NEW ORLEANS - Ben Franklin High may offer AP Calc, but it's a simple arithmetic problem that's been bedeviling it lately. Before Katrina, the New Orleans powerhouse magnet school was piping about four students per year into Penn, with 17 applicants vying for space in the Class of 2008.

For Karan Shah, fall rush is his big second chance. The Engineering sophomore wanted to join the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity last spring, but couldn't attend a majority of the rush events, eliminating his chances of getting a bid. Yet Shah continued to hang out at the house, where several of his friends are brothers.

Villanova backup quarterback Frank Jankowski lived out every signal caller's dream by leading the Wildcats back from a 24-7 deficit to beat Penn last year - but Marvin Burroughs could only watch. The starting quarterback had broken his arm in two places two weeks earlier in the Wildcats' game against Rutgers, and he missed the entire 2005 season.

Dave Anderson is a College senior from Denver.

Smokey Joe's is about to become smokeless.

If there were ever a time for a wake-up call, this might have been it. On Wednesday, the men's soccer team saw its four-game winning streak cruelly snapped by La Salle. After going 2-0 up against the Explorers, Penn (4-2-0) conceded three straight to its city rival and fell, 3-2.

Jimmy Goldblum is no stranger to the halls of Ben Franklin High. Last spring, the College junior spent six weeks in New Orleans assisting his older brother Josh with the production of an online documentary about the school. Formerly the head of new media for the American Museum of Art as well as a Smithsonian employee, in the wake of Katrina, Josh decided that he wanted to create an online narrative to help educate people about the reality of the situation in New Orleans.

This weekend may be your last chance to talk about the birds and the trees. The Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibit entitled "Kacho-ga: Flowers and Birds in Japanese Art," will end its summer-through-fall run this Sunday. The display of over 75 works of art ranges from paintings to sculptures and weaponry.

Karma was a key word yesterday during Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya's trial, but not in the cosmic sense. Instead, prosecutors called to the stand experts in animal DNA testing that provided testimony about hairs found in Malinovskaya's rental car.

According to one Penn professor, the American government - not extremist groups like al-Qaeda - is to blame for the war on terror. Professor Ian Lustick asks whether the U.S.'s current conflict is necessary in his new book, Trapped in the War on Terror, which was presented to an audience of about 30 at the Penn Bookstore yesterday.

Philadelphia soccer fans aren't likely to see Major League Soccer at Franklin Field - or any other local area venue - anytime soon. Rowan University and the Milestone Group - a New York-based development group - jointly proposed to build a soccer stadium on Rowan's West Campus in Harrison Township, N.

There has never been a better time for current or past Penn students to puff our chests out when we say, "I go to Penn" or "I went to Penn." In only a dozen years, Penn has transformed itself from an Ivy doormat that admitted more than half of its applicants into a powerhouse that has reached as high as No.

A suspicious package outside the Quadrangle prompted police to evacuate the Upper Quad and Stouffer College House last night. The Philadelphia bomb squad determined with an X-ray that the package was safe, however, and no one was injured. At about 7 p.m.

When Bob Schoenberg started working at Penn's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center in 1982, a student in Gregory College House had just been beaten up in a violent incident of homophobia. Yesterday afternoon, as the LGBT Center officially opened a state-of-the-art "Cyber Center" in the Carriage House on Spruce Street, Schoenberg, now the director of the organization, said Penn had made great progress over the past 25 years.

The last time the Villanova football team was on Franklin Field, the Wildcats had just sacked Quakers' quarterback Pat McDermott inside the 5 at the buzzer to put the finishing touches on a 28-24 comeback victory.

University of Florida freshman Jason Attermann arrived on campus in Gainesville, Fla. several days before classes began in August. He didn't want the extra time to settle in, participate in a community service program or even get a head start on course readings.

Allowing your medical records to be turned over to the feds, HIPAA and the Patriot Act are partners in deception