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11 Nov 2011 10:51

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U.S.: Mother of alleged Jerry Sandusky victim speaks out about incident

  • In an exclusive television interview with ABC News, the mother of “Victim 1,” one of eight victims named in the indictment that led to Jerry Sandusky‘s arrest, spoke about how she learned about what was happening. The son started by asking his mother how to look up information on sex offenders. “[I] proceeded to ask him if there was something he needed to tell me, if there was something going on … it wasn’t ’til a month later when he indicated he was uncomfortable with leaving the school with him, and [Sandusky] pulling him out of classes at school,” she said. The mother, whose name was withheld, said that her son had difficulty bringing up the incidents, and even after he did, the full thrust of what Sandusky did wasn’t made clear until the recent indictment was released. “I had said, ‘You know, maybe we should have come to this conclusion earlier — you should have told me,'” the mother said she told her son. “He was like, ‘Well, I didn’t know what to do … you just can’t tell Jerry no.'” Unbelievable. (Edit: As noted in comments below, the Patriot-News had an interview with this mother, and a second one, in print a couple of days ago. ABC News does call their interview “exclusive,” but it’s likely an exclusive TELEVISION interview.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2011 23:14

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U.S.: Pennsylvania governor “disappointed” in Penn State officials

  • We need to protect children. We need to act. I’ve seen many instances where people have power and assume they are above the law.
  • Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett • Discussing the Penn State situation, which led to the forced exits of legendary football coach Joe Paterno and school president Graham Spanier. He said he was “disappointed” by the school officials. “Their actions caused me not to have confidence in their ability to lead,” said Corbett, who (as the state’s Attorney General) launched the investigation into suspected child molester Jerry Sandusky and the Penn State program back in 2009. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2011 14:20

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U.S.: Richard Nixon’s grand jury testiomny on Watergate released

  • Happy Richard Nixon day! At least that may reflect the feelings of some journalists, historians, or really anybody with a passion for perusing formerly secret documents. The release today comes thanks to requests made by Stanley Kutler, a Watergate-era historian. He says he’s excited to read the testimony, since before the grand jury Nixon had none of his advisers or handlers to help him along — “Nixon unplugged,” as Kutler puts it. Though it’s already been reported that the testimony yields no new bombshells or admissions by Nixon, we still think this is pretty cool. You can read the files (PDF) through the source link, or download them directly from the Government Printing Office website. (photo via Flickr’s Hunter-Desportes) source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Nov 2011 10:44

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U.S.: Joe Paterno to retire from Penn State at the end of the season

  • what Joe Paterno, the 86-year-old football coach at Penn State, will retire at the end of the season, after a long career with many successes and a scandal which threatened to overshadow his many victories.
  • why Eroding support after a major sex-abuse scandal involving one of his former coaches. While Paterno’s people said the decision was his alone, his support from the board was fading fast. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Nov 2011 23:17

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U.S.: Air Force officials disciplined over handling of dead soldiers’ remains

  • A missing ankle bone. Some missing tissue. A sawed-off arm. War is an ugly thing, and the death of a soldier is certainly one of the more difficult things to put into a pretty package. But three employees at the Dover, Delaware Air Force base found out that “close enough” isn’t good enough when it’s someone’s life in the package. They got reprimanded (but not fired) for the mishandling of the soldiers’ remains, leading to some shocking and gruesome details getting out to the press. As this is a sensitive issue, the Air Force is working to ensure this won’t happen again. “We and every employee of the Dover Port Mortuary understand the obligations of this work, the sanctity of this work, the necessity, the need for reverence, the need for dignity and respect for our fallen, just as if these were our sons and our daughters,” noted Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the chief of staff for the Air Force. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Nov 2011 10:33

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U.S.: Instead of buying them, Minnesota high school makes own textbooks

  • That’s the cool thing about it. The book is kind of a living document.
  • Minnesota high school statistics teacher Michael Engelhaupt • Discussing how his school, Blaine High School, decided to write their own textbooks, rather than pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for textbooks which would be out-of-date and ill-suited to the school’s state testing. Right now, students can pay $5 to buy a printed-out version, or print from the Web, but eventually they’ll be able to access the material with computers everywhere. And, as things change, they can update the textbooks yearly. The difference in cost to the Anoka-Hennepin school district, by the way, was staggering: It would’ve cost $200,000 to buy textbooks; to get Engelhaupt and his fellow teachers to write them (and to pay for offline versions) cost just $25,000. Not a bad deal. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Nov 2011 21:00

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U.S.: Some Connecticut homes still without power week after snowstorm

  • 80,000 people still can’t turn on their lights source
  • » A missed deadline: More than a week after an early-season snowstorm crippled the Northeast, some parts of Connecticut — still — don’t have power. While officials for Connecticut Light and Power planned to have 99 percent of all Connecticut residents’ power on by now, the company admitted defeat Sunday night. “We have missed our goal, and for that I apologize to everyone,” said Jeffrey Butler, the company’s president. “We have not met our expectations and those we set for all of you.” Butler blamed two strong storms in a two month period — Hurricane Irene and the snowstorm — for the trouble.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

06 Nov 2011 20:18

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U.S.: Penn State sex abuse case: Joe Paterno responds to allegations

  • I understand that people are upset and angry, but let’s be fair and let the legal process unfold.
  • Penn State coach Joe Paterno • Making a statement on the situation with Jerry Sandusky, his former defensive coordinator who is facing charges over some pretty awful sexual abuse allegations. How much did Paterno know? Here’s what he claims: “I was informed in 2002 by an assistant coach that he had witnessed an incident in the shower of our locker room facility,” Paterno noted. “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report.” But ultimately, the extent of the allegations was far beyond what Paterno even imagined: “If this is true we were all fooled,” he claimed, “along with scores of professionals trained in such things.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2011 15:06

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U.S.: Green Party candidate in Tucson mayoral race lives in Occupy tent

Mary DeCamp is about to have her house foreclosed upon, but she’s decided to walk away from it and run her Green Party campaign from a tent. She certainly has the right name for such a move. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2011 14:47

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U.S.: Former Penn State football coach arrested in sex-abuse case

  • The architect of Joe Paterno’s defense: Jerry Sandusky, center, was once one of the great icons of the Penn State football team, a defensive coordinator who helped define the school’s reputation as a defensive powerhouse before he retired in 1999. Now, his association with the team seems like a giant black mark. Sandusky was arrested Sunday, facing dozens of charges in a sexual abuse case involving eight different boys over 15 years. He wasn’t the only person on the hook: Athletic director Tim Curley and the school’s vice president for finance and business, Gary Schultz, are also expected to be arrested for an alleged cover-up. Paterno himself won’t be charged — when made aware of a case of abuse, he reportedly went to Curley and informed him about it. A tough day for Penn State fans. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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