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The Clintons, who live on a Chappaqua cul-de-sac, are said to be eyeing a 20-acre horsey estate in Bedford Hills.

NATION

 >>Hee Deuk Yang’s Collection to be featured at NYC Couture Fashion Week

New York- Korean designer Hee Deuk Yang’s funky, fresh, and freestyle collection will be featured at New York City Couture Fashion Week. Yang’s haute couture, exotic, and  free-spirited women’s clothing collection will be modeled at the Korean Collective Runway Show on Saturday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. at the legendary Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria. Yang’s collection will also be on exhibit Friday through Saturday, Sept. 10-12, from 2-8 p.m. at the John Jacob Astor Salon.

Yang’s collection blends East and West, warm colors, and an edginess to create a very unique style of his own. The Bohemian-style that is evident in Yang’s collection is permeating the fashion scene, as evidenced by the collections of Vivienne Westwood, Mark Jacobs, and Diane von Furstenberg.

Yang is one of the growing number of Asian American designers who are emerging onto today’s fashion scene. According to the New York Times, the number of Asian American members of the Council of fashion Designers of American has grown from 10 in 1995 to at least 35 today. Other notable Asian American designers that have taken the fashion world by storm include Richard Chai, Jason Wu, and Alexander Wang, all of whom were awarded by the Council of Fashion Designers this past June.

For more information, visit http://www.couturefashionweek.com/luxury.htm, http://www.prweb.com, or http://www.nytimes.com

BAY/CA

>>SFAPOA to host Annual Scholarship Awards and Promotional Banquet

San Francisco- The San Francisco Asian Peace Officers’ Association (SFAPOA) will be hosting its Annual Scholarship Awards and Promotional Banquet on Friday, Oct. 15 at the New Asia Restaurant. SFAPOA members, friends, supporters, and the public are invited to attend this celebration, which will also feature live entertainment from the SFPD Lion Dance Troupe and a raffle ticket drawing grand prize of one round-trip ticket to Asia. 

Every year, the SFAPOA rewards three to four students scholarships between $1000 to $1500. In addition to annually giving away scholarships, the SFAPOA is actively involved in the community, orking with other organizations and non-profits, fundraising for various causes like the Asian American Donor Program, and collaborating with other law-enforcement associations to improve the understanding of various communities and their needs.

What: Annual Scholarship Awards and Promotional Banquet

When: Friday, Oct. 15, Reception at 6:00 p.m., Dinner at 7:00 p.m.

Where: New Asia Restaurant, 772 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, Ca 94133

Cost: $75 for non-members, $680 for table sponsors (10 people), $5 for current members of the APOA (comes with one free raffle ticket), $25 for spouses of current members of the APOA. *No tickets will be sold at the door.

To purchase a ticket, please contact Sgt. Eddie Cheung Co. A (415) 315-2400, Ofc. Eddie Wu Co. G (415) 666-8000, or Sgt. Paul Yep Community Relations Units (415) 308-6543.

To attend, members must RSVP to Sgt. H. Lam (415) 297-8182 by Oct. 8.

To sponsor a table, please call (415) 987-1792.

>> Chinese American Council of Sacramento to host special awards ceremony

Sacramento- On October 23, the Chinese American Council of Sacramento (CACS) will host a special event at the CSUS Alumni Center. At the ceremony, Dr. Richard Ikeda will be awarded the Frank Kat Founder’s Award and Dr. William Fong will be posthumously inducted into the CACS 2010 “Hall of Fame.” The public is invited to attend, as the proceeds of the event will go towards the CACS “Cares for Kids” fund.

CACS is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1978 by Frank Fat, a philanthropist and restaurateur. The goal of CACS is to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Chinese Americans. Every year, CACS donates approximately $10,000 to underprivileged kids in Sacramento.

Dinner will be catered by the Embarcadero Lions Club and wine by Wilson Vineyards and Michael-David Fine Wines. Tickets cost $50 per person for $450 for a table (for 10). Please make checks payable to CACS, c/o Jeanie Lee, 929 Glide Ferry Way, Sacramento, CA 95831. If you would like more information, please contact Brenda Fong at bjfong1950@yahoo.com or JeanieLee at jeanielhome@yahoo.com.

For more information, visit http://www.benzinga.com

SPORTS

>> Kim Yuna may extend stay in L.A.

Los Angeles- Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yuna may extend her stay in Los Angeles, having recently begun training for the All that Kate LA show on Oct. 2 and 3. Kim has been practicing at the East West Ice Palace in Artesia (a rink owned by two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan), alongside Kwan and many other skating world champions in preparation for the October show.

Los Angeles is no strange city to Kim. In 2009, she won the 2009 World Championship at Staples Center, right before her gold-medal performance at Vancouver in February. In addition, the large Korean American community and energy in L.A., alongside the availability of ice rinks and quality of coaches are further reasons that Kim is taking into account for her next move, according an interview with Koo Dong Hoi, an executive with the agency that represents Kiman in the L.A. Times.

On Tuesday, the media surrounded Kim at a news conference in Burbank’s Pickwick arena. However, according to Koo, “In Korea, she is much more than a movie star.”

For more information, visit http://latimesblogs.latimes.com.

HEALTH

>>UC Davis Study reveals low liver cancer survival rate for Laotian/Hmong Americans in California

Sacramento- A study by the U.C. Davis School of Medicine has found that among the Asian Americans living in California, Laotian/Hmong Americans have the lowest survival rate for liver cancer. The study, titled “Disparities in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Survival among Californians of Asian Ancestry 1998-2007″ is currently published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, and was conducted by the collaboration effort of U.C. Davis, the California Department of Public Health, and U.C. San Francisco.

