Ed Rendell is the incumbent governor of Pennsylvania and is campaigning for a second term in office. Rendell, a 1965 Penn graduate, became governor in 2003 and faced a $2 billion state structural deficit. His main goal has been to cut government spending and jump-start the state's economy by promoting job growth.

When it comes to Election Day, Penn student groups have their fingers crossed. Tomorrow, they will find out whether their get-out-the-vote efforts convinced voters to head to the polls in one of the most heated midterm elections in recent history. College senior Bren Darrow, president of the non-partisan Penn Leads the Vote, said the group's efforts were going "very well.

Republican Senate incumbent Rick Santorum and Democratic challenger Bob Casey are on the last leg of one of the most high-stakes Senate races in the nation. The outcome of Tuesday's race, politicians and political experts say, will not only affect the balance of power in Congress but also influence policy leading up to the 2008 presidential election.

The Penn student who appeared at a University function dressed as a terrorist says he'd do it again - at least, most of it.

Neal Goss is a quadriplegic and uses a wheelchair to get around. But the 2006 Wharton graduate says Penn made a conscious effort to accommodate his disability and make him feel the same as every other student. Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, the University and other educational, business and cultural institutions say they have worked to become more accessible to those with disabilities.

The full transcript from the DP's exclusive interview with the student behind the costume.

A group of Penn medical staff traveled halfway around the world last month to teach Taiwanese doctors how to perform an innovative cancer procedure - and ate some chicken heads on the side. The team of six assisted Taiwanese surgeons, who had invited them over a year ago, in giving a light-based treatment to a woman suffering from lung cancer at an advanced stage.

At about 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 1972, Dan Alon awoke to the sound of machine guns and a bullet ripping through the wall of his apartment, just behind his bed. The Israeli fencer - who survived the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre - addressed around 250 people on Friday in the Terrace Room of Logan Hall, giving a personal account of what he called one of the "worst acts of terror in history.

Fantasy football players have put the odds of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers meeting in Super Bowl XLI at 200 to 1. But sports fans can preview a showdown between the two cities just by following the governor's race between former Philadelphia mayor and Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell and his opponent, former Steelers wide receiver and Republican candidate Lynn Swann.

Only a day before the mid-term elections, West Philadelphia resident Solange Chadda is taking her fight to get on the ballot to the highest level. Today, Chadda plans to submit a brief to the United States Supreme Court requesting a 60-day delay of the Pennsylvania Senate election so that she can get her name alongside those of Republican incumbent Rick Santorum and his Democratic challenger, Bob Casey.

Election-year campaigning is increasingly about the negative.

A student says it was just a joke, but his Halloween costume has resulted in serious criticism for University President Amy Gutmann.

The American city has a new owner: the business class, anthropology professor David Harvey says. Harvey, who works at the City University of New York, described the role of neoliberalism - which he defined as a strong belief in private property, free markets and free trade - in transforming the modern city into a playground for the rich on campus yesterday.

West Philadelphia resident Solange Chadda took her crusade to get on the Senate ballot to court yesterday morning - only to be shot down by the judge after her lawyer failed to show up. But Chadda said she's not willing to give up the fight, even if that means taking her case to the U.

Did you sleep with someone you shouldn't have last weekend? For people who are worried about sexually transmitted diseases, a new service called SxCheck.com offers a confidential online testing service, though it comes with a hefty price tag, and some aren't sure that it's a real substitute for more standard ways of getting tested.

At age 21, Chaka Fattah decided to run for city commissioner. He lost the election, but his perspective changed, he said. "I was still energized by the whole process," he said. "I couldn't wait to run again." Fattah, now a six-term Democratic member of Congress and potential candidate for Philadelphia mayor, discussed the impact of political participation on the Philadelphia community last night.

For Penn's lawns, when it rains, it pours. Even during the heaviest downpours, the University sprinkler system is in full operation - saturating grass that has already been watered by the elements.