Free Republic

OKLAHOMA CITY - Penn State's reign over the college wrestling world continued on Saturday night when the Nittany Lions captured their unprecedented fourth-straight NCAA team title. Fueled by NCAA individual crowns from seniors Ed Ruth at 184 pounds and David Taylor at 165 pounds, the Lions celebrated on the sport's grandest stage inside Chesapeake Energy Arena as the 2014 national champions. "Our kids really did a fantastic job today," head coach Cael Sanderson said. "We had our hands full. Minnesota was really killing it, so we needed a (strong finish). All of our All-Americans won their last match. That's a...

Following the NCAA's imposition of sanctions, the Big Ten added its own punishment: Penn State is required to forfeit $13 million in revenue from conference bowl games during the four years the university is ineligible. The suit claims that by accepting the Freeh Report, which has been widely criticized by Penn State supporters, the NCAA damaged Paterno's image, the future coaching prospects of Jay Paterno and William Kenny; prevented the university trustees from carrying out their duties; wiped out the achievements of student athletes and deprived faculty of resources. In the court filings Friday, the plaintiffs ask the Big Ten...

.... Jay Paterno was on the field with his dad as an assistant coach at Penn State. Now he wants to be lieutenant governor. So when he sat down with KDKA political editor Jon Delano for his first TV interview since announcing, the basic question was--why? "Having had a career in education for two decades, education is an issue I fell very passionately about... I felt like a lot of different people talked about doing a lot of different things politically, and I looked at it and thought this is where I can do the most good for the most...

Longtime trustee and 1959 Penn State graduate Al Clemens resigned from the Board of Trustees during today’s meeting, citing wrong decisions and failed leadership over the last two years from himself and his colleagues. Clemens was a gubernatorial appointee, first appointed by Governor Tom Ridge in 1995. His term expired in 2012, but in absence of another appointment from Governor Tom Corbett, he has remained a member of the Board for the last two years. Previously outspoken about what he calls the questionable Freeh report, Clemens is also party to the Paterno-NCAA lawsuit aimed at reversing the NCAA sanctions. Here’s...

THE STAR WITNESS was anonymous, like each of Jerry Sandusky's victims. He was described in the grand jury presentment only as "a Penn State graduate assistant." Anyone reading the 23-page presentment released on Nov. 4, 2011, would be horrified by the prosecution's version of what the witness said he saw a decade ago. In the locker room shower inside the Lasch Football Building on Penn State's campus, he stumbled upon "a naked boy, Victim 2 ... with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant was shocked but noticed that...

Penn State's Thon ended Sunday afternoon with a record-breaking finish. Last year's $12.37 million was surpassed with this year's $13,343,517.33. The total was revealed Sunday at the 2014 Thon at the Bryce Jordan Center. This is the 42nd year for the student fundraiser. Thon is a 46 hour no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon. Since 1977, Thon has raised more than $101 million benefiting the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital.

After a year of fundraising, months of planning, and 46 hours of dancing, this year’s IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon shattered last year’s final total and raise a whopping $13,343,517.33 For The Kids. With the flipping of those iconic white placards by the 2014 Executive Committee, another beautiful chapter was added to the story of THON — our story of THON. This is the tenth straight year THON raised more money than the previous year. Since 1977, when THON and the Four Diamonds Fund paired up for a common cause, more than $100 million has been raised, excluding this year’s efforts....

Biggest event of the year in Happy Valley! Dancers stood at 6PM and will remain standing until 4PM on Sunday. Jordan center will remain packed all weekend. Great start PSU kids. Lets crack that $13 million mark this year.

The largest student-run philanthropy in the world kicks off at Penn State this weekend, as more than 15,000 students will culminate a yearlong fundraising effort with a 46-hour dance marathon called Thon. The event – which benefits The Four Diamonds Fund at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center -- draws in thousands of spectators and more than 300 families affected by pediatric cancer each year. This year’s event at the Bryce Jordan Center kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday evening and will end at 4 p.m. Sunday. If you’re planning on making the trip to State College this...

