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Maryland Del. Dan Morhaim (D-Baltimore County) introduced a pair of medical marijuana bills in the state House on Thursday, the latest development in an effort to help Maryland patients with a doctor’s recommendation access the drug.

Morhaim, who described himself as a practicing physician board-certified in internal medicine and emergency medicine, told HuffPost that what he was trying to do was to get “a safe, secure supply of marijuana that’s distributed in a safe way to those patients who need it, to change a dealer-patient relationship into a doctor-patient relationship, and to not put people at risk of turning sick people into criminals.”

The first bill, HB 1158, would allow patients with a doctor’s recommendation to purchase marijuana from licensed dispensaries under the oversight of an independent commission. Any doctor who completed specific state training could make such a recommendation. The second bill, HB 1024 — which is championed also by Joshua Sharfstein, secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene — would emphasize the role of further drug research by requiring patients to go through a doctor at an academic medical center.

The bills stem from recommendations developed by an expert panel commissioned by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. The panel features two state delegates, including Morhaim, and two state senators, including David Brinkley (R-Frederick and Carroll Counties).

“The work group came out with two reports,” said Morhaim. “I favor one over the other, but in honor of the fact that there was a work group and there was not consensus achieved, I felt it was only fair to put forward both reports.” He added, “I’ll make a strong case for the one I favor, and I hope it’s convincing.”

Requiring academic medical centers to grow and maintain marijuana could put their federal funding at risk, and some might refuse to participate, Morhaim said in explaining why he favors the first broader bill. Also, hospice patients, whose care centers are not linked with academic institutions and who might well need medical marijuana, would not have access to it.

In May 2011, Gov. O’Malley signed off on legislation removing criminal penalties for medical marijuana patients. But as the law stands, patients are still subject to arrest and prosecution even if they’re subsequently able to demonstrate medical necessity.

The bills introduced Friday would protect patients with doctors’ recommendations from arrest and prosecution. They would also restrict cultivation to state-registered growers.

Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County) is expected to sponsor similar legislation in the Maryland Senate.

“Last session the General Assembly decided that it is not a crime for very ill people in the State of Maryland to use marijuana for palliative purposes in accordance with medical advice,” Raskin said in a statement on Friday. “What we left open was how such people can safely and legally access the drug. I’m determined that this session we come up with an effective mechanism for making medical marijuana available for the sick and suffering Marylanders who need it.”

The proposed legislation comes on the heels of another medical marijuana bill, introduced by Del. Cheryl Glenn (D-Baltimore City), which would establish a dispensary system and allow patients themselves to cultivate limited amounts of marijuana.

Should the bills become law, Maryland would join 15 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing medical marijuana.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/medical-marijuana-maryland-two-bills-dan-morhaim_n_1269567.html

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RALEIGH, N.C. ? The key battleground state of North Carolina is still within President Barack Obama’s grasp, despite Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue’s surprise decision to drop her re-election campaign.

Obama has been running commercials in the state for months, and the Democrats have staked so much on repeating his 2008 success in North Carolina that their presidential nomination convention will be held in Charlotte.

“It’s helpful news for Obama rather than problematic news,” John Dinan, a political science professor at Wake Forest University, said of Perdue’s announcement Thursday. “You’d expect the Obama campaign would rather run with a strong gubernatorial candidate on the ballot, and by all accounts, Perdue was not a strong candidate.”

Perdue, the first woman elected governor in North Carolina history, said she worried a fight with Republicans over public education would become too political if she tried for a second term. But Perdue entered the election year with political baggage, including a campaign finance investigation, sagging poll numbers and a tough rematch campaign against an opponent she narrowly beat in 2008, when Obama’s coattails helped Democrats across the state.

“North Carolina’s a swing state, they can’t afford to lose it for the presidential race,” said Michael Munger, a political science professor at Duke University who ran for governor as a Libertarian in 2008. “I would guess some senior Democratic people strongly suggested she spend more time with her grandchildren.”

Four years ago, Obama shocked many national pundits by becoming the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976, defeating Republican Sen. John McCain by just 14,177 votes out of more than 4.3 million ballots cast.

