Joanne Tong is a Wharton junior from Manila, Philippines. Her e-mail address is tong@dailypennsylvanian.com.

It's been a bad couple of weeks for casinos in Philadelphia. Last week, City Council unanimously voted to put a proposed amendment to the city charter on the ballot in the May mayoral elections that would, in effect, ban slots parlors in Philadelphia. And in a memo written to Mayor John Street on Friday, City Solicitor Romulo Diaz warned that the mayor had no legal way of stopping the charter amendment from being put to the voters.

In a world that emphasizes political correctness, Nonie Darwish is not afraid to speak her mind - even if the ideas she expresses put her life in danger. Last night, as part of Penn Israel Coalition's Israel Advocacy Night in Huntsman Hall, Darwish spoke about what she sees as the threat of radical Islam.

After three years of disappointment, Princeton basketball may be in for another upheaval. Head coach Joe Scott will be announced as Denver's new coach at a 5 p.m. press conference today, sources told ESPN.com yesterday. Denver's Sports Information director would not confirm the hiring to The Daily Pennsylvanian last night, but he confirmed the press conference.

U.S. Rep. Bob Brady isn't the only one facing challenges to his candidacy in Philadelphia politics. The congressman-turned-mayoral candidate is currently facing an attempt by rivals Dwight Evans and Tom Knox to end his candidacy over problems with his financial-disclosure forms.

For students at the Community College of Philadelphia, this spring break may not be so welcome. The local community college's faculty and staff went on strike last week, canceling classes for the school's 37,000 students. Union officials called the strike last Tuesday after a breakdown in negotiations about faculty and staff salary.

229Applications for civil union licenses in N.J. since the state legalized them on Feb. 19. Source: The New York Times

Even those audience members who had to stand for the entire two and a half hours of Norman Finkelstein's lecture last evening listened quietly and attentively, for the most part.

Despite contention among the student body, University officials are standing by their decision to bring the controversial Norman Finkelstein to campus, saying that funding does not translate into endorsement.

As his teammates busied themselves with warm-ups at Franklin Field yesterday, Chris Casey spoke about taking over the coveted starting job of a friend. A freshman goalkeeper, Smith led Georgetown Prep to an undefeated season and a No. 1 national ranking as a high school senior.

The University is now home to a center dedicated to the early detection and cure of ovarian cancer. The announcement of this facility, officially known as The Center for Research on Early Detection and Cure of Ovarian Center, was made on Monday. It will be directed by George Coukos, an internationally renowned gynecologic oncologist and research scientist.

They just need a breath of fresh air. The Penn men's tennis team (4-11) return home for the first time since before spring break for their first outdoor match on the Lott Courts, and could do with a win. Last Sunday, senior Mikhail Bekker picked up the team's only point in a 1-6 loss to No.

Wharton junior Derek Zoch wants to improve football practice. And for Zoch, a kicker for the Quakers, that means spending the last few months putting the final touches on Quicker Kicker, a mechanical football holder that allows players to practice kicking a football as they would in a live game.

Transgender students at Harvard University may not have to jump through hoops for housing accommodations anymore. Harvard's Committee on House Life issued a proposal last month to make gender-neutral housing a more easily accessible option for students. The policy, which is primarily aimed toward transgender students, would lead to a housing application in which students could check off their preferences about living with individuals of the opposite sex and could identify themselves as transgender.

The Political Science department was justified in bringing Norman Finkelstein.

The Political Science department's decision to sponsor Norman Finkelstein encourages engagement with controversial scholarship.

Red and yellow banners that read "One World, One Dream" will welcome Penn students when they arrive in Beijing this summer. These 15 students, participants in one of the University's newest summer-abroad programs, Penn-in-Beijing, will spend one month studying how the media will play a role in the 2008 Summer Olympics that will take place in China.