Free Republic

One of Pennsylvania's most prominent citizens has been part of the Paterno family's efforts to clear the late Joe Paterno of responsibility for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal at Penn State. The Paterno family is set to release its rebuttal to the Freeh Report on Sunday morning, starting with an appearance by the authors of their counter-attack on the ESPN news magazine show, "Outside the Lines." Former Gov. Dick Thornburgh will be prominent on that panel, giving it heft as a former U.S. Attorney General under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Thornburgh's involvement in the Paterno's...

Joe Paterno's widow is to give her first interview since the Jerry Sandusky scandal and her husband's subsequent death, appearing on Katie Couric's daytime talk show in an episode scheduled to air Monday. Sue Paterno, who was married to the legendary Penn State football coach for 50 years, is scheduled to talk with Couric in studio for the nationally syndicated show "Katie." The two have already gotten together at Paterno's home in State College, Pa. Joe Paterno was head coach of the Nittany Lions for almost as long as he was married, from 1966 into 2011. He led the team...

Franco Harris doesn't believe the NCAA sanctions against Penn State will stand, nor is he convinced that the trials of former Penn State officials will occur. Further, the former Penn State running back said, he sees opinions shifting about his alma mater's role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. "The narrative is starting to change," Harris said Friday. "The [grand jury] presentment and the Freeh Report are falling apart. The NCAA [sanctions], that will fall apart. There will be no trials for [Tim] Curley and [Gary] Schultz. There's no case. We're starting to find the truth." More than 200 turned...

Mark Emmert, president of the NCAA has put out a statement regarding the investigation into the Miami Hurricanes that the NCAA has " found a very severe case of improper conduct" committed by NCAA investigators during their investigation of the Miami Hurricane football program. The "severe case of improper conduct", according to NCAA president Mark Emmert, was that the NCAA "improperly obtained information through a bankruptcy proceeding that did not involve the NCAA". This admission and clear hypocrisy by Mark Emmert, all but assures that the law suit filed by the state of Pennsylvania against the NCAA seeking to dismiss...

During a teleconference on Wednesday to discuss an embarrassing breach of conduct in the NCAA enforcement department's investigation of Miami, a reporter prefaced his question to Mark Emmert with a courtesy: "Good afternoon, how are you?" "I've had better days," the NCAA president replied. For your sake, Mark, here's hoping you've had a better 26 months.

I do know however that I am even more sure than ever that the media, as proven by Te’o, Armstrong, and Steubenville, is simply not to be trusted on any story where they become enamored with the narrative and is particularly vulnerable to being completely fooled on a "perfect storm" story like the Sandusky scandal. In other words, I was always confident that we were correct, but the events of the past couple of weeks have made me morally certain of it. Unlike with Sally Jenkins and Buzz Bissinger, that doesn’t happen unless I am right.

Republican Bruce Castor who has expressed interest in taking on Gov. Tom Corbett in the 2014 GOP gubernatorial primary said Wednesday's announcement a lawsuit against the NCAA over Penn State's sanction "smacks of political gamesmanship and ‘too little too late.'" The lawsuit filed in U.S. Middle District Court seeks to have the court lift the sanctions that were imposed on Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Corbett scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit against the NCAA over stiff sanctions imposed against Penn State in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. ................. A person associated with the university and knowledgeable about the matter told The Associated Press that it is an antitrust action. .................... In announcing the news conference, Corbett, a Republican, did not indicate whether his office coordinated its legal strategy with state Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, who is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 15. Kane, a...

A Penn State sorority has become the focus of an investigation after a racist Mexican-themed party picture was posted to the Web, according to the independent Penn State blog, Onward State. The picture, said to be taken around Halloween, shows the women dressed in sombreros and mustaches. Some of the women held signs that read "Will mow lawn for weed + beer" and "I don't cut grass I smoke it." The photo was posted on Tumblr and Facebook, where Onward State was able to identify the women tagged in the photo as members of the Chi Omega sorority on campus....

By Adam Lidgett Collegian Staff Writer The three former Penn State administrators charged with perjury in relation to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case have all filed motions referencing the way a former university attorney testified against them to the grand jury — and some legal experts are saying the case is tainted because of it. Both former Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Interim Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz have filed to have their Dec. 13 preliminary hearing postponed. Both men say they believed former university counsel Cynthia Baldwin was representing them...