Perdue, then the state’s lieutenant governor, benefited from Obama’s highly organized effort to boost voter turnout, an effort the president will look to repeat regardless of whether the Democratic gubernatorial nominee is an incumbent.

“I don’t think the president’s 2012 chances are affected by this in any way,” said Andy Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University. “The presidential race is the dog and the gubernatorial race is the tail, and the dog is going to be wagging the tail.”

Obama’s win here was the first in 32 years for a Democratic nominee for president. He praised Perdue for breaking down barriers during her political career.

“For over 25 years, she has fought for the people of the Tar Heel state ? working to transform the state’s public schools, improve the health care system, protect and attract jobs for members of the military and their families, and create the jobs of the future,” Obama said in a statement.

Perdue, a former school teacher, said her decision was about protecting public education from spending cuts by the GOP-led legislature.

“The thing I care about most right now is making sure that our schools and schoolchildren do not continue to be the victims of shortsighted legislative actions and severe budget cuts inflicted by a legislative majority with the wrong priorities,” Perdue said in a statement.

The statement made no mention of what Perdue, 65, planned to do in the future. Perdue campaign spokesman Marc Farinella said the governor declined to speak to reporters Thursday because she was spending time with her family after making “this very difficult decision.”

“For now she wants her statement to speak for itself,” he said.

Perdue’s decision means it will be the first time a sitting North Carolina governor has failed to get elected to a second term since voters gave chief executives authority to succeed themselves in the 1970s.

“All the Democrats’ waters rose with Obama in 2008,” said Brian Nick, a Republican strategist working for likely GOP gubernatorial nominee Pat McCrory. “It would be a fallacy to think the governor’s race is going to affect the presidential campaign in North Carolina.”

Perdue has faced high unemployment, consistently weak approval numbers, a string of political defeats and the indictment of two close aides and a family friend in a campaign finance scandal that is continuing to unfold. She has also made some well-publicized gaffes, like a joking suggestion last year that congressional elections should be suspended for two years to ease partisan gridlock.

North Carolina is crucial to Obama’s re-election strategy, with a win there relieving the need to carry more-traditional battleground states such as Florida and Ohio.

Perdue is listed as the co-chair of steering and host committee membership for the 2012 convention. DNC officials were quick to say Thursday that Perdue’s withdrawal from the governor’s race will have no effect on the September event.

The governor has not been closely involved in the convention planning and was not present at a DNC media conference in Charlotte last week announcing that President Obama would give his acceptance speech to Bank of America Stadium.

“They made the decision to site the convention in Charlotte knowing that Beverly Perdue was facing an uphill fight,” said Steven Greene, a political science professor at N.C. State. “That was already factored into their decision.”

Perdue may try to maintain a low profile through the end of her term early next year. After issuing a statement declaring her intention not to run, Perdue holed up in the governor’s mansion with her aides.

Mark Johnson, the governor’s deputy communications director, said the governor has no public events scheduled for the next week.

“Anything beyond next week is tentative,” Johnson said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/us_nc_governor

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Mourners line up at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus for the viewing for former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Mourners line up at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus for the viewing for former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

John Emigh, left, Darren Dixon, and Terrence Krumrine, back right, raise an American flag to half staff in honor of former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno in front of Old Main on the Penn State campus Monday, Jan. 23, 2012 in State College, Pa. Paterno, a sainted figure at Penn State for almost half a century but scarred forever by the scandal involving his one-time heir apparent, died Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 in State College. He was 85. .(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Former Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary, center, visits while waiting in line for a public viewing for legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State University campus, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Former Penn State and New England Patriots linebacker Kyle Brady is interviewed after attending a viewing for legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno in the Worship room of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State University campus, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

A newspaper with the headline re-written, is left in remembrance around a statue of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State campus Monday, Jan. 23, 2012 in State College, Pa. Paterno died Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? Decked out in Penn State hats and jackets, students and townspeople stood in a line more than a quarter-mile long Tuesday to pay their respects to Joe Paterno, the coach who for nearly a half century was the face of their university.

