Free Republic

Two former Penn State administrators admitted Monday to mishandling child-sex allegations against Jerry Sandusky, pleading guilty more than five years after the scandal rocked the university and led to the downfall of football coach Joe Paterno. Tim Curley, a 62-year-old former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, 67, a one-time vice president, could get up to five years in prison for misdemeanor child endangerment. No sentencing date was set. They struck a deal in which prosecutors dropped three felony charges of child endangerment and conspiracy that carried up to seven years each. Former Penn State President Graham Spanier, 68, was also...

“As a practical proposition … if I enjoy normal life expectancy, this case will consume the bulk of my remaining time on earth. In the event that I don’t, the thuggish Mann will come after my family, as has happened to my late friend Andrew Breitbart’s children.” This is how well-known political commentator Mark Steyn recently summed up his opinion about the libel suit filed against him by Penn State “climate scientist” Michael Mann, which is expected to be set for trial soon. “I did not seek this battle.… But I will not shirk the fight, and I will prevail,”...

Jerry Sandusky's sex abuse scandal is costing the Penn State almost a quarter million dollars almost half a decade after the former assistant coach was arrested for child molestation. The Associated Press reports the college has reached $237million, including a recent $12 million verdict in the whistleblower and defamation case brought by former assistant coach Mike McQueary. The university has also settled with 33 people who alleged they were sexually abused by Sandusky. Penn State paid out $93 million in damages.

Students all over Penn State University agree on this much about Hillary Clinton: "She’s slimy," said Anay Pope. And Pope, 25, is a Clinton supporter. For the moment. Clinton’s poll numbers are sagging, and the biggest reason is that she’s plunging among young voters. A Quinnipiac University poll this month found that in a four-way race, Clinton is up 5 points nationally with 18- to 34-year-old voters, down from a 24-point lead just a month before. Just days ahead of the first debate Monday and less than two months before voting ends, she faces two challenges: Many young voters are...

Penn State marked the 50th anniversary of the late Joe Paterno’s first game as head football coach Saturday, introducing former players and displaying video tributes at the Nittany Lions’ game against Temple... The tribute ignited reaction from Paterno critics as well as supporters...

College Progressives at Penn State University were not happy with the steep entry price to a “Conversation with Chelsea” event featuring former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, the least successful member of the Clinton political dynasty. The event, which took place Wednesday in State College, Pa., charged $500 just to get in the door, and $1,000 for a photo with Chelsea. For $2,700, attendees would be granted access to a special reception with the guest of honor. College Progressives at Penn State really wanted to be a part of the so-called “conversation,” but quite rightly noted that $500 was a hefty...

But why would you? If there’s one truism about college students, it’s that they’re awash in near-endless piles of cash. Oh wait. Hang on. That’s not it. It’s that they’re perpetually broke, eating fifty-cent Ramen Noodles in their dorm rooms or scraping by in ramshackle shared housing just south of fraternity row. Once you factor in books, beer, gas and tuition it’s hardly surprising that they don’t normally have any expendable funds. Clintons don’t care about any of that. If the Clinton Foundation pay-for-play scandal teaches us anything, it’s that your worth lies in your ability to give her the...

Penn State's student-run newspaper is objecting to the university's plans to honor the 50th anniversary of former head coach Joe Paterno's first game later this month. The Daily Collegian's Friday editorial says Penn State "needs a reality check." The editorial says undergraduates know Paterno only through the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, court fights or alumni who "can't accept" that their time is past.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State’s athletic department on Thursday announced plans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Joe Paterno’s first game as coach, a move that sparked backlash on social networks by people critical of Paterno’s role in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The university announced plans Thursday to mark the anniversary when the Nittany Lions football team hosts Temple on Sept. 17. Athletic department spokesman Jeff Nelson told The Associated Press that Penn State plans to announce specifics of the commemoration to ticket holders during the week of the game. He declined further comment on...

AP Photo: Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse, in Bellefonte, Pa. Photo caption: It’s been nearly five years since retired Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested on child molestation charges. The scandal has produced new state laws regarding child abuse, millions in civil settlements to his victims and significant changes to Penn State’s policies and procedures. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — It’s been nearly five years since retired Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested on child molestation charges, and earlier this month he testified as he seeks to have his 45-count criminal conviction overturned. The...

