Nancy Streim, associate dean for educational practice at the Graduate School of Education, will be leaving Penn on June 30 to join Columbia University as associate vice president at its Teachers College and special adviser to the Columbia provost. Streim came to Penn in 1988 and has worked closely with the public schools in Phladelphia.

Bob Pierson, the program director of Farm to City, will speak at noon Wednesday on College Green about the importance of supporting local Pennsylvania farmers. Farm to City is a Philadelphia-based organization that, according to its Web site, aims "to unite communities, families and farmers year-round through good locally grown food . and sees a region where the sustainable family farm is economically successful.

Is your cell phone your soul mate? Do you PDA with your PDA? Does your text messaging bill exceed your phone bill? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you are exactly the kind of person Washington State was targeting when it passed a law May 11 banning people from text messaging or sending e-mails from a handheld communication device while driving.

By Bianca Gonzalez The Summer Pennsylvanian biancag@nursing.upenn.edu You can wake up every morning to breakfast in bed with Joan Osborne's new CD that she promoted recently in Philadelphia. An acclaimed singer-songwriter, Osborne, made an appearance on May 22 at downtown music retailer F.

While Ben Franklin still is Philadelphia's most beloved founding father, excavators in Center City are uncovering some ground-breaking information about a few other patriotic men. The archeological dig at the President's House on 6th and Market streets in Center City that began on March 21 has yielded in recent weeks various artifacts that may give historians unprecedented information about this location.

Positions are hardening and battle lines are being drawn in the ongoing struggle over SEPTA funding. At issue is a $130 million budget shortfall that is threatening the very existence of the transit agency, which is used by about 40,000 students and commuters each day.

Some people love college to death. And now a growing number of colleges and universities have found a never-ending way to return the love. A recent trend has hit higher education, with more and more institutions offering their alumni the opportunity to reside for eternity on campus grounds.

Turns out, you don't have to be a celebrity to give a university commencement address. Penn generally brings in a famed speaker from the outside to send off its graduates: Bono, Kofi Annan, Jodie Foster, James Baker. But Temple University in North Philadelphia doesn't have quite the same tradition and this year, seniors at Temple heard from Kathy Hirsh-Pasek.

Michael Nutter decisively won the Democratic Party's mayoral nomination on May 15, beating out four other candidates in a hotly contested four month-long election. And because Philadelphia hasn't elected a Republican mayor in nearly 60 years, his win against Republican Al Taubenberger in November is seen by many as a foregone conclusion.

The search to find a replacement for departing Wharton Dean Patrick Harker is expected to be announced next month. A search committee is scheduled to announce a selection in June, though Leo Charney, spokesman for the Provost's Office, said that an interim pick from within the school may be selected in lieu of a permanent replacement.

For future generations, toupees and brush-overs may become a thing of the past. Dermatologists from Penn's School of Medicine announced last week that they were able to regenerate hair follicles in laboratory mice - leaving open the possibility that further research could one day remedy male-pattern baldness.

Singing "Happy Birthday" and demanding the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility were on the agenda for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama during his first campaign visit to Philadelphia on Tuesday.

As the dust from last week's decisive mayoral primary settles, some are questioning the scruples surrounding the use of community service workers to man a pre-election event supporting second-place candidate Tom Knox. Several Penn students among those completing court- or school-ordered community service hours at the time, said they were surprised when supervisors instructed them to set up food and amusements at a West Philadelphia park where Knox later gave a speech.

In the race to expand eastward, Penn's Health System seems to be beating out the rest of the University. The Health System recently signed a lease for 263,000 square feet in the Centre Square building, located in Center City at 1500 Market Street. UPHS plans to move its ancillary services, like finance and communication operations, to the new location to free up more space in West Philadelphia for clinical services, said Susan Phillips, chief of staff for the Medical School dean's office.

Draping red and blue banners soared alongside a larger-than-life toothbrush, congratulatory balloons and, of course, students' spirits at Penn's Commencement ceremonies - held on what University President Amy Gutmann repeatedly called "a perfect day." The ceremonies, which mark the 251st in Penn's history, took place in Franklin Field on the morning of May 14.

Former Wharton professor emeritus Scott Ward was sentenced to 15 years in prison without parole and was also levied a $17,500 fine on May 11. Held without bail since his Aug. 27 arrest, Ward pleaded guilty on Feb. 20 to producing child pornography for importation into the United States.

Anti-casino activists aren't going to let a little thing like a court injunction stop a referendum on casino construction in Philadelphia. A state Supreme Court injunction has temporarily removed a referendum to rezone casinos in Philadelphia off Tuesday's ballot, but activists will hold their own non-binding election to prove to Harrisburg that they won't just sit back and allow casino construction to take place.