Sorry. I must not have read that last part of your post. I've been trying to figure out a way to move the login to the left panel, but haven't got there yet. I'll keep trying. You may need to move some of the login code over to the panels.php file and have it "return" the login display. But, even then it may not work, because I am not even sure if it looks for any left panel content until login is established.
So, you may have to end up using something other than the built in "display" function.