Joe Paterno was told as early as 1976 that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had sexually molested young boys according to a new report. A child apparently reported to Paterno that he was sexually abused by Sandusky in 1976. This came to light via a court order during a related insurance coverage case involving Penn State. The line in the court order says the following: “in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU’s Head Coach Joseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky.” The court order also cites references to incidents in 1987 and 1988 in which...

The late Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno knew about sexual abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky as early as 1976, according to an assertion in a Philadelphia court order made public Thursday. The claim emerged in a dispute over who should pay Penn State's share of about $60 million in settlements with 26 men who say Sandusky abused them when they were children — the university or its insurance company. Previously, the abuse was widely thought to have occurred from 1994 through 2008, when Sandusky ran a youth charity called Second Mile. But in the new...

As world leaders in Paris scramble to reach a climate agreement aimed to mitigate the consequences of untamed greenhouse gas emissions, they have been dealt a rare dose of good news. Scientists writing in the journal Nature Climate Change estimate that for the first time in the last 15 years, global carbon dioxide emissions have flatlined, and possibly even declined. "It is difficult to overstate the significance of this development," said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. "What it shows is that we are indeed now turning the corner in transition from a...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The state must restore the $4,900-a-month pension of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky that was taken away three years ago when he was sentenced to decades in prison on child molestation convictions, a court ordered Friday. A Commonwealth Court panel ruled unanimously that the State Employees' Retirement Board wrongly concluded Sandusky was a Penn State employee when he committed the crimes that were the basis for the pension forfeiture. "The board conflated the requirements that Mr. Sandusky engage in `work relating to' PSU and that he engage in that work `for' PSU," wrote...

In a display of solidarity with campus activists, the Penn State Board of Trustees voted unanimously to ban the making of snowmen on campus. "The snowman is the ultimate expression of white privilege," said a Black Lives Matter activist who refused to be identified. "It is a symbol of our hateful past and must be removed from our national consciousness. After all, every snowman is white. Can any rational person dispute this?" The vote culminated a months-long campaign of petition drives and public rallies. The goal was to get the ban in place before the first snowfall. With the vote,...

A Syrian man who was suspended from Penn State for violating the student code of conduct last week after a university investigation of sexual assault allegations against him is suing the school. The 21-year-old engineering student, identified in court filings as John Doe, says Penn State's new model for handling such complaints violated his right to due process. Doe says the university's decision to suspend him for two semesters has left him at risk of losing his student visa and being deported to his war-torn homeland. His complaint, filed in federal court in Harrisburg this week, asks for reinstatement as...

Time to move on. Too juvenile and too much name-calling. Not near the level of critical thinking that used to go on back in the day. I wish the best to all the good ones left out there.

In 2014, we reported on an exciting new discovery of two new exoplanets orbiting Kapteyn’s Star. The current number of exoplanet discoveries as of July 2015 sits at 1,932 and counting. An M-class red dwarf, Kapteyn’s Star is relatively nearby at only 13 light years distant. The planetary discovery consisted of a world five times the mass of the Earth in a 48 day orbit (Kapteyn b), and a world seven times the mass of the Earth in a 122 day orbit (Kapteyn c). The discovery was hailed as an example of an ancient—possibly over 11 billion years old—system with...

Despite the relatively new frenzy to find extraterrestrial life in the universe after astronomers discovered water to exist on a number of celestial bodies over the years, research shows that the only place aliens can be “found” are on bone-chilling late-night documentaries of UFO sightings.According to exhaustive analysis performed by a team of scientists at Penn State University (PSU), absolutely no sign of highly advanced extraterrestrial lifeforms exist in the known universe — at least 100,000 galaxies of it, that is. A lonely frontier In their latest virtual expedition through space, scientists have used all of their high-tech gadgetry...

Many of you probably saw the network news reports about the United Airlines flight yesterday that returned to Dulles International airport when a crazed passenger yelling something about Jihad was restrained by other passengers. What you might have seen only on local but not on national broadcasts was a crazed Pennsylvania State University professor who began ranting loony left slogans on a flight from Nicaragua to Miami last weekend.  The Washington Post published a story about professor Karen Halnon whose rantings sounded too embarrassingly close to an MSNBC host for NBC Nightly News or the other national broadcasts to cover. Even the...