Free Republic

You all know him by now. John Ziegler — the iconoclastic, former talk radio hosting, ex-Christine Brennan dating filmmaker — is back for another round of 10 questions. Love him or hate him, there’s no question Ziegler has been one of the loudest outside voices on the Sandusky situation from the beginning and has a mini-movie and an online book to show for it. Enjoy. Onward State: There was a rather public disagreement between you and the PS4RS group recently where you decided to stop posting in its 10,000 member closed Facebook group. Can you explain what happened and discuss...

Investigators, including the FBI, are looking into a claim that missing former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar was murdered by a former Hells Angel, according to Bellefonte police. "It's ongoing," Bellefonte police Detective Matthew Rickard said Thursday of the investigation into the claim. Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar as seen on March 31, 2005. Rickard said more interviews needed to be conducted, and he hadn't been briefed by the FBI as to the current status of the probe. Rickard said he couldn't comment on the details of the investigation but said the FBI, as well as the state...

By Eric Shultz | Collegian Staff Writer A key figure surrounding the departure of Emmanuil Kaidanov as Penn State fencing’s head coach came forward Wednesday afternoon with her side of the story — a misunderstanding involving medical tape mistaken for drugs.Junior Kane Gladnick speaks at the press conference in support of former Penn State Fencing Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov at the Ramada Inn on Wednesday, Sept 18, 2013. Surrounded by nine other Penn State fencers during a press conference at State College’s Ramada Inn, junior fencer Kane Gladnick described an incident she said ultimately led to Kaidanov’s firing after he followed...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — ...John Nichols sat in his office in the old wing of the Willard Building, across the lawn from Old Main, fuming about what people have been saying, for two years now, about the university he loves. John Nichols, a professor emeritus, contends that a child sexual abuse scandal has unfairly defined Penn State. The campus was bustling. The students had returned. This bucolic town’s main drag, College Avenue, had come alive. Stores sold shirts that read, “Billieve” and “O’Brien’s Lions.” Football season was close, and almost everyone seemed excited for Coach Bill O’Brien’s second year. Nichols...

In a ruling issued Wednesday morning, Commonwealth Court has shot down a bid by the NCAA to kill a lawsuit that aims to ensure that all proceeds of its $60 million fine against Penn State remain in Pennsylvania. The NCAA had asked the court to dismiss the suit state Sen. Jake Corman and state Treasurer Rob McCord lodged. It argued that the two had no standing to intervene in what the NCAA contended was a contractual relationship between Penn State and the NCAA. The fine, imposed over Penn State's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child-sex abuse scandal, was levied in...

Another key figure in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case weighed in Tuesday with his take on whether former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno was an active participant in efforts to cover up Sandusky's sex crimes. In an interview recorded for CBS 60 Minutes Sports, former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina said flatly: "I did not find that evidence." That was after Fina stated that he did come to believe, as the state's probe of Sandusky progressed, that former Penn State president Graham Spanier and several of his top aides had tried to interfere with the...

The strangest story in Penn State’s athletic department in recent memory is becoming a little clearer — but still unsettling — as some news has finally come out as to why legendary fencing coach Emmanuil Kaidanov was unexpectedly fired last week. Several Penn State coaches "resigned" or left Penn State this offseason, but Kaidanov is no doubt the most surprising. Kaidanov was one of the greatest fencing coaches of all time, leading Penn State to a 795-77 record in 31 years. Kaidanov won 12 NCAA Championships at the helm of the Nittany Lions, and coached 28 NCAA Individual Champions and...

To write his forthcoming book "Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football," author John U. Bacon embedded himself with four Big Ten programs—Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Northwestern—in search of the sport's old ideals as it is roiled by money, greed and scandal. In this excerpt, he offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Penn State's team reacted to the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal last year. ...An NCAA spokesperson said the organization "worked to minimize the impact of its sanctions on current and incoming football student-athletes." But the NCAA sanctions were encouraging "student-athletes" to behave like...

Even if you haven’t been paying attention to the court hearings, the Freeh Report, or public scapegoating, you know that over the 22 months of the Sandusky scandal, lines have been drawn in anger. There are many sides to the story and there is extensive finger-pointing, mostly based on how key statements can be interpreted in different ways. The same testimony can be twisted to support or refute any viewpoint. While many people cast their judgments based on quick soundbites and predetermined conclusions, there are a few voices who see through the misinterpretations, and, in some cases, the deliberate misleading...

