Ah, summer. Professors go on vacation, administrators take long weekends and most undergraduates are either out of the area or absorbed in jobs.

But there's always news, which the strangers in the Yard, a.k.a. the summer school students, and other Harvard students still here can enjoy. Here are some of the items that kept them interested as they sweated through the season in Cambridge.

Rent Control: To the People

After months of legal wrangling and years of unsuccessful lobbying of the state legislature and various city councils, rent control opponents won the right to send the issue to a statewide referendum.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on July 14 that a rent control referendum does not violate the state constitution's protection of "home rule," or the right of localities to make decisions for themselves.

The city of Cambridge, as one of only three Massachusetts municipalities where rent control is legal, argued that it would be unfair for the entire citizenry of Massachusetts to make a decision that would impact just three cities.

But the court ruled that a rent control ban is not simply a local issue. In its nine page decision, the court noted that it is "within the power of a municipality to enact a rent control program only when the [State] Legislature has explicitly delegated that power to the municipality."

If Massachusetts voters outlaw rent control in November, the ban would affect 16,000 Cambridge households--half its rental stock--and a quarter of the city's population, according to the executive director of the city's rent control board.

Out of Town News Sold To Out-Of-Towners

Out of Town News, a landmark Harvard Square newsstand, now has an out-of-town owner.

Sheldon Cohen, a newspaper-selling fixture in the Square for about half a century, announced the sale of the newsstand to a New Jersey-based firm, Hudson County News, earlier in early July.

Cohen, known as the "Unofficial Mayor of Harvard Square," has been battling financial problems for the past several months.

He said in court papers filed in March that his debt was too great to handle with Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and was forcing him to sell the newsstand.

Controversial Frosh

Harvard generally has one or two big-name first-years. But this summer, two previous unknowns managed to get national media attention as well.