Mourners stood in a line along a main campus artery for the chance to file past Paterno’s closed casket at the campus spiritual center during a 10-hour public viewing session.

They were preceded by Paterno family members ? the coach’s son, Scott, was seen going in and out of the event ? and the Penn State football team, both present and past. Players wore dark suits and filed out of three blue Penn State buses, the same buses that once carried Paterno and the team to games at Beaver Stadium on fall Saturdays.

Among that group was Mike McQueary. As a graduate assistant to Paterno in 2002, he went to the coach saying he had witnessed former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky assaulting a boy in the shower at the Penn State football building. Paterno relayed that to his bosses ? including the head of campus police ? but university trustees felt he should have done more, and it played into their decision to fire the longtime coach on Nov. 9. That came four days after Sandusky was arrested on multiple child sex-abuse counts.

Dressed in a blue coat and tie with a white shirt, the school colors, McQueary was among thousands of expected mourners at an event that was to stretch late into Tuesday night.

One current and one former team member will stand guard over the casket for the duration of the public viewing, athletic department spokesman Jeff Nelson said.

“He left us too early and I think about the impact he could have made once he retired from coaching,” Nelson said.

The 85-year-old Paterno, the winningest coach in major college football, died Sunday. The cause, lung cancer, was disclosed in November, just days after he was fired.

Earlier Tuesday, a line of ex-players stretched around the corner and down the block. Among the mourners were former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers great Franco Harris. Others there included NFL receivers Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood, Norwood’s father and Baylor assistant coach Brian Norwood and former quarterback Daryll Clark.

The event marked the start of three days of public mourning as the Penn State community in State College and beyond said goodbye to the man who led the Nittany Lions to 409 wins over 46 years and raised the national profile of the school.

There is another public viewing Wednesday at Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, and after that Paterno’s family will hold a private funeral and procession through State College.

On Thursday, the school’s basketball arena will be the site of a public service called “A Memorial for Joe.” Tickets were quickly snapped up for the event, even though there was a two-per-person limit for those ordering.

Former players began arriving shortly after members of Paterno’s last team filed in. Some players hugged, and new Penn State coach Bill O’Brien shook hands with others at the curb outside the center.

Penn State linebacker Khairi Fortt recalled his coach’s lessons.

“He said the most important thing for us was to keep the Penn State tradition going,” the sophomore from Stamford, Conn., said after leaving the viewing.

Scott Paterno has said that despite the turmoil surrounding his termination from the school, Joe Paterno remained peaceful and upbeat in his final days and still loved Penn State.

Bitterness over Paterno’s firing has turned up in many forms, from online postings to a rewritten newspaper headline placed next to Paterno’s statue at the football stadium blaming the trustees for his death. A headline that read “FIRED” was crossed out and made to read, “Killed by Trustees.” Lanny Davis, lawyer for the school’s board, said threats have been made against the trustees.

Scott Paterno, however, stressed his father did not die with a broken heart and did not harbor resentment toward Penn State.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Scolforo contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-24-Penn%20State-Paterno/id-adf347589e564d5cb9a54e61828695d2

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? Ohio State will find out its NCAA fate later today.

Athletic director Gene Smith confirmed to The Associated Press early Tuesday that the NCAA’s committee on infractions would hand down its final sanctions of the Ohio State athletic program at 3 p.m. EST.

The decision comes almost a year to the day since problems were first revealed in the football program. Five players were suspended last Dec. 23 for the first five games of the 2011 season for accepting cash and tattoos from the owner of a local tattoo parlor. Coach Jim Tressel was subsequently forced to resign.

Ohio State offered to vacate the 2010 season, return its share of bowl money and be on probation and have minor recruiting restrictions. The NCAA could add to those penalties.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-20-NCAA-Ohio%20St/id-bf6a7fa14b5c48b28ce16b2e24aed247

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>>> there was an extraordinary meeting today between two of the world’s most closely watched women. secretary of state hillary clinton on a trip to myanmar met with the prodemocracy activist and peace prize recipient ang san suu kyi . they stood outside her home where she’s been on house arrest for years. they were friendly and seemed thrilled to be in each other’s company. secretary clinton spoke about it in an interview with nbc’s kristen welker.

