Tonight is the first of Mayor Michael Nutter's budget workshops, run in collaboration with Penn Project for Civic Engagement to help get public input on budget decisions. All Philadelphia residents are invited to attend. Nutter announced the Workshops Jan.

College senior Alexander Jacobs has been awarded a 2009 Gates Cambridge Scholarship. The History major from New York City will begin a master's program in history, philosophy and sociology of science, technology and medicine at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom this October.

Despite concerns that the economic downturn would impede the number of free 10-day excursions Taglit-Birthright Israel could offer students this year, program directors say Penn-based trips will continue as usual. For the past decade, groups like Penn Hillel and Jewish Heritage Project have run the trips, which are sponsored by Birthright.

"What is the difference between a rock concert and a poetry reading?" Mark Halliday asked the crowd at his poetry reading last night at Kelly Writers House. "At a rock concert, you beg the performers to do more." Last night, Kelly Writers House hosted a poetry reading by former Penn professor and acclaimed poet Mark Halliday.

Students pursuing dual degrees at Penn typically find it difficult to study abroad for a semester and still graduate within four years. But accomplishing this feat is now more reasonable with the rise in short-term study abroad programs - usually two to eight weeks in length - offered by Penn's four undergraduate schools.

Psych 166 students had a sweet start to the week as they experienced the psychology of savoring firsthand with samples from Naked Chocolate, a dessert cafe that opened at 3421 Walnut St. this fall. "Introduction to Positive Psychology" professor Angela Duckworth provided a brief background on the topic of savoring, pointing out that attentiveness is key.

Joining Juicy Campus as another college-centric site to shut down unexpectedly in the past week, Ruckus, the online music service promoted as a legal alternative to music piracy, has come to an end with no explanation. The closure of the service, which Penn adopted in 2006, comes on the heels of the Recording Industry Association of America's decision last December to stop filing lawsuits against individuals for file-sharing.

Since 1975, the boundaries of the Penn Police Patrol Zone haven't budged: north to south from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and east to west from 30th to 43rd streets. But rising rent prices close to campus and West Philadelphia's improving image have spurred a swelling Penn community west of the Penn Patrol Zone's 43rd Street boundary.

Before New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof spoke to a packed audience last night, he sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to discuss politics, catching malaria in the Congo and the future of journalism. The Daily Pennsylvanian: What led you to journalism and The New York Times? Nicholas Kristof: In eighth grade, there was a meeting of our student newspaper, and I didn't show up.

When she came to Penn, College freshman Janey Goldberg was set on living in the Radian, the off-campus luxury apartment building. She signed her lease in December - just as most freshmen were getting comfortable with their current living arrangements - but not all students were as well-organized.

Penn would be a very different place without hazing. 2007 alumnus Martyn Griffen would not have been brutally beaten during fraternity pledging, Zeta Beta Tau and Alpha Phi Alpha would not have left campus and one student would not have been hospitalized after taking an egg to the eye during Hey Day 2006.

Starting this fall, the Penn Bookstore will offer a line of branded apparel manufactured under conditions that exceed current university requirements for apparel licensees. Acting on the recommendation of the Worker Rights Consortium, of which Penn is a member, the Bookstore will carry clothing manufactured by Knights Apparel.

Though the accuracy of college crime data has been questioned, experts say Penn does a good job in reporting and distributing crime statistics. "There are some schools, the University of Penn being one of them," said Jonathan Kassa, executive director of Security on Campus.

New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof has been to all 50 states and over 100 countries - and last night, he added another destination to his list when he spoke in Huntsman's Ambani Auditorium. His lecture, which covered both journalistic and moral topics, was received by a crowd that filled the auditorium and overflowed into an auxiliary room in Huntsman where students watched via live video feed.

The Undergraduate Assembly is teaming up with the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships to make research more appealing and accessible to students. The UA's recent undergraduate research proposal, which set up that partnernship, is the latest step in efforts by student groups working with CURF to publicize its offerings and encourage extracurricular research.

By OLIVIA JUNG Contributing Writer gamail@dailypennsylvanian.com One perk of being at Penn is that one often gets to see, meet and hear first-hand from world-renowned scholars and influential leaders - Anderson Cooper, the CEO of Coca Cola company, just to name a few.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, "there has been a sense of fear about being a Muslim" in America, said Fariha Khan, associate director of the Asian American Studies program who teaches a class on Muslim identiy in the United States. For the last eight years under President George W.