Jerry Sandusky

The Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State generated a public outcry for stronger laws against child abuse and neglect. Several bills have been introduced that purportedly provide a "complete overhaul" of Pennsylvania's child-protection laws. For example, Senate Bill 20 makes it clear that any adult who "causes serious bodily injury," either by "kicking, biting, stabbing, cutting, or throwing a child," or "forcefully shakes or slaps a child under one year of age," or "causes serious physical neglect," or "causes a child to be near a methamphetamine lab," or "operates a vehicle in which a child is a passenger while driving under the influence of alcohol," has committed child abuse.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - After a sharp right turn off East College Avenue, drivers are treated to a sign that reads "road closed ahead. " Drive a little farther up the narrow, winding road and motorists are alerted to "Watch Children" before again being reminded the road is closed except for "local traffic. " It's a week since the news surfaced of the unfathomable sexual abuse charges against former longtime Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Aside from a couple of rumored sightings, Sandusky has managed for the most part to lay low. But that hasn't stopped the occasional person from driving by to see where Sandusky lives, right in front of Lemont Elementary School and a playground.

So what manner of a man is this Jerry Sandusky? On Nov. 13, 1999, he received a standing ovation from a crowd of 96,480. It was the occasion of his official retirement as dean of Linebacker U's impenetrable defense. For a long, long time, he was thought to be the successor to Joe Paterno. When he finally decided to leave the fold, after 32 years of unswerving loyalty and uncommon patience, they had him run out onto the Beaver Stadium sod for the last time. What must that have felt like, to hear a whole stadium of fans, on their feet, chanting your name, with Happy Valley reverberating with thunderclaps of applause and former players encircling you with hugs?

Ruling that Jerry Sandusky had sufficient time to prepare his defense to charges that he sexually assaulted teen-aged boys, a Centre County judge on Wednesday denied Sandusky's request for a new trial. Jurors convicted the former Penn State assistant football coach of 45 counts of sexual abuse of minors in a case that drew international attention. In October, he was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. Seeking to reopen the matter, Sandusky, 68, appealed. He argued that the denial of a request for a trial delay amounted to a denial of his Constitutional right to an attorney.

Convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky was transferred Wednesday to a maximum-security prison in the far southwestern corner of Pennsylvania where he will serve his 30- to 60-year sentence. At the State Correctional Institution at Greene, the former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach's fellow inmates will include most of the state's death-row prisoners and convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. On Sunday, Sandusky was moved to the state prison in Camp Hill, where he was medically and psychologically evaluated, the Department of Corrections said.

Prosecutors on Wednesday filed new child sex-abuse charges against Jerry Sandusky, bringing to 10 the number of boys they say the former football coach molested or raped over the past decade. State police arrested Sandusky at his State College home and led him, draped in a blue-and-white Penn State track suit, in handcuffs into court. At a preliminary arraignment, Magisterial District Judge Robert E. Scott increased Sandusky's bail to $250,000 cash. He was taken to Centre County prison after being unable to immediately post bail.

About 600 potential jurors are slated to pack Centre County's courthouse Tuesday as lawyers begin the tedious task of finding a dozen who have not already made up their minds about Jerry Sandusky. In a county where the child sex abuse allegations against the former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach have already tarnished the reputation of a university and led to the downfall of local hero and former head coach Joe Paterno, that task is likely to prove challenging.

Pennsylvania State University president Rodney Erickson will meet with alumni in town hall-style meetings in King of Prussia, Pittsburgh, and New York City next week to discuss the child-sex-abuse scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The first session is set for Wednesday night at the Doubletree by Hilton hotel in Pittsburgh. Erickson will lead a second session next Thursday at the Radisson Hotel Valley Forge on First Avenue in King of Prussia.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - At 10:31 a.m. Tuesday, the large, flat-screen TV on the first floor of Penn State's student center flashed with a red breaking-news update. The TV was streaming CNN all morning. Twelve miles away, Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant football coach who was found guilty of sexually abusing 10 boys in a scandal that rattled this campus, was about to hear his fate. But here, in the HUB-Robeson Center, only 11 students sat facing the TV to hear the sentence. One of the students was napping.

Graham B. Spanier, the former president of Pennsylvania State University who was forced to resign in 2011, was the highest-paid public university president in the country that year, according to a report from the Chronicle of Higher Education released Sunday. Spanier, forced out amid a child-sex abuse scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, received $2.9 million in total compensation during the 2011-2012 fiscal year, according to the report, including $1.2 million in severance pay. His total compensation was nearly $400,000 more than that of any other public university president, the report said, and the severance pay alone would have ranked him in the top five.