>> obviously, you know, i was thrilled to finally meet her. she felt like an old friend that i was seeing again after some long absence. but it was personally incredibly important to me. but it was also substantively important because we have worked with her closely over the last months to make sure that we understood what she thought was happening inside the country, that our policy was aligned with that.

>> what do you think she means to the people here in this country and to the united states efforts to try to help bring about reform here?

>> i think she is so admired because of her steadfast dignity and determination and the fact that she stands on her own for democracy, for freedom and justice. and then because of the connection with her father who was the liberator who achieved independence for burma, there is a sense of continuity and what might have been and what still could be.

>> kristen welker traveling with the secretary of state today. by the way, the last time an american secretary of state visited myanmar it was called burma. and that man was john foster dulles representing president eisenhower back in 1955 .

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45530452/

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This Dec. 28, 1999 photo shows Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on the sideline during the first quarter of the Alamo Bowl game against Texas A&M, in San Antonio, Tex. Investigators on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 encouraged anyone who would accuse Sandusky of sexual assault to step forward and talk to police. Sandusky was arrested Saturday on charges that he preyed on boys he met through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youths. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

This Dec. 28, 1999 photo shows Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on the sideline during the first quarter of the Alamo Bowl game against Texas A&M, in San Antonio, Tex. Investigators on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 encouraged anyone who would accuse Sandusky of sexual assault to step forward and talk to police. Sandusky was arrested Saturday on charges that he preyed on boys he met through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youths. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Michael Pilato paints over the image of Jerry Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator at Penn State, on a mural on College Avenue in State College, Pa., on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. Pilato is the original artist of the mural. Sandusky has been charged with molesting eight boys in 15 years, including at the Penn State football complex. (AP Photo/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Lake Fong) MONESSEN, KITTANNING, CONNELLSVILLE, GREENSBURG, TARENTUM, NORTH HILLS NEWS RECORD, BUTLER OUT ARCHIVE OUT MAGS OUT NO SALES TV OUT

NEW YORK (AP) ? A former Penn State football assistant coach charged with sexually abusing eight boys in a scandal that has rocked the university said Monday that there was no abuse and that any activities in a campus shower with a boy were just horseplay, not molestation.

In a telephone interview Monday night on NBC News’ “Rock Center,” Bob Costas asked Jerry Sandusky if he’s a pedophile and Sandusky responded, “No.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported on its website late Monday that close to 10 additional suspected victims have come forward to authorities since Sandusky’s arrest, according to people close to the investigation. The paper said police were working to confirm the new allegations.

Sandusky, once considered veteran coach Joe Paterno’s heir apparent, was arrested more than a week ago and is charged with sexually abusing eight boys, some on Penn State property, over a 15-year span.

“I am innocent of those charges,” the 67-year-old Sandusky said. “… I could say that I have done some of those things. I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them, and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact.”

Asked whether he was sexually attracted to underaged boys, he said “Sexually attracted, no. I enjoy young people, I love to be around them, but, no, I’m not sexually attracted to young boys.”

Asked if there was anything he had done wrong, Sandusky said, “I shouldn’t have showered with those kids.”

Athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president Gary Schultz are charged with perjury but maintain their innocence. Paterno and president Graham Spanier were ousted from their jobs for not doing enough after Sandusky was accused of assaulting a young boy in the showers of the campus football complex in 2002. Paterno is not the target of any legal investigation, but he has conceded he should have done more. Spanier, who remains a tenured member of the faculty, has said he would have reported a crime if he’d suspected one had been committed.

The interview with Costas was Sandusky’s first public comment on the charges. He had previously maintained his innocence through his attorney, Joe Amendola.

A spokesman for Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly declined to comment on the interview, citing the active investigation.

Sandusky’s remarks came the same night that Amendola, told CNN that his client was just behaving like “a jock.”