At a time when most draft prospects are trading up their cars, NFL hopeful Rashid Williams recently traded in his luxury sedan for a minivan. He's heard the jokes and the zingers from the other players training at TEST Parisi Football Academy in Martinsville, N.J., including that he drives a “soccer mom mobile.” But his minivan is more than a set of wheels to take him to his combine training every day. He also lives in it. Williams is homeless by choice. For most NFL draft prospects, sacrifices are to be expected as they ready for the combine and their...

The next president of Penn State will be a familiar face on campus here — Florida State President Eric Barron, a source confirmed Friday. Barron, a 20-year faculty member and a former dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, has been chosen to be Penn State’s 18th president. Penn State’s board of trustees will vote to hire Barron during a special board of trustees meeting at noon Monday at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. The board’s compensation committee also must approve his contract. Barron will succeed Rodney Erickson, who delayed retiring and opted to lead the university...

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It's not every day that the hard-charging CEO of an S&P 500 company goes back to his university and offers -- not to buy a little immortality with a new dorm or lab -- but himself as an active leader. Al Lord relishes combat: Raised in a Philly housing project, toughened by his campaigns to seize control of student lender Sallie Mae and defy challengers from Wall Street to the White House for 30+ years, Lord stepped down last year and has gone to fight for alma mater, Penn State, which faces unusual reputational and governance challenges... Lord is collecting...

<p>Police officers were investigating a reported marijuana-growing operation when they discovered a homemade bomb and bomb-making materials in a suitcase, the news release said.</p> <p>Vladislav Miftakhov, a Russian citizen, was arrested and charged with possessing a weapon of mass destruction, risking a catastrophe and drug-related offenses. He was arraigned Friday and bail was set at $500,000, Blair County corrections officer James McMahon said Sunday.</p>

Remembering Joe Paterno’s 1983 Board of Trustees Speech “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” When I visit Joe Paterno’s gravesite, as I have done on occasion over the last two years when I’m in need of some ethereal inspiration or peace, I’m always struck by the above line from Robert Browning on his headstone. The message speaks to the profound impact of Paterno as an academic visionary, and there’s a specific moment that comes to mind when I think of it. It was just days after the school’s first football National Championship,...

AccuWeather Global Headquarters, January 13, 2014 - AccuWeather is pleased to announce it will launch a 24X7 weather channel, to be known as the AccuWeather Channel, in the third quarter of 2014. AccuWeather had not planned to make the announcement at this time, but decided to accelerate the announcement in light of the controversy that has developed between DIRECTV and The Weather Channel and in order to make the public aware of an additional offering that will be available to them later this year. AccuWeather is already the leading source of weather forecasts, information and data and is considered to...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- After a nine-day search, Penn State is set to introduce James Franklin as its new head football coach at a Saturday afternoon news conference. "I can't tell you how excited I am to come home," Franklin said in a statement Saturday. "I grew up watching Penn State football and now to be at the helm of such a storied program is a tremendous honor. It's important to me to be a part of a university that strives for excellence in everything they do. "When football student-athletes come to Penn State, they have a unique opportunity to...

One of the most egregious and well documented cases of news media dishonesty, libel, cowardice and greed along with official misconduct by the NCAA and others, will finally go on trial in a court of law where facts and rules of evidence, not media dishonesty,a mob mentality, distortions or ratings, web hits and newsstand sales at the expense of a man's reputation, will be the standard on which facts will be presented and judged. On Tuesday a judge ruled that the Paterno family's law suit against the NCAA can continue. The issue had always been, would the judge find that...

At some point, you almost have to wonder if maybe this isn't about James Franklin, that it's really about Penn State, that these schmucks would have had a problem with anybody we could've tabbed to coach our team, that they would've found some dirt on Al Golden or Mike Munchak or even Larry Johnson, that it's really a cause for their affronted wrath when we win a damn game or two, or threaten to become the national powerhouse we once were. This university can do no right, because then what would they have to write about? The only good...

The family of Joe Paterno had a partial victory today as Judge John Leete, ruling over its lawsuit against the NCAA, permitted parts of it to move forward. The family, along with various former coaches, trustees, and players, brought forth a lawsuit challenging various aspects of the NCAA’s sanctions against Penn State and their effects on the community. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs couldn’t pursue breach-of-contract claims over the NCAA because of Penn State’s binding agreement with the NCAA. Penn State has shown it wants nothing to do with this lawsuit and is not a party, and the judge...