GOV. CORBETT, beset by poll numbers that show voters don't want him to win another term, finally got some good news yesterday. Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor has decided against challenging Corbett in a 2014 Republican primary. Castor, via Facebook and Twitter, thanked his supporters but said such a "massive undertaking" would be impossible given his responsibilities to Montgomery County, to the law firm where he works and to his family. Castor had been mulling a run since December, saying he would make a decision by the spring.

HARRISBURG - As Pennsylvania's top law enforcement officials gathered in the Capitol recently to announce another jaw-dropping round of corruption charges, a Marine veteran in a dark suit stood quietly in the back. But when the time came to take questions about the pay-to-play allegations against the men who ran the Pennsylvania Turnpike, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan had the answers. Noonan, 66, may well be one of the most influential law enforcement officials you've never heard of. As the state's top cop for the last two years, and before that as head of criminal investigations at the state Attorney General's Office, he has helped guide some of the biggest prosecutions in recent Pennsylvania memory: The Bonusgate cases.

IN 1941, Father Marcial Maciel founded a lucrative, seductive order of priests and their pupils called the Legion of Christ in Mexico City. It raised outrageous amounts of money and spawned the careers of hundreds of brilliant priests, even as the Catholic Church shriveled globally. As early as the 1950s, accusations of sexual abuse of young boys surfaced against Maciel. A charming leader, Maciel weathered decades of such accusations. The Vatican, alerted of Maciel's actions, allowed him to use his position of immense power to herd victims to himself.

HARRISBURG - A whistle-blower and defamation lawsuit against Pennsylvania State University will go forward, a judge ruled Tuesday, denying the school's request to have it dismissed. Former assistant football coach Mike McQueary sued the school in October, claiming he was portrayed as untruthful in statements made in 2011 by the university's president after Jerry Sandusky's arrest on charges of child sexual abuse. Judge Thomas Gavin said McQueary's lawsuit makes sufficient claims of "outrageous conduct" on the part of the school to keep the case alive.

HARRISBURG - Three former Pennsylvania State University administrators accused of covering up complaints about Jerry Sandusky lost a set of rulings Tuesday, allowing their criminal cases to move forward. Judge Barry Feudale denied an attempt to throw out the grand jury report backing up the accusations and ruled against two other defense requests. As the judge who oversaw the grand jury, Feudale said he no longer has jurisdiction. Defendants Gary Schultz, Tim Curley, and Graham B. Spanier, Penn State's former president, are charged with perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children, failure to properly report suspected abuse, and conspiracy.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The family of former football coach Joe Paterno has endorsed three candidates for Pennsylvania State University's board of trustees who have the backing of an alumni group that has criticized the way school leaders handled the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. A letter from Paterno's son, David, posted on the website of Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship urges alumni to follow the group's lead in voting on three alumni-elected seats that begins Wednesday.

IN HIS MARCH 25th letter, Chris Isles suggested that Jack McMahon, the attorney defending Dr. Kermit Gosnell in his murder trial, is attempting to play on the sympathies of minority jury members by suggesting that Dr. Gosnell, who is African-American, is a victim of "prosecutorial lynching. " Well, of course he is, Mr. Isles; he'd be crazy not to! Jack McMahon is (literally) fighting for his client's life, as the District Attorney's Office would like none other than to see Dr. Gosnell put to death!

Former coach Mike McQueary, who testified that he witnessed Jerry Sandusky raping a child in a Pennsylvania State University locker-room shower, might have been unduly influenced by overzealous investigators, Sandusky said in an interview broadcast on Today on Monday. "His story changed a lot," said Sandusky, 69, who is serving a 30- to 60-year jail term for his conviction last year on sexual-abuse charges. "I don't understand how anybody would have walked into that locker room from where he was and heard sounds, associated that was sex going on," he said before pausing to laugh.

An interview with Jerry Sandusky - his first since being sent to prison for abusing young boys on and off Pennsylvania State University's main campus - is scheduled to air on NBC's Today show Monday morning. The network announced on its website that it would have the exclusive interview with Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach. The interview is said to be excerpts of interviews Sandusky had with independent filmmaker John Ziegler. "The former longtime defensive coordinator will describe what he says happened on the campus, and what he thinks of whistleblower Mike McQueary and late head coach Joe Paterno," the network said.