“Jerry Sandusky is a big overgrown kid,” Amendola said. “He’s a jock, and for anybody who’s ever played sports, you get showers after you work out.”

Wide receivers coach Mike McQueary told a grand jury that in March 2001 when he was a graduate assistant, he saw Sandusky sodomizing a boy about 10 years old in a shower at the Nittany Lions’ practice center. McQueary did not go to police but instead told Paterno, Curley and Schultz, although it is unclear how detailed a description he gave. Schultz, in turn, notified Spanier.

Sandusky told NBC that only “horseplay” was involved.

“We were showering and horsing around, and he actually turned all the showers on and was actually sliding across the floor, and we were, as I recall, possibly like snapping a towel ? horseplay,” he said.

Amendola accused the attorney general’s office of having “thrown everything they can throw up against the wall.” He said some of the allegations, such as putting a hand on a boy’s knee, do not constitute criminal conduct and other cases include no direct complaint by the boy.

“They have other people who are saying they saw something, but they don’t have actual people saying, ‘This is what Jerry did to me,” Amendola said. “We’re working to find those people, and when the time comes, and if we are able to do that, we think this whole case will change dramatically.”

The Associated Press has made several efforts to reach Sandusky by phone and through Amendola, but messages haven’t been returned. The AP also knocked on Sandusky’s door and left messages at least three times over the past week.

When Sandusky retired in 1999, at just 55, he cited his desire to devote more time to The Second Mile, a charity he founded in 1977 to help at-risk kids. According to the grand jury report, however, Sandusky was a sexual predator who used the charity and his Penn State connections to prey on young boys.

Though he was not particularly close with Paterno, he remained a familiar sight around the Penn State football complex. He was given an office in the East Area Locker building, across the street from the football building, as part of his retirement package, and would take Second Mile kids around the football facilities.

Sandusky said Paterno never asked him about his behavior or what he might have done.

The Sandusky interview came on the day when it was announced the president of The Second Mile had resigned. Jack Raykovitz, a practicing psychologist who had led the group for 28 years, said he hoped his resignation, accepted Sunday, would help restore faith in the group’s mission. The Second Mile also announced it had hired Philadelphia’s longtime district attorney as its new general counsel.

Separately, the Big Ten has decided to take Paterno’s name off its championship trophy. League commissioner Jim Delany said that it is “inappropriate” to keep Paterno’s name on the trophy that will be awarded Dec. 3 to the winner of the conference’s first title game.

The trophy had been named the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy. Paterno had more wins, 409, than any other major college coach while football pioneer Amos Alonzo Stagg won 319 games in 57 years at the University of Chicago.

The trophy will now be called the Stagg Championship Trophy.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-14-Penn%20State-Abuse/id-d577c5f04c4c45c0af49ee6cdc83ece1

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Penn State President Graham Spanier and Chairman of the Penn State Board of Trustees Steve A. Garban exit Old Main just after midnight on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, following an executive session. The board accepted the request of Penn State Director of Athletics Tim Curley to take an administrative leave and Penn State’s Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz’s request to step down and return to retirement. (AP Photo/Chloe Elmer/Daily Collegian)

Penn State President Graham Spanier and Chairman of the Penn State Board of Trustees Steve A. Garban exit Old Main just after midnight on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, following an executive session. The board accepted the request of Penn State Director of Athletics Tim Curley to take an administrative leave and Penn State’s Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz’s request to step down and return to retirement. (AP Photo/Chloe Elmer/Daily Collegian)

Penn State President Graham Spanier leaves in his car just after midnight on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, following an executive session held at Old Main in University Park, Pa. The board accepted the request of Tim Curley to take an administrative leave and Gary Schultz’s request to step down and return to retirement. (AP Photo/Chloe Elmer/Daily Collegian)

Penn State Vice President of Student Affairs Damon Sims exits Old Main late on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, following an executive session. The board accepted the request of Tim Curley to take an administrative leave and Gary Schultz’s request to step down and return to retirement. (AP Photo/Chloe Elmer/Daily Collegian)

