Rosen.

For most Penn students, getting up for a 9 a.m. class is tough. But some students who work in the high rises start their day even earlier, sometimes waking up for a shift that starts at 3 a.m. In Rodin, Harrison and Harnwell college houses, students who work at the information centers sometimes take shifts starting at 2 a.

This is a response to both the article from Oct. 20, "Philly residents protest Penn's animal testing," and the Oct. 23 staff editorial, "Humane Science." It was disappointing to see that The Daily Pennsylvanian neglected to speak with anyone from the University of Pennsylvania's research community when printing allegations by the protest group Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN) that the University is a perpetrator of animal "abuse.

With soaring interest in two main programs and a new batch of winners for one of them, Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs is having the best week ever. WEP, a hub of entrepreneurial resources affiliated with Wharton but available to all Penn students, supports a range of programs and projects that encourage students to transform thei

Thanksgiving: is there any holiday more quintessentially American? Every year on the last Thursday of November, families sit down to turkey, pumpkin pie and presumably to give thanks. While specifics vary by family and region -- marshmallows on the sweet potatoes? Football or parade? - the overwhelming majority of Americans seem to follow a set pattern of reuniting with family and overeating.

If you stepped through College Green a few weeks back, you probably noticed the obnoxiously tall pile of trash outside of Van Pelt (with accompanying bulldozer) and the sea of discarded plastic water bottles staked across the lawn in the same manner that other groups have memorialized 9/11 or Iraq War casualties.

Offensive coordinator Bill Schmitz will not return for a third season with the Penn football team. The Athletic Department announced in a statement this afternoon that Schmitz's contract will not be renewed for 2009. "We appreciate his efforts during the last two years, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors," head coach Al Bagnoli said in the statement.