Over 6000 Asian American patients who were diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) between 1998 and 2007 were used in the study. Other Asian American groups in California that were studied included Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, South Asian, Korean, Japanese, Cambodian and Thai. The results revealed that Laotian/Hmong Americans, compared to the other major Asian American groups, were at the greatest risk of dying from the disease.

The findings from the research has called for greater targeted outreach to detect and treat liver cancer earlier for Laotian/Hmong Americans. Liver cancer has become a significant health concern for the U.S. and the world, since death rates from the disease has increased compared to other types types of cancer. Particular to Asian Americans, liver cancer has been connected to Hepatitis B infection, an endemic that affects many parts of Asia. Liver cancer may be treated by surgery or liver tranplantation.

For more information, visit http://www.healthcanal.com/cancers

Jared McDonald

The two suspects in last week’s bank robberies near campus are still at large, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Philadelphia division, which is in charge of the investigations.

Though Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said last Friday there was a possibility that the suspect in the Sept. 3 robbery might match the one in the Sept. 1 incident, FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver wrote in an e-mail Wednesday that the robberies were “not committed by the same person.”

No weapon was displayed in either robbery, nor was anyone hurt.

In the robbery of the TD Bank branch at 3735 Walnut St. last Wednesday, the suspect was described by Rush as a 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pound black male in his late 20s to early 30s. The suspect was also described as having a “scraggly beard” and wearing a black shirt, dark pants and a tan bucket hat.

The suspect in last Friday’s robbery of the PNC Bank branch at 3535 Market St. is a 5-foot-7-inch black male in his early-to-mid 20s with a “thin build” and “closely cropped hair and a short beard,” according to Klaver. He was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans.

Rush, who has been at the Division of Public Safety since 1994, said last Friday that bank robberies in the area surrounding Penn are rare, especially in recent years.

Klaver said the two robberies near campus last week are among four total bank robberies this year in the Southwest Police Division, which encompasses University City. The other two occurred at 19 S. 52nd St. on April 20 and at 3131 Market St. on June 29.

In the same period of time last year, two bank robberies were reported in this police division — 2900 Island Ave. on Feb. 23, 2009, and 3748 Lancaster Ave. on July 28, 2009.

Klaver said 61 bank robberies have been reported in Philadelphia so far this year. In the same period of time last year, 81 bank robberies were reported in the city.

Evan Medina

Delivering a speech in front of a crowd of students and union workers in Houston Hall, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine kicked off the post-Labor Day election season by stating, “Don’t let anybody tell you that the 2010 election isn’t as important as the 2008 election.”

At the event — jointly hosted by the DNC and Penn Democrats Wednesday afternoon — Kaine, along with Pennsylvania governor and Penn alumnus Ed Rendell and other local leaders, touted the accomplishments of President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats over the past twenty months.

“We promised change, and we’ve started to deliver,” said Kaine. “An economy that was shrinking in 2008 is growing. It’s not growing enough. We have work to do, but it’s growing.”

“We shouldn’t apologize for the first twenty months of the Obama administration,” Rendell said. “We should revel in the things we’ve achieved.”

Praising the results of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the stimulus package, the governor pointed to an August 2010 Congressional Budget Office report that estimated the act lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 to 1.8 percent from April to June 2010.

“Don’t tell me that the stimulus hasn’t created good-paying jobs,” he exclaimed.

Noting the importance of the midterm elections, Kaine argued the President needs reliable partners in Congress to continue moving forward with his agenda.

Despite the list of legislative victories, Democrats are still facing a bleak electoral landscape in November. A Rasmussen poll released Monday estimates that Republicans lead Democrats in the generic Congressional ballot by 12 percent.

Nevertheless, Rendell remained hopeful, noting that Democrats are tied with Republicans among registered voters. “If we can get those 2008 voters again, we will win,” he said.

“I have faced tough odds before,” Kaine added. “Tough is what Democrats do.”

Others attribute the gap in the polls to Democrats holding the reins in a bad economy.

“An incumbent party will always get blamed,” Penn Democrats President and College junior Emma Ellman-Golan said. “People have short memories.”

Whatever the reason, Pennsylvania Democrats will need to improve their position in the polls before November in order to come out ahead. The Republican candidates for both Senate and governor in Pennsylvania currently lead their Democratic opponents by double digits in the polls, according to a Reuters poll conducted Aug. 28-29.

“We really need to get active to take charge in this election,” Ellman-Golan said. “It’s really easy to feel apathetic, but we recognize the importance of maintaining our majority.”

Penn Leads the Vote President and College senior Jared Fries highlighted the importance of the election for students of any political persuasion.

“While the governors’ speeches were inherently partisan, their message rings true to all Penn students, even those with no previous interest in politics,” he said.

MK Kleva

Penn students now have a way to save money without giving up their favorite restaurants.

Launched in July, PennEats is a student-run company that allows members to save 10 percent at nine participating restaurants near Penn.

Discounts are redeemed using a wallet-sized plastic card, available online and through PennEats representatives around campus.

Cards have been selling for $12.99 throughout the summer and will cost $15 starting this Friday.

There are a limited, though unspecified, number of cards still available. The discount lasts through May 2011.

According to its website, “PennEats is a business founded by Penn students for Penn students.”

Elizabeth Wessel, a College junior and the CEO and founder of PennEats, decided to start the company last spring when she realized that many other schools had discount programs, but none existed at Penn.

Wessel, a Daily Pennsylvanian contributing writer, created PennEats with Vice President and co-founder Adam Friedman, a College senior.

After seeing similar discount cards elsewhere, Wessel brought her idea to Friedman.

