12/12/06 5:00am
Thanks to a change in LSAT policy, aspiring law students may be able to breathe easier on test day.
After a shift in American Bar Association protocol last June, 74 percent of law schools currently or will soon evaluate applicants based on their highest LSAT scores, according to a recently released survey by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.
12/07/06 5:00am
There's nothing like pizza, beer and neighborhood revitalization to mobilize a community.
Following a local letter-writing campaign, the Dock Street Brewing Co. pizzeria is set to inhabit the former firehouse at 50th Street and Baltimore Avenue.
The building, located across the street from Cedar Park, housed the Firehouse Farmers Market until last year.
12/04/06 5:00am
Philadelphia newspaper racks will remain full, at least for a bit longer.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News's largest union threatened to strike after midnight Friday, but management and union representatives continued contract negotiations through yesterday.
11/30/06 5:00am
It's not quite the cure to breast cancer, but Penn researchers may be getting closer to a vaccine to fight the disease.
A Penn research team has tested a new vaccine - which is designed for patients with early-stage breast cancer - in a pilot study, and those involved say it was unusually successful.
11/29/06 5:00am
Penn is losing a tenth of its city funding for programs run with two West Philadelphia elementary schools.
11/17/06 5:00am
Penn's partnerships with two public elementary schools may face significant funding cuts as part of the proposed Philadelphia School District budget.
A provision in School District CEO Paul Vallas' $70 million budget cut proposal would reduce district funding for the partnerships by 10 percent this year, and 50 percent next year.
11/16/06 5:00am
An exhibit by disadvantaged community members has drawn interest - and some bids for the art.
11/09/06 5:00am
An anonymous donor has posed a challenge to a scholarship program for local high-school students: Raise $2 million, and receive $1 million more.
Officials from the program are rising to the occasion. As the grant was announced at the Philadelphia Education Fund's second annual awards night last month, "there was a great deal of excitement . but a belief that we would raise the funds to reach the challenge," Philadelphia Scholars Director Carole Boughter said.
11/02/06 5:00am
Penn is getting a new neighbor - the country's premier space for life sciences and technology companies, University City Science Center officials hope.
The Science Center is planning an expansion, and last week marked the groundbreaking of a facility at 3711 Market St.
10/30/06 5:00am
Lucy Kerman --- who helped guide Penn's West Philadelphia initiatives for almost a decade -- -may have left the University President's Office, but her relationship with the West Philadelphia community hasn't ended.
In fact, it will be honored when she receives the Calvary Center 2006 Community Beacon Award Nov.
10/17/06 5:00am
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.
10/17/06 5:00am
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.
10/03/06 5:00am
It's time to bring Philadelphia back to the Delaware River, city planners say.
The Philadelphia City Planning Commission has big plans for the vacant lots along river in Northeast Philadelphia.
The Commission hopes that proposed residences, retail and green spaces will link neighborhoods to the river.
09/28/06 5:00am
The intersection at 39th Street and Lancaster Avenue once appeared rough around the edges, drab with worn buildings itching for a helping hand - and preferably one holding a paintbrush.Beautification efforts eventually took root, and a ceremony Monday morning honored the completion of five autumn-themed murals in the area. The largest, entitled "Just Before Fall," is the product of a Penn class.
09/27/06 5:00am
When Craig Thompson was a student in Penn's School of Medicine in the '70s, he wanted to work as a military-base physician.
More than 30 years later, however, Thompson is still at Penn, and he was recently appointed director of the Abramson Cancer Center.
09/25/06 5:00am
China Okasi, a Penn Graduate School of Education alumna, was always the one friends and family turned to for help with an essay, whether by knocking on her dorm-room door or meeting for a tutoring session at the Weingarten Learning Resources Center in Stouffer Commons.
09/21/06 5:00am
A chain-link fence surrounds Cedar Park at 50th Street and Baltimore Avenue, enclosing landscaping machinery and old playground equipment. For the time being, it is abandoned, and does not appear impressive.
But by Thanksgiving, the fences will be down and the machinery will be replaced with new landscaping, benches and improved lighting - worth a combined $200,000.
09/19/06 5:00am
Some West Philadelphia residents remember the buzzing Baltimore Avenue commercial corridor of the 1950s and '60s. Now, changes to the area provide a glimpse of that bygone prosperity.
New businesses, including a potential pizzeria and brewery in the firehouse at 50th Street and Baltimore, a wine and spirits store and a Vietnamese restaurant, are part of the movement.
09/14/06 5:00am
Stronger community service efforts, improved curricula at local schools and a diverse student body may sound like Christmas in September for many West Philadelphia residents.
But such may be the benefit of letting teenagers study what they love, Penn officials say, adding that the ripple effects of a new internationally themed high school in the area could reach beyond the schoolhouse walls and into the surrounding community.
09/12/06 5:00am
Philadelphia just got a major wake-up call: It was ranked the most impoverished of the nation's 10 largest cities.
