While dozens of lawmakers continue to be implicated in a Washington, D.C., lobbying scandal, Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum has announced plans to donate to charity $11,000 in campaign contributions that were connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

A slew of hospital thefts nationwide -- including close to $75,000 of equipment from Mount Nittany Medical Center in 2005 -- has opened investigators' eyes to a black market specializing in the swap of used medical instruments.

Many students stress over five classes a semester, but imagine what life would be like with nine.

State College is a town where the local community and economy revolve around the football season, and local businesspeople say Penn State's winning record this fall has had a major effect on downtown businesses.

Students who want to sign a lease for off-campus housing will have a limited chance of attaining an apartment for the 2006-07 academic year by the end of January.

Since the first day of March 2001, a dubious fact hung over every Penn State men's basketball conference home game: No matter what day or opponent, if the game followed a Big Ten road match, it followed a loss.

Apollo 13 fans can line up Monday for tickets to see the man behind the famous plea, "Houston, we have a problem."

Declining enrollment of international students has plagued U.S. universities, and Penn State has become part of this national trend, according to a 2005 "Open Doors" report.

Feature Photo

The No. 12 Penn State Lady Icers (7-6, 3-3 ECWHL) will return to action this weekend in two crucial Southeast Regional road games against No. 10 University of Maryland and American University.

The Penn State women's gymnastics team will kick off its season at home tomorrow night as it competes with Arizona and No.5 Alabama. The event will begin at 7 in Rec Hall.

Several members of the Penn State fencing team are back in action since the start of the new semester. Six fencers will be participating in the Olympic Trials to get a spot on their respective country's team for both the Olympics and the North American Cup. The event occurs Jan. 13 in Houston, Texas and is for both the junior and regular Olympic teams.

A typical Penn State men's gymnastics practice usually consists of four or five things going on at once.

According to head coach Ed DeChellis, the success of the Penn State men's basketball team lies on one often overlooked building block: confidence.

Consistency, a strong work ethic and leadership are all words that could easily be linked to the seniors on this year's Penn State men's swimming team.

Spring fever usually doesn't strike until April. For the Penn State women's indoor track team, though, the exceptionally warm weather lately has brought on an early case.

If the game of basketball was won and lost solely on shots that didn't go in the rim, the Penn State women's basketball team would have been OK.

Fresh off a much-needed Big Ten road victory -- the program's first in nearly five years -- the Penn State men's basketball team (9-4, 1-1 Big Ten) is looking to take care of business at home tomorrow against Iowa.

Every championship-caliber team has a variety of tests that it must face.

A game plan? Who needs it? Customized preparation? No, thanks. A chance to compete not just for yourself, but your teammates? Now that is something to get stoked about, and the guys on the Penn State men's indoor track team plan to just flat out work hard for each other this weekend.

A lot of descriptions can be thrown around to describe the No. 4 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers' upcoming showdown with No. 1 Illinois.

Third Parties in Pennsylvania

My Opinion: Erin James

My Opinion: Sarah Goldfarb

• Israeli study programs beneficial for students
• Spanier trip helps PSU remain on cutting edge
• Newcomers' to gyms need etiquette lessons
• Delta Sigma's punishment appropriate for infraction
• NOW group discredits itself by demanding resignation
• Group needs to remember 'innocent until proven guilty'
• NOW response shows group took words out of context

There was a time when everybody was tripping over themselves to crown The Strokes "the future of rock 'n' roll."

There's a scene in Memoirs of a Geisha in which the main character Sayuri -- one of the most beautiful and successful geishas in Japan -- keeps the rich businessman Nobu company at a dinner party. As Sayuri makes every pretense of devotion to Nobu, she steals intense glances at her true love, the Chairman. A tense and emotional dance, the scene is heartbreaking, as Sayuri is tied to one man and in love with another.

My Christmas day was spent catching a movie with almost every Jew of area code 412 (a.k.a. Pittsburgh). Mel Brooks' screen version of his award-winning Broadway musical The Producers is two hours of pure entertainment. I never get tired of the Jewish jokes that are an integral part of a Mel Brooks' comedy. Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane were the original stars of the Broadway version of The Producers, and they dazzle the screen in the film version as the characters Leo Bloom and Max Bialystock. I've loved Broderick ever since his title role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off in the mid-1980s, and I also found him adorable as timid accountant Leo Bloom in this film.

I don't really get the reasoning behind The Family Stone's title. The use of the word "Stone" puzzles me because the dynamic of the family illustrated in the film is anything but "stony." After watching advertisements for the film, I thought the movie would be a typical romantic comedy about bringing your significant other home for the first time to meet your family and all the joys that come with that first awkward meeting. That was my first mistake. Stone is an intense movie, definitely not your average happy-go-lucky romantic comedy.

The hit FX show Nip/Tuck took a lot of heat from critics and fans alike last December, when it finally revealed the identity of "The Carver," a psycho-slasher slicing up Miami. What was everyone's big gripe? The ending was a letdown. The storyline was a thrill ride, but the finale did not live up to the hype.

Morningwood knows the value of a good gimmick. I'm don't mean its dumb name, which pretty much ensures that the band's first full-length album will be the last one anyone pays attention to. No, the gimmick I'm referring to is Morningwood's realization that it's far easier to earn some cred as a lousy pop-punk band if they've got a pretty lady standing in front at all times.

Bar Bleu, 114 S. Garner St., will feature Plush. Specials include half-priced happy hour from 9 to 11 p.m. and $5.00 Ciroc drinks until midnight (237-0374).