PennEats employs students from diverse parts of campus life — including many fraternity and sorority representatives, as well as club members and athletes — to sell the cards.

“I think the PennEats card is a great idea because it gives students the chance to eat out more and take advantage of the amazing places to eat on campus on a more affordable level,” said Hannah Littman, a College sophomore and cardholder.

She added that since buying the card last week, it had nearly paid for itself.

Wessel said she thinks the cards will help local businesses expand their clientele.

Marco Lentini, owner of Gia Pronto and Taglio, said he decided to include his restaurants in the PennEats program after hearing a pitch from the “persuasive founder.”

He added that he admired the entrepreneurial “grassroots effort,” which he said was similar to how he started his restaurants.

Wessel and Friedman plan to donate a large percentage of their profits to the Southeastern Pennsylvania branch of the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program.

The pair mentors for the organization in West Philadelphia.

“We are very grateful for the financial support we receive from PennEats, which will help us bring more Penn student mentors into the lives of children who need them,” said Marlene Olshan, the CEO of the regional BBBS program.

Elizabeth Horkley

Credit the founders of Kembrel.com for giving students another reason to procrastinate this fall.

According to CEO Cherif Habib, “now you can use Facebook to shop, and not just to keep tabs on your ex-boyfriend.” Touted as the industry’s first private sales store that can be accessed entirely through Facebook, the application launched in late August following a successful trial period.

Habib says the amount of time students spend on social networking websites every day was a major factor in the decision to launch Kembrel on Facebook.

Open exclusively to students, the website caters to the college demographic, offering brands such as American Apparel and electronics that appeal to a tech-savvy generation.

Valerie Muvdi, Wharton MBA alumna and women’s buyer for the company, describes the company and its approach to social networking as innovative and predicts that Kembrel will remain at the forefront of technology.

This sentiment is echoed by Wharton sophomore Nick Schneider, who briefly served as a marketing consultant for the company before its official launch. Schneider stressed the importance of using social networking sites to market the website.

Seeing his input come to fruition was a rewarding experience for Schneider. “There is no better feeling than putting ideas into reality and seeing all of your hard work come together for a finished project,” he said.

Student input continues to play a huge role in both the business and creativity aspects of the company. With only three full-time employees, the company relies on student volunteers to carry out such diverse tasks as marketing and modeling.

Habib believes this to be a fair opportunity, citing the difficulty of finding an internship without prior experience.

The practice of employing student volunteers is referred to as “community building” on Kembrel along with social e-commerce, which Habib describes as meaning the advertisement opportunities that arise with the rapid spread of information inherent in social networking.

Whether or not Kembrel will be successful in this venture remains to be seen.

College sophomore Amy Aw frequently shops online, subscribing to such similar websites as Ruelala.com and Gilt.com. Though she is familiar with the website and is generally impressed with the selection thus far, Aw is hesitant to buy from Kembrel because of its lack of reputation. For now, she is more likely to buy from more established websites.

Habib remains hopeful for his company’s future, believing the company’s launch on Facebook to be crucial. “I believe that the future of e-commerce is social, and since we’re serving students, we believe that being on Facebook is a really big deal,” he said.

Dana Vogel

When College junior Sydney Scott was in fourth grade, her mother taught her how to knit. Now, after honing her knitting ability for over 10 years, Scott is using those skills for a good cause.

This semester, Scott is starting a new club — Stitch for Kids. The organization, which held its first meeting Wednesday night in Houston Hall, aims to build a community of knitters at Penn to make blankets for sick children.

“Knitting is a family thing. My aunt does a similar thing in Ohio. The first time she gave a child a hand-knit blanket, she said their eyes lit up,” Scott said, explaining her desire to start Stitch for Kids. “I wanted that connection.”

Stitch for Kids is affiliated with Project Linus, a national organization with local chapters in the area. Through Project Linus, Scott said she hopes to donate blankets to children at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and area shelters.

“Every kids needs a blanket,” she said.

She also said it might be possible to make hats for children receiving chemotherapy.

There are about 40 people, altogether, who have expressed interest in Stitch for Kids, Scott said.

She added that she didn’t initially expect to find many knitters at Penn. “As it turns out, there are some knitters in the closet,” she said.

College junior Laura Johnson, who attended the first meeting, said she was also surprised to find other students who knitted.

“I started knitting again because of [Sydney]. I used to only knit scarves but though I might as well do some useful. It’s a nice thing to do,” said Wharton junior Hillary Heimbach, a friend of Scott’s who attended the meeting last night.

Knitters of all skill levels are welcome, and Scott is planning on spending the first month of each semester teaching beginners how to knit. She has even prepared an informational PowerPoint presentation.

After that, Stitch for Kids will meet once a week to knit together and help each other with their current projects. Scott said it takes about 30 hours to knit one blanket.

For now, Scott is still working on some of the logistical details of the club. After she gauges interest in Stitch for Kids, Scott said the next steps include looking into affiliating Stitch for Kids with the Civic House, and — after one year — possibly obtaining funding from the Students Activities Council.

Scott also hopes to eventually hold a bake sale to raise money to purchase knitting materials.

Sarah Gadsden

You’d be hard pressed to find a student on Penn’s campus unfamiliar with Legends of the Hidden Temple, Rugrats or Doug.

The Social Planning and Events Committee plans to bring Penn’s diverse campus together in the name of old-school Nickelodeon favorites with its second annual Fall Fest on Saturday, Sept. 25, headlined by Penn alumnus and rapper Hoodie Allen.

“There will be slime involved in some fashion,” SPEC Vice President and College senior Ferrell Townsend said.