Don’t limit yourselves to the stereotypes that the media has created for you. Don’t listen to what the outside world tells you football players are supposed to do. Aspire to something greater. -- John Urschel, July 25, Big Ten kickoff luncheon The term student-athlete has balance in lettering -- seven letters to each word -- but not much else, especially when it comes to big-time college football. Most of the men who fall under the NCAA-driven label are, in reality, more athletes than students, even if they try to be both. They're more about the moment or the near future...

CHAPTER TEN: CONCLUSIONS One year after the release of the Freeh Report, this is what seems to be reality of the aftermath of the Sandusky scandal and its impact on the State College community: Joe Paterno’s reputation and legacy have been completely destroyed, the Penn State football program has been crippled, and the university’s reputation has been badly besmirched. Many lives have been greatly damaged, money has been lost, friendships have been severed, and wonderful memories have been painfully erased. The public battle to tell the real truth of what happened here has been badly lost and, thanks to the...

Ray Blehar earned a mid-life master's degree from Penn State. That gave him a reason to pay closer attention to the fallout of the Jerry Sandusky saga. He also has 28 years of experience as a government analyst. He's written business reviews, evaluated reports and became used to "telling (people) stuff they don't want to hear" as an inspector general. All of that helped drive him on a quest the past two years. Blehar has devoted much of his free time to researching and analyzing documents and reports related to Sandusky and Penn State, including the grand jury presentment, the...

CHICAGO — Penn State senior linebacker Glenn Carson expected nothing short of a informative and motivational speech. His teammate, John Urschel, was giving the keynote address on behalf of the players at the Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon later that day. Urschel, a 2009 Canisius High graduate, doesn’t shy away from breaking the mold of the typical offensive lineman. In his fifth season, the first-team All-Big Ten guard and first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American graduated in three years with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, received his master’s in math in his fourth year and currently is working on his second master’s in...

Before the annual July 4 fireworks Thursday in Happy Valley, an eerily familiar looking cloud emerged. Like, a cloud that resembled the school’s late football coach Joe Paterno. Seriously. Check out the picture sent to Paterno’s son, Jay, in this post.

In a dramatic show of support for their old coach, more than 300 former Penn State football players are now publicly backing the Paterno family's lawsuit against the NCAA. Former Nittany Lion Brian Masella released a letter on Monday demanding due process and the truth. "We're glad we're able to show these guys – the Penn State alumni, the student and the trustees willing to step forward that we're behind them 100 percent," Masella tells Statecollege.com. "We want to show them they're not standing there alone, all by themselves, on a cliff." On May 29, the Paterno family, along with...

Bob Costas said last month he had "some responsibility to follow the story" of the Freeh report and the Paterno family's rebuttal. He will push that story forward on "Costas Tonight" at 11 p.m. on NBC Sports Network, according to network spokesman Adam Freifeld. The start of the show could be delayed if Game 7 of the NHL's Western Conference semifinals were to run late. Among the guests on the show are Paterno family attorney Wick Sollers, former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh and Paterno family spokesman Dan McGinn. The three men will announce on the show a new lawsuit against...

From page 6: We are left with unprecedented penalties based on disputed facts. The Penn State sanctions are based upon a Consent Decree that is disputed by the accused individuals. The three key administrators are facing criminal charges and have not had an opportunity to fully respond to the Freeh Report that serves as the basis for the penalty. The full account of what occurred at Penn State University has not been told and the sanctions seem premature. As such, NCAA sanctions currently levied against Penn State should be suspended until the perjury and child endangerment cases have been completed....

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By Mike Dawson — mdawson@centredaily.com UNIVERSITY PARK — The candidates endorsed by the grass-roots group Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship won the three seats on the university’s board of trustees, unseating the two incumbents who include local surgeon Paul Suhey. Barbara Doran, William “Bill” Oldsey and Edward “Ted” Brown won in what was a runaway election, and Suhey, the first candidate out, finished a distant fourth. The other incumbent to lose was Stephanie Deviney, a Chester County lawyer. Doran received 15,085 votes; Oldsey got 13,940; and Brown got 11,403. Here’s the full list with the results. The election results, released...

MANDEVILLE — This is the weekend Michael Mauti has been looking forward to since he first put on a football uniform — maybe even before. And if it’s happening a year, maybe two, later than the former Penn State linebacker figured, well, life seldom goes as planned, especially considering the turmoil surrounding the Nittany Lions in the past two seasons. “You can’t always control what happens to you,” said Mauti, who’ll be watching this week’s NFL draft with his family in Mandeville — including his father, ex-Saints receiver Rich Mauti. “And it’s been a roller coaster for me. I’m hoping...