Mayor John Street may have signed a citywide smoking ban into law this month, but the issue is far from extinguished.

Penn's No. 7 spot on the 2007 U.S. News & World Report college rankings may not be an indicator of the University's ability to educate students, according to a new report from an education think tank. The report from the Washington-based Education Sector criticizes the popular U.

This country is dropping the ball when it comes to teaching teachers, an expert said yesterday. Arthur Levine, the former president of Teachers College at Columbia University, spoke yesterday afternoon at Irvine Auditorium about his report on the state of teacher education in America.

What do you get when you combine the Wharton School, rampant corruption and the Chinese Communist Party? A purging, of course. Last Sunday, Chinese security forces removed Chen Liangyu, a graduate of the first Wharton senior executive training program run in Shanghai in 1990, from his post as Shanghai's Communist Party boss and placed him under house arrest.

Sex under the Button may just be the stuff of Penn mythology, but the University is giving hopeful students 50,000 chances to make sure they do it safely. The Office of Health Education purchases 50,000 Lifestyle condoms per year, according to Director Susan Villari.

Most professors probably wouldn't question the worth of a disabled baby's life. Peter Singer, however, is not your average professor. In his book Practical Ethics, Singer wrote that "killing a disabled infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person.

Arthur Gardner Smith had some stiff competition running for freshman class president. But he still managed to get 40 percent more votes than his closest competitor, and the new leader of the Class of 2010 is eager to get started. Freshman class representatives were finally announced last night after a race that featured a historic number of candidates, high voter turnout and allegations of tampering with election materials.

WILMINGTON, Del. - Lawyers for Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya, accused of murder, worked to demonstrate yesterday that no physical evidence puts their client at the crime scene.

The AstraZeneca drug corporation launched its first clinical pharmacology unit in the United States at Penn's Presbyterian Medical Center yesterday, according to the company. A clinical pharmacology unit conducts research about the safety of developing drugs and performs initial human testing.

The intersection at 39th Street and Lancaster Avenue once appeared rough around the edges, drab with worn buildings itching for a helping hand - and preferably one holding a paintbrush.Beautification efforts eventually took root, and a ceremony Monday morning honored the completion of five autumn-themed murals in the area. The largest, entitled "Just Before Fall," is the product of a Penn class.

The University has increased the clinical staff of Counseling and Psychological Services by almost 25 percent, affirming what administrators are calling a strong commitment to mental health. Four full-time psychologists and one part-time psychologist have been hired as permanent staff members, CAPS Director Ilene Rosenstein said.

Cruising around Philadelphia in a BMW will no longer be an activity limited to those students who have made it to 21. PhillyCarShare, a car-sharing service, allows anyone over the age of 18 that chance. The service, which calls itself the only in the country catering to customers between 18 and 20, allows members to hold keys to a car that they can reserve at any time, or to rent vehicles on a one-time basis.

Amidst the assassinations, protests and riots of 1968, a rising senior at Penn hitchhiked across Europe. Thirty eight years later, Joe Mack has finally published the story of his travels. Mack returned to Penn last night to present and read excerpts from 1968 and I'm Hitchhiking Through Europe to an small audience at the Penn Bookstore.

For 18 years of my life, drug addicts, alcoholics and rehab facilities were only things I saw in movies. Depression and therapists seemed out of my world. But I have certainly learned that life is never the way it looks from the outside. As a junior in high school, my life seemed perfectly on track: great friends, yearbook editor and varsity sports.

David Hollenberg's vision for the future appearance of Penn has some things old, some things new, some things borrowed and some things - green. As the new university architect, Hollenberg plans to mix his ideals of urban design with the realities of University City and Philadelphia.

Top universities across the country want to make themselves accessible to low-income students. And it seems the increasingly popular way of doing so is with a bold appeal to families whose income fall below a set level. Columbia University is the latest school to jump on this financial-aid bandwagon.

The Penn Health System's fleet of helicopters is about to grow. The four-rotorcraft PennSTAR Air Medical Services will receive a delivery of two American Eurocopter EC135s, advanced aircraft that can carry six or seven passengers and come equipped with night-vision goggles, according to Rotorhub, a source for helicopter-related news.