Other Nick-themed goods to look for include the object of Kel’s obsession on Kenan and Kel (hint: it’s orange and carbonated), a Figure It Out-styled game show activity and plenty of “physical challenges” reminiscent of Double Dare 2000, including squirt gun races, an obstacle course, a game of capture the flag, a “dunk derby,” a pie eating contest and more.

In addition to reprising last year’s Battle of the Bands, there will be a new DJ battle between the class boards. The winner will DJ throughout the day, including the hour before Hoodie takes the stage, according to SPEC President and Wharton senior Adam Thompson.

“Hoodie Allen was chosen because he has a strong Penn following, and he meets the mission of the event,” Thompson said. Known to some as Steven Markowitz, Hoodie is a Class of 2010 alumnus, fitting the event’s “focus on the Penn community.”

The 20-and-counting student groups that have already confirmed their involvement — including performance groups, Greeks, philanthropic organizations and everything in between — will be hosting various festival games and distributing souvenirs and food.

The first thousand students will receive a free entrée and dessert from a restaurant that has yet to be finalized, and the class boards will be distributing food along with their respective class T-shirts or other paraphernalia. Popular food trucks Coup de Taco and Call Me Cupcake will park at the event.

SPEC hopes to attract all four classes to the event, “especially seniors,” Townsend said, adding that he believes the senior class in particular can connect well with the ’90s Nickelodeon theme.

“I feel like it was a lot more underclassmen than it was upperclassmen,” College junior Anna-Lara Cook said of last year’s Fall Fest.

Wharton junior Katherine Mosbrucker noted that she attended as a sophomore largely because she knew someone performing in the Battle of the Bands.

“We really want to involve the entire Penn community as much as possible,” Thompson said. “We want this to be a fun event that students want to come to.”

Todd Shalom, the founder of Elastic City, wants “to bring poetry off the page and onto the streets” with his conceptual walking tours of New York City.

Jennifer Scuteri

The Penn field hockey team entered the 2010 season with a new coach, a new roster and three goals for the new season.

But it seems the third time wasn’t a charm, since one of the team’s goals — to emerge victorious in its first three games ­— fell to the wayside when the Quakers dropped their opening game to Rider, 8-3.

“We won’t really talk about this game too much. We’ll show some game clips about some of the specific things that need to be addressed,” new coach Colleen Quinn Fink said. “But after that film, we have to move forward and just start thinking about our next opponent and just start playing better Penn field hockey.”

Although new to the program, Fink is no stranger to the world of Philadelphia-area field hockey. As a St. Joseph’s alumna and daughter of St. Joseph’s track and field coach, Kevin Quinn, she has four years of head coaching experience under her belt at nearby Haverford College.

In her first year with the Quakers, Fink has already implemented some changes including fast-paced and game-like preseason practices.

“[We have] a lot more direction, we have a better game plan. We did a lot of scouting of the other team,” newly appointed senior co-captain Laurel McGarvie said.

The second — and still attainable — goal the Quakers set for themselves was to “win in regulation or be prepared enough [to get] a win in overtime”.

Last season, the team dropped four games in overtime, three of which were to Ivy League opponents. For the Quakers, turning these losses into wins comes down to intensity.

“I’m not going to be out there on the field with them, nor is my coaching staff. So it’s hard for that intensity to come from me once that whistle blows at the start of the game,” Fink said.

“It’s time to rise up and someone’s either going to play with some intensity and/or bring that level of heart that we’re looking for to the field.”

Although Princeton has historically sat atop the League in the past, the Quakers’ final goal is to make a run for the conference title.

“And I think there are some really good [Ivy] programs out there that are well coached and have disciplined play,” Fink said.

To top it all off, Fink has had to make changes to accommodate the loss of six seniors including center midfield Katie Rose and scoring powerhouse, Kelsey Tahan, who co-led the team with 15 points last season.

Senior co-captain Annie Matthews has gone above and beyond in order to compensate for these losses. After spending her entire collegiate career on the forward line, the St. Louis native will move back to defense for the Quakers.

“You hate to talk about strengths in terms of individual athletes, but I think Annie Matthews does have the core fundamentals down,” Fink said. “I think that she is definitely one of our strengths in terms of individual play.”

At the other end of the spectrum, the freshman class, recruited by former assistant coach Megan McGuin, is expected to contribute a fair amount this season in both the starting lineup and subbing in for their teammates.

“In the past, we haven’t really had freshman with a lot of playing time, so it’s really great that they can start freshman year,” McGarvie said. “It will help build our program.”

Ari Seifter

Senior defenseman Zach Barnett may be a stalwart on the back line, but in Sunday’s 5-0 win over La Salle, he made his mark on the offensive end as well.

In the 23rd minute of a scoreless draw, Barnett bombed a long throw-in into the box and earned his ninth career assist when fellow senior Jason Gorskie finished the goal.

Barnett, who has been the team’s long throw-in specialist since his sophomore year, can’t explain his talent for long-distance tosses.

“I’ve just always had a long throw since I was little, and I’ve just always used it,” Barnett said. “I don’t really know what it comes from.”

Yet the senior back has developed his throw-in range into an attacking weapon. His three assists last year were the most for any back on the team.

Executing long throw-ins depends on having strong core muscles — not strong arms. That explains why the athletic Barnett, who was the captain of his high school basketball team and go-to player on the intrasquad wiffle ball team, has been able to excel.

“He’s just the kind of guy that could probably be successful in whatever sport he picked up,” coach Rudy Fuller said. “He’s agile, he’s athletic, he’s well-balanced and he’s strong.”

