Last week's meeting of the Spruce Hill Zoning Committee, which discussed plans for an 11-story extended-stay hotel at 40th and Pine streets, seems to have created only a greater divide between developers and the community on an already divisive issue. Nearby residents expressed strong disapproval of the hotel at the meeting, while developers heaped praises on the design.

Yesterday, some of Penn's most powerful decision-makers, the University Board of Trustees, weighed in on key University projects. Six committees met and discussed prevalent issues in the first day of the board's winter meeting, one of three meetings held each year.

Checking Facebook anywhere in Philadelphia will still soon be possible, even though the company running the city's wireless network is dropping out. Last week, Earthlink announced its plans to sell its municipal wireless business - which includes Philadelphia's program.

For Carol Baniqued, a Wharton junior described as a "TV addict" by her closest friends, the Writer's Guild of America Strike could have symbolized the apocalypse. But now that it's over, Penn students are realizing that while they missed TV, the strike wasn't as bad as they thought.

Fired up! Ready to go? Last December, Iowa and New Hampshire were the centers of the political universe, expected to select the two presidential nominees and let the country get ready for the general election. But that didn't happen, and nearly two months later, the Democratic nomination battle continues, leaving candidate organizations in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania scrambling for a cohesive strategy and as many volunteers as they can get.

Shortly after the 2004 presidential election, Republican political strategist Karl Rove found himself on the list of Barbara Walters' Top 10 Most Fascinating People. It has been a few years, but at Irvine Auditorium last night, Rove proved people are still fascinated by what he has to say.

Penn may accept a greater number of applicants regular decision and from the waiting list this year, largely in response to Harvard and Princeton Universities' decisions to eliminate their early-acceptance programs, interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan said.

Though former Penn Neurosurgery professor Tracy McIntosh has already served his original sentence for the 2002 sexual assault of his college roommate's niece, this likely won't have any effect on the harsher sentence that was handed down Feb. 13, legal experts say.

Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted unanimously last week to post their finished academic papers online for free, and a Penn Faculty Senate committee is now discussing the merits of such proposals. The Penn Senate Committee on Students and Educational Policy is scheduled to discuss the possibility of adopting a similar plan, said Faculty Senate Chairman Larry Gladney.

The announcement late last week raising the minimum Ph.D. student stipend by 6.7 percent has generally received positive feedback among the Penn graduate population, though students are urging the University to do even more. The increase, which will take effect in September, raised the minimum stipend for students completing 9-month programs from $18,000 to $19,200.

Yesterday at Skirkanich Hall, a crowded computer-science class struggled with questions about programming code until Engineering sophomore Isaiah Greene explained the answers. For Greene, this wasn't a chance to impress his teacher. It was a chance to teach the class, which in this case was comprised of 12 high-school sophomores from Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy.

Spending a little extra on a can of soda might actually be worth more than you think. Many of the College House convenience stores - which sell everything from childhood relics like Dunkaroos to urgently-needed late-night coffee - mark up their prices in order to attempt to break even.

Last week's shooting at Northern Illinois University - when a gunman fired into a lecture hall, killing five people before turning the gun on himself - has brought the issue of campus security into the spotlight. But as major tragedies, such as the NIU shooting and last April's massacre at Virginia Tech, are difficult to predict, universities' efforts must focus on response preparation, Penn officials and outside experts say.

Sometimes it's better to be the math Olympiad winner than to be crowned homecoming queen. The Benjamin Franklin Scholars program, which offers students access to Benjamin Franklin seminars, undergraduate research opportunities and a four-year advisor, will invite newly admitted high-school students to become scholars this spring, based primarily on students' academic standing.

A biker was struck by a car door at about 8:45 p.m. yesterday in front of Savory, located near 37th and Spruce streets. According to witnesses, a driver's side car door opened and the biker collided with it. The biker then flipped over the door and landed on the pavement.

U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) spoke about prose and politics last night at the Penn Bookstore. In front of a crowd of about 50 students - many of whom were from the Penn Democrats - Murphy promoted his new book, Taking the Hill: From Philly to Baghdad to the United States Congress, and conveyed the common democratic theme of change.