When Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and his Democratic challenger Bob Casey Jr. met last week, viewers saw a lot of mud slung.

Mariangela Bernardi is in her office at the David Rittenhouse Laboratory when a student enters, complaining about the scoring of a question on a test for a class not taught by Bernardi. She looks at the question and briefly sketches out an answer, explaining which variables and which equations are necessary to solve it.

The neighborhood still faces problems with vagrancy, but something good is happening in Cedar Park, according to Cedar Park Neighbors president, Carol Walker. About 45 residents of University City's Cedar Park neighborhood braved the rain to attend the meeting in the Calvary Community Center at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, which focused on discussing ongoing and potential improvements to the area, especially on Baltimore between 45th and 50th streets.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Driving east on Interstate 40 out of the city, all that meets the eye are the staples of the American countryside: trees, cows and barns.

Women enter Penn in greater numbers than men. They graduate in greater numbers, too. But in elected student government in recent years, women are sorely lacking. The last time a woman was president of any class board was over three years ago, when Meredith Seidel led the Class of 2004.

For the second time in two weeks, Penn will be looking to rebound from a disappointing loss to an Ivy foe, this time against a weak non-conference Rider team tonight at Rhodes Field. The Quakers (7-4-1, 1-3 Ivy) are coming off a 1-0 defeat to league leader Dartmouth.

While the typical art history professor might give a lecture on Picasso's "Guernica," Richard Meyer says he would rather discuss "Picasso's dirty drawings on napkins." "I'm interested in the stories that get left out of art history," Meyer said. A visiting professor from the University of Southern California, Meyer has done extensive work on censorship and the role of sexuality and gender in contemporary art.

These are not your older brother's Quakers. If your older brother was around in 2002 and 2003, he saw the Penn football team play 20 games and score more than 30 points in 16 of them. He also saw Penn outscore opponents 709-286 for an average margin of 21 points per game.

On Friday, former Penn basketball coach and current Temple head man Fran Dunphy celebrated the official kickoff of the season with a "Midnight Madness" celebration. His replacement, new Penn coach Glen Miller, began the new era of Quakers' basketball in a more subdued way - with a practice that was closed to the public and the media.

Where members of a tiny religious sect once stood singing hymns, students will soon rest in tanning beds and watch plasma-screen TVs. The former Divine Tracy Hotel at 20 S. 36th St. has been sold for $9 million to Trammell Crow Co., which plans to transform the building into a student-friendly apartment complex with strikingly dorm-like amenities - including residential advisers, activities and even a dining hall and a meal plan.

Columbia football coach Norries Wilson apologized yesterday for comments he made Saturday after his team lost 16-0 to Penn at Franklin Field. In a statement released by the Columbia athletic department, Wilson said, "I apologize for comments I made in the post-game press conference.

The scene was familiar. Fran Dunphy's basketball team had just finished a short scrimmage, and Dunphy, along with his players, was pounding out a set of push-ups like a second-stringer trying to win a starting job rather than the 57-year old head coach that he is.

Thanks in part to the University, crime is down - and hopefully staying that way.

Some students at Penn seem to be of one school of thought when it comes to West Philadelphia. An extremely negative view was expressed most recently by a cartoon published on this editorial page. Displaying prominently at the top the caption "Shopping in West Philly," it showed a Chinese food truck with what looks like three white students waiting to pay for their food.

Aside from debate tournaments and quiz bowl competitions, it isn't often that the Ivy League thoroughly and consistently dominates its opponents. But this year members of the Patriot League found out the hard way that the Ancient Eight can excel in athletics also, as they lost the season football series 14-4.

Lax enforcement has led to many cyclists whizzing by pedestrians on Locust Walk, creating a safety hazard.

Senior running back Joe Sandberg continued his solid season Saturday with 101 yards on 21 carries. The 4.8 yards per carry that Sandberg gained in Penn's 16-0 win over Columbia actually lowered his league-leading average from 6.0 to 5.7 yards per carry. Sandberg also ranks third in rushing yards in the Ivy League, behind Yale's Mike McLeod and Harvard's Clifton Dawson, and he has five touchdowns, also good for third, behind the same duo.