Barnett has also honed in on his leadership skills ­— he was recently voted a team captain, which will be essential if the defensive unit hopes to break the Penn team records set two years ago of seven consecutive shutouts and 11 in a season.

“For the past couple of years, he’s been one of our steadiest performers on the field and one of our hardest-working guys off the field,” Fuller said. “He’s not a rah-rah, in your face, vocal kind of leader. He’s just a competitor that sets an example, sets a standard, and everyone respects the work he puts in and tries to live up to it.”

So far, the Quakers have gotten off on the right foot with two straight clean sheets against Saint Joseph’s and La Salle.

But Barnett is not doing it alone. Three of the four projected starters on the defensive unit, including juniors Thomas Brandt and Jake Levin, played high school club soccer for the Baltimore Casa Mia Bays, which has helped them establish cohesiveness at Penn early on.

Fuller said that Penn has benefitted from those players’ familiarity, camaraderie and experience.

Anchored by the experience and familiarity on the back line, Brandt believes that “the sky’s the limit” for the Penn defense.

“So far it’s a good start,” Barnett said. “We’ve just gotta keep rolling.”

Lauren Plotnick

With its five leading rushers all returning, the Quakers running game led by Lyle Marsh, Bradford Blackmon and Matt Hamscher could prove to be a major weapon for a Penn team that led the Ivy League last season defensively but finished in the middle of the pack in most offensive categories.
The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with running backs coach Steven Downs for an update on the state of the running game.

Daily Pennsylvanian: How much will the running game play a role in the overall offensive scheme?
Steven Downs: Well you know we’ll definitely run the football. We’ve got a really good line up front, a really veteran, seasoned line. I don’t mean to boost or brag about our guys up front but we’ve got two of the best ends in Luke Nawrocki and Ryan Murray. Smash mouth football is what we call it around here.
We’ve got the talent, we just need to make sure that we utilize it in the right fashion and give those kids a chance to be successful.

DP: How will a talented running game help if there is a young quarterback on the field?
SD: If that is the case that we end up with a young quarterback, our running game can help out a lot because it takes a lot of the pressure off the quarterback not to try to win the game throwing the ball through the air.
The kids that we expect to do well are doing extremely well. Our fullbacks are doing a great job opening holes along with the offensive line and tight ends.

DP: How did the players handle offseason preparation?
SD: I think they did a very good job. We give a conditioning test and all those kids passed the conditioning test. They did a great job in the weight room. We looked at their max numbers lifting and everything. People tell them what they need to do but then its on their shoulders to go out and do it.
I think they know we’ve got a special group out there and we’ve got a chance to be pretty good so I think they took that to heart and they took it personally and they are ready to go.

DP: Jeff Jack and Lyle Marsh got a lot of playing time as freshmen last year. How will that help them this year?
SD: It’s huge. You just can’t substitute game reps. You can simulate things in practice and you can scrimmage and things but getting those game reps is huge because you’re in it.
They’ve been in the fire, they understand what is going to happen and the different scenarios. They’ve dealt with some different issues, the highs and the lows — they call it the peaks and the valleys. You know getting that game experience is phenomenal.

DP: Bradford Blackmon is still listed as both a defensive end and a running back. How will you utilize him?
SD: We’re still trying to work through that. He’s got a big role on our team. He’s a dynamic athlete, very talented, so we want to try to use him as much as possible. It’s going to be up to him. I told him in the beginning of the summer, I couldn’t harp enough conditioning, because you know as well conditioned as he is, that will determine how much he can do at full size.

Chan Park

The Quakers are back and are ready to go for the kill once again.

After displaying a new core of talent in its opening Big 5 tournament this weekend, the defending Ivy League champion Penn volleyball team is set to pick up where it left off.

“Obviously, our goal for this season is to match last year’s goals — which is to win the Ivy League championship again and go to the NCAAs,” said coach Kerry Carr.

While last season’s success was somewhat of a surprise after a five year Ivy title drought, the team’s stellar play caught the eyes of many members of the college volleyball scene and now, Penn enters this season with a target on its back.

Prior to last year, the Quakers had been 0-3 in NCAA tournament play, having lost in the first round each time they qualified. However, last season Penn made program history, defeating Army 3-1 to advance to the second round for the first time in the program’s 36-year history.

“That was a great experience personally for me as well as the program,” said Carr. “I think that experience actually gives us a lot of confidence moving forward, and that’s going to take our program to a higher level overall in the future.”

While the experience gained from last season will be of great benefit to the team, the road back to the NCAA tournament — by way of defending the Ivy League title — won’t be an easy one.

Though most of the 2009 team has returned for another championship run, the Quakers lost six seniors to graduation, including 2009 Ivy League Player of the Year Elizabeth Semmens.

But despite the roster changes, Carr hasn’t found it difficult to move forward.

“We are a totally different team from last year,” she said. “The team has kind of developed a new identity now, so I don’t really feel the loss at all anymore.”

This may have much to do with the newest members of the team. The Quakers pressed hard during recruiting and ultimately were able to bring in six impressive players from the Class of 2014.

“We added six new freshmen, and I think it’s actually helped us,” Carr said. “When you talk about freshmen making an impact, both the freshmen and sophomore class are fighting for some open spots right now, and I think that they’re doing very well at that.”

With the freshmen already making their presence felt, and with the expected leadership and strong play from returning All-Ivy selections Megan Tryon, Madison Wojciechowski and reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Lauren Martin, the team could be well on its way to its tenth Ivy title and if all goes well, another run at the NCAA Tournament.

Megan Soisson

Six years ago, Samson had never played in a football game.

That’s not to say the senior place kicker had never set foot onto a field ­— he played soccer his entire life.