Much has been written, and will be written, about the tremendous job Coach Bill O'Brien did in guiding Penn State's football team, the university and all of Nittany Nation this season and it will all be well deserved. Similarly, Michael Mauti, Michael Zordich, Matt McGloin and others will be lauded as the embodiment of leadership and excellence and, like the accolades given to O'Brien, it will be well deserved. However, there is another person to whom we owe a bit of gratitude for the great season that was 2012 and that is the late Joe Paterno. When recruiting young...

Video link to an interview w/ Costas and Franco Harris. They also did another interview at the same link on the Immaculate Reception. Franco tells it like it is. Costas has softened on Joe because he actually read the freeh report. Good interview and good representation from Franco (who is not known for his public speaking).

Almost exactly one year after indicting Jerry Sandusky, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, the state’s attorney general, Linda Kelly, both extended and tightened her noose Thursday with bold new criminal charges backed by sickening new information. Former Penn State president Graham Spanier was indicted by a grand jury on eight counts of perjury, obstruction and endangering welfare of children after escaping charges a year ago. Additional charges of felony obstruction, conspiracy and endangerment were also filed against both Curley and Schultz, who are still awaiting trial on perjury and failure to report a crime....

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on Wednesday was sent to serve his child molestation prison sentence at an institution in far southwestern Pennsylvania that includes most of the state's death row inmates. The Corrections Department said Sandusky was transferred to Greene State Prison after being evaluated at a facility outside Harrisburg. Prison officials said he will be housed in protective custody. "We make individual decisions based on facts," Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in a written statement. "Given the high profile nature of this individual, coupled with the nature of his crimes, this makes him very vulnerable...

BELLEFONTE, Pa. – Jerry Sandusky wore bright red jail garb on Tuesday, looking like a quarterback in practice, untouchable and protected. Except Sandusky was about to get hit, a 30- to 60-year sentence coming from Judge John Cleland here at the Centre County Courthouse stemming from 45 guilty counts of sexual molestation. It's enough, given Pennsylvania's parole guidelines, to keep the 68-year-old Sandusky confined to prison for life. [snip] Sandusky dismissed everything presented, every shred of evidence, every emotional witness-stand session. Three of his former victims mustered the courage to come and address him directly, and he responded with a...

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, after a judge handed down a prison sentence Tuesday for his convictions on child sexual abuse charges. Judge John Cleland said Sandusky will face no less than 30 years and no more than 60 years, with credit for time served. He was convicted in June of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. The 68-year-old had faced a maximum of 400 years in prison.

A judge on Wednesday upheld perjury charges against two Penn State administrators accused of lying to a grand jury that investigated allegations ex-assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused children. Dauphin County Judge Todd Hoover ruled against the motions by former vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley that would have thrown out the count of perjury against each man. The judge did not rule on the other count they each face, failure to properly report suspected child abuse. In that case, the defendants have argued the statute of limitations has expired. The judge said that dismissal request...

For the Uninitiated: The Biggest Media Myths of the Jerry Sandusky Scandal Since details don’t seem to really matter anymore, here is the "Cliffs Notes" version of how the media created a false narrative (which they refuse to correct) in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. You might think of this as "Why Nearly Everything You Think You Know About the Penn State Story is False." Please feel free to share it as a resource with those whose minds you are trying to open about what really happened here. In the basic order in which they occurred, these are the biggest media-created...

A Philadelphia man who claims to have been paid to have sex with former Poly Prep football coach Phil Foglietta in 1979 as part of an alleged pedophile ring that included Jerry Sandusky sent an email to several Poly Prep officials on Monday - including current headmaster David Harman - detailing the explosive allegation. Greg Bucceroni, 48, also sent the email to Kevin Mulhearn, the Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney who represents 12 men who sued the school, alleging Poly Prep officials knew that Foglietta was a sexual predator but covered it up for decades in order to protect the elite institution's...

A copy of a document sent to me by a source and dated February 28,2000 ( a link is provided at the bottom) and further corroborated by other documentation has revealed that MBNA bank beginning in 2000 and throughout the entire tenure of Louis Freeh as the bank's vice chairman and general counsel, was a major corporate sponsor of Jerry Sandusky and Second Mile and continued to be throughout Freeh's tenure at the bank from 2001 to 2006 when MBNA bank was bought by Bank of America for $35 billion. Freeh at the time cashed in $20 million in stock...