Political newcomer Michael Gessner (R) is challenging incumbent Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) for the House of Representatives seat in Pennsylvania's 2nd District, which includes the University. Fattah, who holds a masters degree from Penn's Fels Institute of Government, is currently serving his 6th term in the House.

It happened just like a dream. Karen Pittelman discovered that she was the recipient of a $3 million trust fund when she became a senior at Brown University. Now, Pittelman is working for an organization called Resource Generation, reaching out to other wealthy young people - including Penn students - to help them figure out exactly what to do with newfound millions.

Lynn Swann, a political newcomer, is the Republican challenger to incumbent Gov. Ed Rendell. Swann is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he was an All-American wide receiver. He continued playing football in the NFL and had a Hall of Fame career as a receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A Republican really never had a shot at Pennsylvania's 2nd district. The district, one of two representing Philadelphia in Congress, is heavily Democratic. In 2004, Fattah won re-election with 88 percent of the vote - the second-highest margin in the state and the highest for a Democrat.

The Opinion Board's final vote on this issue was tied, so it decided to leave readers to weigh both sides: Yes: Philadelphia is behind the times. In a city where 45 percent of residents are white, only 14.3 percent of city contracts went to minority-owned businesses last year.

Imagine being able to vote in major American elections without stepping foot outside your front door, without the aid of the Internet or some type of telepathy. Just put on a bathrobe and walk into the voting booth during the commercials of The Jerry Springer Show: That's all it takes.

The Penn basketball season does not officially start until Friday, when the men participate in the BCA Invitational, but for the hundreds of students who lined up in the Palestra this weekend, the season is already under way. "The Line," the annual Red and Blue tradition in which basketball fans claim their season tickets, kicked off the basketball year with a weekend of festivities.

PRINCETON, N.J. - Before sophomore Alex Grendi could get back on his feet, his classmate Kevin Unger had done it again. In a bizarre ending to the Penn men's soccer team's regular season at Princeton on Saturday, Unger netted his second golden goal of the season, propelling the Quakers (9-4-2, 5-1-1 Ivy) to a 1-0 win in overtime.

Neal Goss is a quadriplegic and uses a wheelchair to get around. But the 2006 Wharton graduate says Penn made a conscious effort to accommodate his disability and make him feel the same as every other student. Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, the University and other educational, business and cultural institutions say they have worked to become more accessible to those with disabilities.

The full transcript from the DP's exclusive interview with the student behind the costume.

A group of Penn medical staff traveled halfway around the world last month to teach Taiwanese doctors how to perform an innovative cancer procedure - and ate some chicken heads on the side. The team of six assisted Taiwanese surgeons, who had invited them over a year ago, in giving a light-based treatment to a woman suffering from lung cancer at an advanced stage.

At about 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 1972, Dan Alon awoke to the sound of machine guns and a bullet ripping through the wall of his apartment, just behind his bed. The Israeli fencer - who survived the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre - addressed around 250 people on Friday in the Terrace Room of Logan Hall, giving a personal account of what he called one of the "worst acts of terror in history.

Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) is running for a third term in the U.S. Senate. He previously served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the third-ranking member of the Senate Republican leadership and is chairman of the Senate Republican conference.

Amira Fawcett is an Engineering sophomore from Houston. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Fantasy football players have put the odds of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers meeting in Super Bowl XLI at 200 to 1. But sports fans can preview a showdown between the two cities just by following the governor's race between former Philadelphia mayor and Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell and his opponent, former Steelers wide receiver and Republican candidate Lynn Swann.

The Quakers have landed their fourth recruit in what is a rapidly growing Class of 2011. Jack Eggleston, a 6-foot-8 forward, has verbally committed to Glen Miller's program, according to The Miami Herald. Eggleston, out of St. Thomas Aquinas in South Florida, averaged 8.

Only a day before the mid-term elections, West Philadelphia resident Solange Chadda is taking her fight to get on the ballot to the highest level. Today, Chadda plans to submit a brief to the United States Supreme Court requesting a 60-day delay of the Pennsylvania Senate election so that she can get her name alongside those of Republican incumbent Rick Santorum and his Democratic challenger, Bob Casey.