But right before Samson’s junior year of high school, the Andover High School football coach asked him to kick on Friday nights.

“I had kind of just fooled around with my friends sometimes after soccer practice if we found a football and I kicked,” he said. “But I didn’t really think it would turn into anything.”

Samson’s football skills did turn into something. This season, he is poised to break nearly every kicking record for Penn and the Ivy League.

Yet his career almost didn’t get off the ground. Since in Samson’s home state of Michigan, football and soccer compete in the same season, he was forced to have a limited presence on the football team.

“I never went to football practice in high school,” he said.

Samson relied on his natural abilities to get through his first season, and he received several offers to play in college.

“But I knew that Penn was always my number-one choice school to go to anyway, so I was fortunate enough to be recruited here.”

After a successful senior season, during which he continued to juggle both sports, Samson attended national-level kicking camps and went into his freshman season at Penn with confidence.

But in order to earn the starting position, Samson had to put up a fight.

After the 2006-2007 season, where the Quakers lost three Ivy League games as a result of missed field goals and extra points in overtime, the coaching staff brought in three freshman kickers.

Trevor Charlston, Dave Kuncio and Samson entered their freshmen seasons ready to compete and replace existing kickers Derek Zoch and A.J. Nobile.

“There were a lot of injuries, and it was kind of back and forth, but I was fortunate enough to win the starting kicking job,” Samson explained. “Then I started, and played in every game since then.”

Now, thirty games and 176 points later, Samson is on track to break his own Penn and Ivy records for the most field goals in a season, and is well on his way to breaking the Ivy career points record.

But Samson is more concerned with helping his team win than rewriting the record books.

“You kind of have to plan every kick as an individual kick and not worry about the records or not worry about the numbers,” Samson explained during training camp. “So if it happens, it happens, and that’s great. But right now I’m just focusing on whether it’s going to be my first field goal or extra point [against] Lafayette on Sept. 18, and we’ll go from there.”

And should that first kick be for an extra point, the result won’t be much of a surprise. In his Penn career, Samson has yet to miss a PAT — a perfect 74-for-74 and another team record.

Samson says his routine has not changed since he arrived at Franklin Field. After trying different footwork setups in high school at various camps, he settled into a pattern at Penn.

“That’s part of having the same rhythm, trying to remain consistent, so it’s the same exact thing every time,” he said.

If the stats say anything, consistency is Andrew Samson’s middle name.

Victor Gamez

For Brooks Jackson — director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s project FactCheck.org — working over the internet is, in many ways, easier than his previous job as a political commentator on CNN. “Not only do you not have to wear a tie, or even any pants, in theory — no one knows what zip code you’re in,” he said.

The last of these will allow Jackson to work from the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area as FactCheck headquarters move from Washington to the Annenberg Public Policy Center building, at 36th and Walnut streets. The organization’s new location will afford many more Penn students the opportunity to work with a leading political watchdog.

FactCheck is a nonpartisan and nonprofit project founded by Brooks and Annenberg Public Policy Center director Kathleen Hall Jamieson in December 2003. According to Brooks, “the original idea was to write about deception in the 2004 primary election” after fact checking statements made by presidential candidates in speeches and in campaign ads.

But when the site’s web traffic started averaging 100,000 hits per day, “it became clear it wasn’t something we could walk away from,” he said.

According to Jackson, the lease on FactCheck’s Washington office ends early in 2011. However, the Public Policy Center moved into a new building on campus and had additional space, “so it was a no-brainer financial decision,” according to Jackson.

Jackson said the Washington office will shut down after the midterm election this November. Until that time, FactCheck will be on a “split operation” with the newly-staffed Philadelphia office, headed by director Eugene Kiely.

According to Kiely, the move affords FactCheck an opportunity to reach out to Penn students.

“In past summers, there would be interns who spend time at FactCheck from Penn — but now with the chance to do work up here, they’re more involved and getting opportunities to do more writing and researching,” Kiely said. “There’s continuity now, and not just a couple of months in the summer.”

“Six to eight competitively selected students will be given one year 10-15 hour appointments as FactCheck researchers,” Jamieson wrote in an e-mail, adding that preference would be given to Communication majors and those who receive an A in her Introduction to Political Communication class.

One such student, College junior and 34th Street Magazine Food & Drink editor Josh Goldman, became interested in FactCheck after taking a class with Jamieson.

“We read a bunch of FactCheck articles in class and talked about debunking false claims and how lots of politicians will deceive or mislead purposefully,” Goldman said. He added that he was encouraged to apply to FactCheck by Jamieson.

Goldman highlighted a piece in which he debunked rumors about President Barack Obama turning down foreign offers to help clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. “I was contacted by some Congressman’s office — also, the article is referred to in the Miami Herald, which was really cool.”

Goldman said his experience “seems like a good precursor for whether I end up working with FactCheck specifically, or with a different political news-type organization.”

Lauren Plotnick

With its five leading rushers all returning, the Quakers running game led by Lyle Marsh, Bradford Blackmon and Matt Hamscher could prove to be a major weapon for a Penn team that led the Ivy League last season defensively but finished in the middle of the pack in most offensive categories.

The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with running backs coach Steven Downs for an update on the state of the running game.

Daily Pennsylvanian: How much will the running game play a role in the overall offensive scheme?

Steven Downs: Well you know we’ll definitely run the football. We’ve got a really good line up front, a really veteran, seasoned line. I don’t mean to boost or brag about our guys up front but we’ve got two of the best ends in Luke Nawrocki and Ryan Murray. Smash mouth football is what we call it around here.

We’ve got the talent, we just need to make sure that we utilize it in the right fashion and give those kids a chance to be successful.

