Brown's President criticizes new bills Ruth Simmons, the President of Brown University, wrote a letter to students last week expressing her opposition to legislation facing the Rhode Island state legislature that would allow cities and towns to levy taxes on colleges and universities.

On June 4, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter received a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community Award from the League of American Bicyclists. According to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, the award is a symbol of Philadelphia's progress in becoming a more bike-friendly city.

Last Saturday, the Casino-Free Philadelphia Twitter feed read, "Today, we brought our communities to their casino. We beat the house. And we'll be back." The tweet marked the end of an event called Beat the House, during which 100 trained anti-casino protesters sat inside and around Harrah's Chester Casino in Chester, Pa.

Harvard University announced it will create the first endowed professorship for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies in the United States. "This is an extraordinary moment in Harvard's history and in the history of this rapidly emerging field," Harvard Overseer Mitchell Adams said in a press release.

University President Amy Gutmann and Interim Provost Vincent Price announced today that Shelley Berger has been appointed as the tenth Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor. Berger will hold appointments in the School of Medicine's Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the School of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology.

A former Penn professor has made her mark on religious history. Reverend Leslie Callahan was recently chosen as the new pastor for St. Paul's Baptist Church - located at 1000 Wallace Street in Philadelphia - making her the first female pastor in the church's 119 years of history.

Katherine Nathanson, an assistant professor at Penn's School of Medicine, describes testicular cancer as "an interesting cancer" because of its increasing incidence, its heritability and its overwhelming prevalence within a single age and race. Although potential funders have questioned the rationale of studying a relatively rare disease that has a cure, Nathanson has stood by her research.

We all have our to-do lists, and incoming Provost Vincent Price is no different. As the first interim provost in the University's history chosen to permanently fill the position, Price already made his mark last Thursday when Penn President Amy Gutmann announced his selection - but he's not taking any chances on missing a beat.

Burglary May 25 - A male employee, 22, reported at about 11:30 p.m. that an unknown suspect entered his secured apartment, located on the 300 block of 42nd Street, and removed personal items. May 31 - Property was reported at about 11:30 a.m. to have been removed from the 3800 block of Chestnut Street.

A best friendship might have little to do with common interests, longevity, or even proximity - it might just be the mutuality. This is the conclusion Penn psychologists Peter DeScioli and Robert Kurzban reached in their recent study exploring the cognitive aspects of human friendship.

Several incidents of crime occurred this past weekend involving a group of 12- to 17-year-old youths congregating around South Street. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, teenagers hijacked a taxi early Sunday morning at 12th and South streets after getting into a confrontation with the driver and proceeded to drive the vehicle into a tree at 12th and Fitzwater streets, injuring two passengers.

Economic equality does not always guarantee happiness, according to two Wharton professors. In their paper entitled, "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness," Business and Public Policy professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers compared changes in the levels of women's happiness with those of men in light of changes in economic equality since the 1970s.

The sentencing of former Wharton Marketing professor Scott Ward, which was scheduled for today, has been postponed. Ward pled guilty to five child pornography related charges last November. He could receive a sentence up to life in prison. He is currently serving a 15-year sentence at a low-security Western Pennsylvania correctional facility for other child pornography related convictions, to which he was sentenced in May 2007.

To the unemployed graduate or student seeking a summer internship, a high-paying job with a low time commitment seems too good to be true. Most often, it is. Last week, Penn's Career Services office sent an e-mail to students warning them about fraudulent job and internship opportunities posted online.

Despite recent downgrades in credit ratings across universities, Penn remains unscathed. Penn has retained its original ratings of AA+ from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Aa2 from Moody's Investor Service that it earned last year. Last week, credit ratings of numerous colleges - including Dartmouth and Bard Colleges -- declined due to waning endowment values and other financial issues, said Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli.

Two more members of the Penn community received political appointments from President Barack Obama and will try to make their mark in international affairs. Penn alumnus and governor of Utah Jon Huntsman Jr., was nominated by Obama as the United States ambassador to China, and Penn Law professor William Burke-White has been appointed to a policy position in the U.

Burglary May 23 - A male student, 20, reported at about 7:30 p.m. that an unknown suspect entered his secured apartment, located on the 4000 block of Spruce Street, and removed personal items. May 23 - A female student, 30, reported at about 11:45 a.m. that an unknown suspect entered her secured apartment, located on the 400 block of 43rd Street, and removed personal items.