This undated photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General shows Gary Schultz. Schultz, Penn State vice president for finance and business, is expected to turn himself in on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, as he has been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young men, the state attorney general?s office said Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General)

FILE – In this Oct. 15, 2002 file photo, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley answers questions about a letter he wrote to the Big Ten calling for a review of football officiating practices in State College, Pa. Curley is expected to turn himself in on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in Harrisburg, Pa., as he has been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young men, the state attorney general?s office said Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Pat Little, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? Just hours after stepping down, two high-ranking Penn State administrators face arraignment Monday on charges they lied to a grand jury investigating former defense coordinator Jerry Sandusky and failed to properly report suspected child abuse, a case that has left fans reeling.

Late Sunday, after an emergency meeting of the Board of Trustees, university President Graham Spanier announced that Athletic Director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, the school’s senior vice president for business and finance, would be leaving their posts.

Curley requested to be placed on administrative leave so he could devote time to his defense, and Schultz will be going back into retirement, Spanier said. Both men have maintained they are innocent of any wrongdoing in connection with the probe into whether Sandusky sexually abused eight boys over a 15-year period.

State Attorney General Linda Kelly and state police Commissioner Frank Noonan are expected to hold a 1 p.m. news conference about the case Monday a few miles from the Harrisburg district court. The arraignment is scheduled for immediately after that.

Sandusky was arrested Saturday on charges that he preyed on boys he met through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youths. The charity said in a statement Sunday that Sandusky had had no involvement with The Second Mile programs involving children since 2008, when Sandusky told the foundation that he was being investigation on child-sex allegations.

The case has rocked State College, a campus town routinely ranked among America’s best places to live and nicknamed Happy Valley. Under head football coach Joe Paterno ? who testified before the grand jury and isn’t considered a suspect ? the teams were revered both for winning games, including two national championships, and largely steering clear of trouble.

In a statement issued Sunday, Paterno said the charges were “shocking.”

“The fact that someone we thought we knew might have harmed young people to this extent is deeply troubling,” he said. “If this is true we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families. They are in our prayers.”

Sandusky, whose defenses were usually anchored by tough-guy linebackers, spent three decades at the school. The charges against him cover the period from 1994 to 2009.

Sandusky retired in 1999 but continued to use the school’s facilities, but university officials said Sunday they were moving to ban him from campus in the wake of the charges.

Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, told The Associated Press on Sunday that whether Paterno might testify was premature and nothing more than rampant speculation.

“That’s putting the cart way ahead of the horse,” he said. “We’re certainly not going to be discussing the lineup of potential witnesses.”

The allegations against Sandusky, who started The Second Mile in 1977, range from sexual advances to touching to oral and anal sex. The young men testified before a state grand jury that they were in their early teens when some of the abuse occurred; there is evidence even younger children may have been victimized.

Sandusky’s attorney Joe Amendola said his client has been aware of the accusations for about three years and has maintained his innocence.

“He’s shaky, as you can expect,” Amendola told WJAC-TV. “Being 67 years old, never having faced criminal charges in his life and having the distinguished career that he’s had, these are very serious allegations.”

Sandusky is charged with multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, as well as single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault.

One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a “soap battle” in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky’s hands, the grand jury report said.

He said he traveled to charity functions and Penn State games with Sandusky. But when the boy resisted his advances, Sandusky threatened to send him home from the 1999 Alamo Bowl, the report said.

Sandusky also gave him clothes, shoes, a snowboard, golf clubs, hockey gear and football jerseys, and even guaranteed that he could walk on to the football team, the grand jury said. He testified that Sandusky once gave him $50 to buy marijuana, drove him to purchase it and then drove him home as the boy smoked the drug.

The first case to come to light was a boy who met Sandusky when he was 11 or 12, and physical contact began during his overnight stays at Sandusky’s house, the grand jury said. Eventually, the boy’s mother reported the sexual assault allegations to his high school, and Sandusky was banned from the child’s school district in Clinton County in 2009. That triggered the state investigation that culminated in charges Saturday.

