Without the surgery, her heart would stop. But Esther refused because it just wasn't kosher - literally. As an Orthodox Jew, Esther deemed a pig-valve replacement unkosher, and the world watched as everyone's favorite surgical interns scrambled to find an appropriate alternative.

An off-campus residence-hall-style apartment building costs more than the dorms, but it may be worth it.

'Innocent until proven guilty" isn't just the mantra of the United States legal system - it's also the way Penn oversees its tenured professors.

Mayoral candidate Bob Brady's blog may be feeling a little lonely. It only contains one post, and there's no way for readers to add their comments, a crucial feature in a successful blog, says Toby Bloomberg, a blogger and advertising consultant on new media.

The Undergraduate Assembly passed its $1.62 million budget proposal Sunday night with little protest from the other branches of student government. The UA is responsible for allocating funds to other student government groups, including the Nominations and Elections Committee, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Social Planning and Events Committee and the Class Boards.

A proposal to place a liquor store at 43rd and Walnut has a community divided.

"Amy, don't you run away, listen to what we have to say!" This was just one of many chants that could be heard on Locust Walk yesterday as about 55 graduate student protesters, led by a ten-foot tall puppet of Amy Gutmann, converged on College Hall at 12:30 p.m. The protest was organized by Graduate Employees Together - University of Pennsylvania, a graduate-student group that advocates for graduate-student teachers and research assistants at Penn.

The Penn track team spent the past weekend rekindling some old magic. "This weekend was a throwback to some of our championship teams," men's head coach Charlie Powell said. "Our athletes went out there and gave everything they possibly could.

Not for the first time, Temple coach Fran Dunphy took a seat a few places down from Drexel's Bruiser Flint for a night of Palestra basketball. This time, though, Dunphy cradled a half-eaten bag of popcorn.

The Law School has established a professorship devoted to the study of civil rights and race relations. The Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professorship was made possible by a $1 million grant by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and a $100,000 contribution by Duane Morris, a Philadelphia law firm.

The arbitrary and inconsistent system of ranking colleges and universities only confuses already-stressed students.

HANOVER, N.H. Feb. 24 - A funny thing happened with 8:34 left in the Penn-Dartmouth game Saturday night: the Big Green took the lead. Mark Zoller's absence in the post set off a chain reaction of defensive lapses after he picked up a pair of early fouls that forced him to sit out all but three minutes of the first half.

When the women's basketball team was badly blown out by Harvard and Dartmouth two weeks ago, Penn coach Pat Knapp knew that changes would be necessary. In New England, the Quakers were helpless defending the perimeter, as their opponents shot 55.6 percent overall and an unearthly 16-for-27 (59.

Most Whartonites can't wait to graduate and enter the world of business, but a few hope that earning graduate degrees will help keep them in the classroom even after graduation. The Executive Program in Work-Based Learning Leadership, an MBA program started at the end of last month, aims to "teach the teachers," said Liv Mansfield, associate director of Wharton Executive Education.

While Penn's campus may be more gay-friendly than other parts of the country, tolerance of public displays of affection between same-sex couples may be for the wrong reasons. A New York Times article published Sunday examined the taboo of same-sex intimacy in public, raising the question of how Penn students react to such situations.

School of Arts and Sciences Grad Student Jonathan Fisher will make his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York on March 10. A pianist since the age of eight, Fisher will perform at 5:30 p.m. next Saturday in the facility's Weill Recital Hall - only two months before he expects to receive his doctorate in physics and astronomy from Penn.

23,000Estimated elephants in Africa killed illegally last year for their ivory tusks. Source: The Washington Post