College senior Bryce LeFort was sentenced to two years of probation yesterday for his involvement in the Oct. 5 attack of College senior Andrew Scharf with a beer bottle. At a remanded trial hearing, LeFort pled guilty to misdemeanor simple assault and reckless endangerment charges. Philadelphia lower-court judge Lydia Kirkland approved the sentencing agreement reached between Lefort and Scharf, whose right ear was permanently damaged due to the incident.

After an uncontested election last night, the Lambda Alliance - the one-year-old umbrella coalition for all undergraduate sexual- and gender-minority-groups - chose a new chairman: College junior Kevin Rurak. Rurak - who has been active in the LGBT community since his sophomore year at Penn- sat down for an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian last night.

Making private stories public is what Neal Baer has been trying to do for the last 18 years in the entertainment business. Baer - who helped to write and produce television hits such as ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - spoke candidly about his career in television yesterday to lecturer Gail Shister's television-criticism class in the Fireside Lounge of the ARCH Building.

Not everyone was happy to see Jack Bauer freed from a Chinese prison. In this season of Fox's hit show 24, Arab Muslims are portrayed as terrorists for the second time in three years - a characterization that has incensed Muslim-rights groups here on campus and across the country.

Bill Gates's introduction of the new Windows Vista operating system Monday - which included dancers clad in Microsoft colors - pulled out all the stops. But it's the release of Microsoft Office 2007 that has Penn officials all abuzz. The newest version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite went on sale yesterday and will require an overhaul of some of Wharton's Operations and Information Management curriculum, OPIM professor Thomas Lee said.

Theft Jan. 26 - Two students reported that items, value undetermined, had been stolen from Meyerson Hall. Jan. 26 - Nicole Clark, 28 and Erma Williams, 26, both unaffiliated with the University, were arrested for theft after store employees at Urban Outfitters, located at 110 S.

By helen yoon Staff Writer wonhee@sas.upenn.edu The School of Nursing is getting a head start on its spring cleaning. Nursing faculty and staff have begun clearing out their offices in preparation for this summer's planned renovations to the Nursing Education Building.

The current University review of Penn's hiring and admissions practices will likely result in all faculty, students and staff being mandated to self-disclose any prior convictions, and more-stringent background checks are also in the works, officials said this week.

A second-year male Penn Law student was arrested today after he fired 13-15 shots into the door of his downstairs neighbors' apartment at 4339 Pine Street, Lt. John Walker of the Philadelphia Police said. The Penn student - whose name will not be released until he is arraigned - is being charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, burglary and other related charges.

When administrators say the future of academic departments is full of blurs, it's not because their crystal balls are foggy. The blurring, they say, is the result of a budding trend among universities to bridge traditionally divided fields by creating interdisciplinary programs.

Imagine your grandma in military uniform, ready to be sent off to war. Sound strange? That's exactly what the grannies of the Granny Peace Brigade want. Last evening, activist Nina Huizinga spoke to a small - but committed - group of students on behalf of Philadelphia's Granny Peace Brigade organization.

Although Japanese geishas have not traded their traditional dancing for the flying kicks of martial arts, the title of Veronica Chambers' newest book, Kickboxing Geishas, describes the changing roles of Japanese women in modern society. Chambers, a freelance writer, visited the Penn Bookstore last evening, where she spoke to a small, intimate audience.

Until last week, Alexander Adkins was just another curious Psychology major looking for some direction. A College sophomore, Adkins says he's interested in law but wasn't sure how to combine that with his major - or what exactly he should do to pursue a career in either field, for that matter.

The Undergraduate Assembly released its Mid-Year Report, detailing major accomplishments from last semester and outlining projects currently in the works, in a school-wide e-mail sent Monday night. Highlighted UA activity featured in the report ranged from introducing the student body to Ruckus - the free online music downloading service that is reportedly used by 6,000 students - and increasing the number of shuttles to the airport during vacation seasons to promoting advocacy for the rights of AlliedBaron security guards.

Soon, the Spanish flavor of downtown Philadelphia may be heading west. A new restaurant headed by Jose Garces - executive chef of Center City's Amada and El Vez - will be coming to the Hub at 40th and Chestnut streets. The restaurant, with 8,400 square feet on the Hub's first and second floors, will be the largest of Garces's three restaurants, though all other details of the project - including its planned opening date, name, theme and menu - will not be determined until the summer.

Women earn well over half of all bachelor's degrees every year, and one researcher is attempting to find out why. Yesterday afternoon, before an audience of 40 people in the McNeil building, Claudia Buchmann discussed her recent paper - published in the American Sociological Review - in which she analyzes the resources and incentives that have put women in a favorable educational position.

It's a Thursday night, and Engineering sophomore Peter Na is planning to hang out with his friends. But Na isn't putting on a Lacoste shirt and heading to MarBar or Smoke's - he's starting up a voice-chat program and entering the world of Azeroth. This scenario was plausible until last August, when Na would log over 40 hours a week playing World of Warcraft, a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG), created by Blizzard Entertainment and set in a fantasy world.