Want to block traffic for a good cause this Sunday? Sign up for the AmeriHealth Ben Franklin Bridge Challenge and run or walk across the bridge, which spans the Delaware River. The event benefits the Larc School - a special education school in South Jersey for students with moderate to severe disabilities.

If the battle for control of Congress weren't reason enough for Penn students to flock to the polls for this Tuesday's congressional midterms, here's another: The outcome of the election could significantly affect how they pay for college. Two of the major issues on the table are Pell Grant and Stafford Loan funding for students.

Actor Kal Penn is best known for playing a pot-smoking medical genius, but he showed a serious side when he came to Penn last night. Penn, who played Kumar in the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, took the podium before an enthusiastic sell-out crowd in Bodek Lounge.

As the controversy over a student's suicide-bomber Halloween costume continues to turn heads around the world, both the student and University officials are rushing to do damage control.

Brown University's revelation that the school was once tied to slavery has roiled the university community, but Penn history buffs say the University has no such skeletons in its closet. Among findings of a Brown committee on the issue, whose report was released last month, is that the Brown family -- for whom the university is named - were slave owners, and that slave labor was used in constructing a university building.

Life-sized silver bananas will likely soon be a high priority for a group of five Wharton MBA students. In January, the students will travel to La Oroya, Peru, to help its local silver artisans better sell their products. "The project is designed to impact the overall community," said Lisa Linn De Barona, an administrator from the Global Consulting Practicum, a Wharton-run initiative that pairs business students with "social impact" programs and is sponsoring the trip.

Penn is getting a new neighbor - the country's premier space for life sciences and technology companies, University City Science Center officials hope. The Science Center is planning an expansion, and last week marked the groundbreaking of a facility at 3711 Market St.

Its location is classified. It costs millions of dollars. And its inhabitants are less than two inches long. The University's Board of Trustees granted about $1.6 million last week to expand the School of Medicine's zebrafish facilities, hundreds of tanks that house thousands of fish - at an undisclosed location.

For the last two years, Camden, N.J., has been ranked the most dangerous city in America - but not anymore. This year, Camden is ranked fifth in the annual study by the Morgan Quitno Press, while Philadelphia came in at 29th. The 78,000-person city of Brick Township, N.

West Philadelphia resident Solange Chadda wants her name on the Pennsylvania ballot for the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania - even if it means pushing back this Tuesday's election. Chadda filed a complaint in the Philadelphia District Court against Bob Casey, the Democratic candidate for Senate, and the Board of Elections on Tuesday.

For College senior Ezra Billinkoff, May 16, 2006, was a day of waiting. And waiting. And more waiting. It was the day of Pennsylvania's primary election, and during Billinkoff's 13 hours serving as an election judge, exactly seven voters came in to Steinberg-Dietrich Hall and gave him a reason to get off his chair and help them vote.

When bottles of Jose Cuervo tequila, corn husks and edible candy skulls adorned with the names of the deceased cover an altar on College Green, it must be the Day of the Dead. Dia de los Muertos, the "Day of the Dead," is typically celebrated on Nov. 2 and is an Aztec-Mexican tradition honoring relatives and mocking death itself.

Author Joyce Carol Oates says she is always thinking about writing, even when she goes running. "Running is much easier than life," she said. Oates, a National Book Award winner, gave a book reading at the Penn Bookstore yesterday evening. Oates presented her two new books, After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away and Black Girl/White Girl, to a fairly large audience made up of students, aspiring writers and admirers.

For those looking to celebrate diversity or champion a cause, Penn's calendar offers no shortage of opportunities: This week is Asian Pacific American Heritage Week, two weeks ago was Breast Cancer Awareness Week and next week marks both Unity Week and Muslim Awareness Week - and many more are coming.

Two prominent Democrats came to campus to spread their message yesterday, but a major focus of the event was why not to vote Republican.

Four of the most powerful women in Penn's administration have had to face the difficulties of being among the first minority women in their positions. Yesterday afternoon, those women spoke about their success in the professional world as part of the 20th annual celebration of the Women of Color organization at Penn.

Philadelphia is undertaking a citywide initiative to get greener - and officials are looking for college students' input. Fourteen city agencies have come together to form Green Plan Philadelphia, which aims to ensure that residents have access to open space in their neighborhoods.