DP: How will a talented running game help if there is a young quarterback on the field?

If that is the case that we end up with a young quarterback, our running game can help out a lot because it takes a lot of the pressure off the quarterback not to try to win the game throwing the ball through the air.

The kids that we expect to do well are doing extremely well. Our fullbacks are doing a great job opening holes along with the offensive line and tight ends.

DP: How did the players handle offseason preparation?

SD: I think they did a very good job. We give a conditioning test and all those kids passed the conditioning test. They did a great job in the weight room. We looked at their max numbers lifting and everything. People tell them what they need to do but then its on their shoulders to go out and do it.

I think they know we’ve got a special group out there and we’ve got a chance to be pretty good so I think they took that to heart and they took it personally and they are ready to go.

DP: Jack and Lyle got a lot of playing time as freshmen last year. How will that help them this year?

SD: It’s huge. You just can’t substitute game reps. You can simulate things in practice and you can scrimmage and things but getting those game reps is huge because you’re in it.

They’ve been in the fire, they understand what is going to happen and the different scenarios. They’ve dealt with some different issues, the highs and the lows — they call it the peaks and the valleys. You know getting that game experience is phenomenal.

DP: Bradford Blackmon is still listed as both a defensive end and a running back. How will you utilize him?

SD: We’re still trying to work through that. He’s got a big role on our team. He’s a dynamic athlete, very talented, so we want to try to use him as much as possible. It’s going to be up to him. I told him in the beginning of the summer, I couldn’t harp enough conditioning, because you know as well conditioned as he is, that will determine how much he can do at full size.

Opinion Board

Whether one eats to live or lives to eat, food establishments are staples on and around campus and play a large role in University City’s economy.

Lately, though, many of these eateries have gained attention for all the wrong reasons: health code violations about issues like animal activity and improper food storage. The good news is that a number of the places previously cited have now fixed their problems. The bad news is that more local eateries — including Cream & Sugar and Smokey Joe’s — were cited for violations over the summer. We hope the establishments with citations remedy their problems and take steps to prevent future issues.

But the restaurants aren’t the only group letting consumers down. According to Penn’s Business Services, the city’s health department is slow to check back on places with citations due to short staff and a focus on new potential violations.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health needs to put a greater priority on following up on health-violation issues and ensuring that food repositories have addressed their problems and remain as pristine as possible. While we are aware of the city’s financial difficulties, the city must also focus on the health of residents. And for Philadelphia to truly be the foodie city it aspires to be, it needs to have not only great-tasting cuisine, but also optimal dining and cooking environments.

Elizabeth Horkley

It’s no secret that when creativity and business collide in the film industry, the results can be grisly.

Hoping to improve the relationship between these two elements, Wharton professors Jehoshua Eliashberg and Z. John Zhang, along with current New York University professor Sam Hui, have devised a method in which they can, by analyzing a film’s script, predict its box office potential.

Their method, described in the paper Green-lighting Movie Scripts: Revenue Forecasting and Risk Management, recruits three people to read a script, then answer a detailed survey on the content of the film. Sample questions include whether or not the film’s ending was surprising or the conflict was resolved in a reasonable manner.

The script is also analyzed according to its “bag of words” variables, meaning the frequency at which certain words — such as “love, die, sex [and] blood” — appear in a script.

The semantic components of a script are quantified by a computer, which counts variables such as how many words it takes a screenwriter to describe a scene and how many internal or external scenes are present in the script.

The scripts are also compared to an existing database of 200 films that have already been released — along with their box office results.

Kathleen Van Cleve, an experienced screenwriter and Cinema Studies professor at Penn is wary of the professors’ method.

“The idea of basing creative decisions on any kind of a mathematic formula (no matter how extensive) makes me shudder,” she wrote in an e-mail.

She cites The Godfather, a film she teaches in her class, as a script that would never have been green-lit if this method had been applied to the screenplay.

Timothy Corrigan, professor of English and Cinema Studies, echoes this sentiment, citing Bonnie and Clyde as a film that would not have survived such scrutiny.

“Personally, I’m interested in those movies that do challenge the system, or create unpredictable ways of seeing,” Corrigan said, adding that the unpredictability of the industry is one of his favorite aspects.

Eliashberg stresses that the method should not be looked at as a formula to predict box office success.

“Our focus is an estimated potential that may or may not be materialized depending on what actions the producers take when the film is green-lit,” he said, adding that variables such as the cast and the time of year the film is released also play into the film’s box office gross.

Zhang believes the method can help both the film industry and struggling screenwriters by reducing risk for potential investors and helping producers to find “diamonds in the rough,” or scripts previously thought to have no potential.

Both professors insist that their method is not intended to limit the creative freedom of the writer.

“You may think that we are just boring business professors trying to kill the fun,” Eliashberg said. “But if you don’t get the money right, you’re not going to have any fun.”

Mark Attiah

On a colorful bulletin board outside of the School of Medicine Admissions Office, Suite 100 in Stemmler Hall, there is a list of numbers of which I am partly responsible for. These are not the results of a clinical trial or painstaking biochemical test, but rather the demographics of Penn Medicine’s newly enrolled class.

Of particular note is the 25 percent next to the underrepresented-in-medicine bullet point. In medical school admissions, this number is not just an anomaly, but the stuff of legends. According to the Journal of the National Medical Association, the percentage of medical students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds fluctuates from 8 percent to 12.5 percent nationwide. If you peruse through the Medical School Admissions Requirements handbook, those numbers seem to thin out the higher up on the medical school chain you go. Among Penn’s peer institutions, the percentage of underrepresented minorities (URMs) are dismal, in many cases never entering the double digits. It’s no wonder then that I’ve heard others buzzing about Penn’s new class, touted to be the most diverse in Penn’s recent history, if not of all time.