But the report also alleges much earlier instances of abuse and details failed efforts to stop it by some who became aware of what was happening.

Another child, known only as a boy about 11 to 13, was seen by a janitor pinned against a wall while Sandusky performed oral sex on him in fall 2000, the grand jury said.

And in 2002, Kelly said, a graduate assistant saw Sandusky sexually assault a naked boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in a team locker room shower. The grad student and his father reported what he saw to Paterno, who immediately told Curley, prosecutors said.

The two school administrators fielded the complaint from an unnamed graduate assistant and from Paterno. Two people familiar with the investigation confirmed the identity of the graduate assistant as Mike McQueary, now the team’s wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. The two spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the names in the grand jury report haven’t been publicly released.

McQueary’s father, John, said his son was out of town on a recruiting trip Sunday, and he declined to comment about the case or say whether they were the two named in the grand jury report.

“I know it’s online, and I know it’s available,” John McQueary told the AP. “I have gone out of my way not to read it for a number of reasons.”

Curley and Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half after the attack was reported, Kelly said.

“Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law,” Kelly said.

There’s no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy or follow up with the witness, she said.

Schultz’s lawyer, Thomas J. Farrell, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the mandated reporting rules only apply to people who come into direct contact with children. He also said the statute of limitations for the summary offense with which Schultz is charged is two years, so it expired in 2004.

The grand jury report that lays out the accusations against the men cites the state’s Child Protective Services Law, which requires immediate reporting by doctors, nurses, school administrators, teachers, day care workers, police and others.

Neither Schultz nor Curley appear to have had direct contact with the boys Sandusky is accused of abusing, including the one involved in the eyewitness account prosecutors say they were given.

The law “applies only to children under the care and supervision of the organization for which he works, and that’s Penn State, it’s not The Second Mile,” Farrell said of his client. “This child, from what we know, was a Second Mile child.”

Messages left later Sunday seeking comment from Frederiksen with the attorney general’s office, and from Curley’s lawyer, Caroline Roberto, weren’t immediately returned. Farrell said it was accurate to say the allegations against Curley are legally flawed in the same manner.

Farrell said he plans to seek dismissal at the earliest opportunity. “Now, tomorrow is probably not the appropriate time,” Farrell said. “We’ll bring every legal challenge that is appropriate, and I think quite a few are appropriate.”

As a summary offense, failure to report suspected child abuse carries up to three months in jail and a $200 fine.

“As far as my research shows, there has never been a reported criminal decision under this statute, and the civil decisions go our way,” he said.

Curley and Schultz also are accused of perjury for their testimony to the grand jury that issued a 23-page report on the matter Friday, the day before state prosecutors charged them. Sandusky was arrested Saturday and charged with 40 criminal counts.

Curley denied that the assistant had reported anything of a sexual nature, calling it “merely ‘horsing around,’” the grand jury report said. But he also testified that he barred Sandusky from bringing children onto campus and that he advised Spanier of the matter.

The grand jury said Curley was lying, Kelly said, adding that it also deemed portions of Schultz’s testimony not to be credible.

Schultz told the jurors he also knew of a 1998 investigation involving sexually inappropriate behavior by Sandusky with a boy in the showers the football team used.

But despite his job overseeing campus police, he never reported the 2002 allegations to any authorities, “never sought or received a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the shower in 2002,” the jurors wrote. “No one from the university did so.”

Farrell said Schultz “should have been required only to report it to his supervisor, which he did.”

Schultz reports to Spanier, who testified before the grand jury that Schultz and Curley came to him with a report that a staff member was uncomfortable because he’d seen Sandusky “horsing around” with a boy. Spanier wasn’t charged.

About the perjury charge, Farrell said: “We’re going to have a lot of issues with that, both factual and legal. I think there’s a very strong defense here.”

The university is paying legal costs for Curley and Schultz because the allegations against them concern how they fulfilled their responsibilities as employees, spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.

___

Genaro C. Armas in State College, Pa., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-07-Penn%20State-Abuse/id-8b149268fb654c448017976cbcdc4044

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