Missed meetings, apologetic phone calls and an ex-girlfriend's curiosity about seeing her replacement were the focus of the defense's direct examination of Irina Malinovskaya yesterday.

It's time to bring Philadelphia back to the Delaware River, city planners say. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission has big plans for the vacant lots along river in Northeast Philadelphia. The Commission hopes that proposed residences, retail and green spaces will link neighborhoods to the river.

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced last week which recommendations from a higher education report she plans to implement. The report, released last month, is the result of a commission on higher education that Spellings formed last September to consider solutions to problems afflicting higher education in the country.

A child dies every 15 seconds from diarrhea contracted through contaminated water, but the world is still far from solving its shortage of clean water, says one environmental scientist. Stanley Laskowski, a lecturer in the Master of Environmental Studies Program, contended that the water shortage and sanitation crisis constitute one of the biggest environmental problems in the world yesterday in Hayden Hall.

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In an interview that touched on campaign promises, middle names and plans for the future, The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with the new head of the freshman class, Wharton freshman Arthur Gardner Smith. The Daily Pennsylvanian: First off, why do you go by three names? Was it a campaign strategy or have you always gone by them? Arthur Gardner Smith: Well, Gardner's my mom's maiden name.

Joe Toy wants people to know he's not just a "solo wacko" out there preaching on college campuses. A licensed minister with the Evangelical Congregational Church and a commissioned missionary, Toy has devoted his life to preaching around the Philadelphia area.

Wharton professor Justin Wolfers is not ashamed to admit that he knows nothing. In fact, he hoped that his audience would walk away from his research presentation on the death penalty knowing nothing, too. As part of a criminology lecture series, Wolfers spoke to students and colleagues in Huntsman Hall on Friday about the effects of the death penalty as a crime deterrent.

Penn's School of Medicine is potentially interested in purchasing a vacant former Dupont lab in nearby Delaware County. Med School officials said they are not sure how much of the nearly 125,000 square foot property the school is considering purchasing but that the research-and-development location will most likely be used as interim or storage space.

Penn Leads the Vote isn't resting on its laurels. Student participation in elections has skyrocketed since the group's inception in 2004, and members are now trying to triple turnout for the vote this November. 2006 College grad Jason Oberman founded Penn leads the vote in collaboration with Joseph Tierney and John DiIulio of the Fox Leadership Program.

Student leaders will finally announce the official debut of the free music-subscription service Ruckus with an e-mail to students today. The official site, which allows users unlimited music downloads, went live last Thursday. Users have been able to sporadically access a test version of the service since late August as contract negotiations between the University and Ruckus were pending.

On the sixth floor of Van Pelt Library, Molly Freedman sits in a small room filled with stacks of CDs, Jewish-themed posters and antique music-playing equipment.

Penn President Amy Gutmann wrote an op-ed that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post defending the use of early decision policies. Gutmann argued that moving to a single application deadline is an ineffective method of increasing a school's accessibility compared to other methods, such as increasing outreach efforts and need-based financial aid.

Actor Mark Wahlberg rides in his Suburban on the set of 'Shooter,' a movie that filmed just off campus yesterday. Wahlberg stars in the film, about an exiled marksman, along with Danny Glover.

Engineering School sophomore Kristen Ying says she didn't study for her finals last year, and she did fine. At least for her College courses, anyway. Her Engineering courses were a whole different story. "During reading days, I studied for my Engineering finals whenever I was awake," she said.

On Friday night, the members of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society gathered in the Rotunda to hear fantasy novelist and folklorist Josepha Sherman speak, but Sherman herself was no where to be found. The group sent delegates to meet her at the train station, but she never got off the train.

Outsourcing school e-mail can be a great move, but be careful how you do it, say students and officials at schools that have made the switch. Penn has announced that in January it will begin a switch to an e-mail system managed by Google or Microsoft. Officials say the goal is to avoid the cost of performing in-house upgrades, and any outside service would be free to Penn.