In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a group from George Washington University ranked schools on a very novel set of standards. The criteria: turning out primary care physicians, distributing physicians to underserved areas of the country and how many URMs graduate from the school. The schools that traditionally rank very highly (Penn included) on U.S. News and World Report’s rankings perform abysmally on these so-called Social Mission rankings.

Now, Penn will never match historically black colleges and universities for the number of URMs graduating, and Penn Med students self-select into high-powered, super specialized fields rather than more general fields like primary care or family practice. But taking steps toward the idea of having a social-mission-ready class isn’t all smoke and mirrors for Penn. Perhaps this year’s entering class is that first baby step.

Outside of being an impressive number, is there really any merit to having such a high percentage, you ask? Many studies have been done showing that URM doctors have patients who have better outcomes. This is yesterday’s news. The studies that haven’t been done are examinations of how a diverse medical school environment influences opinions and interactions of those who aren’t URMs. Especially at Penn, where team learning is so heavily emphasized from the gate, there is something to be said about learning in a group that has a wealth of different perspectives. You play how you practice. It would be an interesting study to see how the health outcomes for our class’ minority patients compare to the national averages.

As a proud statistic, I would argue that there was no voodoo involved in the making of our class. To my knowledge, no assassinations were carried out, and no kneecaps were broken. It’s just that Penn gets a lot of the basics right.

Gaye Sheffler, Penn Medicine director of admissions, said student and faculty involvement in the admissions process helped the administration get a better sense of what URM students need to be successful in medical school. “When students talk, we listen,” she said.

The administration prides itself on having a hands-on, personal relationship with students, Sheffler added. This is why I affectionately call the folks in the admissions office “Sweet Suite 100.”

They also give out candy.

I’ve heard that the coolness of medical school classes follows a biannual cycle. This is an “on” year. Though it would be nice to be known as the “most diverse medical school class in the nation’s history,” perhaps admissions committees at other institutions will take notice so that this isn’t a flash in the pan phenomenon. Hopefully Suite 100 saved the recipe, because so far, this melting pot is delicious.

Mark Attiah is a first-year medical student from Dallas. His e-mail address is attiah@theDP.com. Truth Be Told appears on alternate Thursdays.

Alec Webley

I despise Ben Franklin. Not, as D. H. Lawrence did, because “Benjamin tries to shove me into a barbed wire paddock and make me grow potatoes,” but because at Penn, the distant descendent of the school that he played a role in founding, he’s everywhere. And he doesn’t deserve to be.

Let me begin with the obvious. When you start to pay attention to the omnipresence of Ben Franklin at this institution, walking through campus begins to take on the tenor of a dream — or nightmare. I see him as I walk from the Palestra, locked in a purposeful stride just in front of the field named for him. Not one block west, I see him again, this time perched in a chair. Staggering on to Locust Walk and reaching the Compass (phew, no sightings for a full 50 feet!), I turn to discover with horror that not only has he caught up to me, reclining on a bench, but that the very stones themselves are inscribed with a collection of his trite sayings.

Buildings offer no shelter from Franklin. The University’s consolidated web holdings contain almost 60,000 instances of the Great Name, adorning everything from the Library’s cataloguing system to the Benjamin Franklin Scholars program to not one but three special alumni societies. He even appears on the University’s bicentennial collection of Wedgwood china. Will this madness never end?

All this exposure would be nothing more than a mild irritation if Ben Franklin were, as advertised by our public relations departments, the sole, sublime and supreme Founder of Penn. While this may fit more easily on an Admissions brochure, the truth is more complex.

According to the University Archives, it is certainly true that Franklin founded the College, Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia in 1749, but his vision of an education unencumbered by classical languages was swiftly thwarted by Provost William Smith, the school’s first chief executive. Indeed, Franklin was dethroned from his position as President of Penn’s Board of Trustees six years later. The anti-Franklin curriculum stayed at Penn until 1923, more than 100 years after Ben left.

Franklin was certainly a founder of the University. But he was only one actor in a large cast — and Smith, to cite just one name, deserves as much credit as Franklin for how the school turned out. But where are the credits to Smith? Just a little statue and one section of the Quadrangle. Franklin, of course, has the nicer rooms across the Quad lawn.

So why all the focus on Franklin? Let me suggest the most important reason: Because Penn is not confident enough in its own achievements to leave his shadow. Penn’s timidity is all the more shameful because it is unwarranted. The University should be proud of much more than its affiliation with the inventor of bifocals.

Penn affiliates have won 23 Nobel Prizes (including eight in medicine), created Magic cards (which alone made my early adolescence worthwhile), built ENIAC — the first computer — and founded the Free Library of Philadelphia. These are Penn’s achievements, not the achievements of the people who led to our existence, and they ought to be far more central to our appeal than our linkage to a Framer of the Constitution. We must throw off our reliance on Dear Old Ben and replace it with acknowledgements of the extraordinary people we educate and the exceptional research we foster.

So Trustees, next time you come to repave a section of Locust Walk, install flagstones with quotes from our alums, not from Poor Richard’s Almanac. Replace Ben on the Bench with a bronze of ENIAC (advantage: more difficult to urinate upon). Rename the Ben Franklin Scholars program after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan (a 1928 Wharton alumnus). Let’s celebrate what Penn is today, rather than what one person contributed to it in the 1700s.

Alec Webley is a College senior from Melbourne, Australia. He is the former chairman of the Undergraduate Assembly. His e-mail address is webley@theDP.com. Smart Alec appears on Thursdays.