TAMPA TRIBUNE: …. Mr. Paterno did everything he should have done in this situation. He reported the allegation he received second hand to school officials and to the campus police. He never eye-witnessed any act on a child. All his knowledge and that of a multitude of others were hearsay rumors.

Mr. Paterno was selected as the fall guy in the Penn State scandal because his legendary status cast a big shadow for irresponsible and incompetent public servants to hide behind. The fall from the mountaintop of his incredible accomplishments and honorable behavior made a better storyline for the media to captivate a large audience for the media to take down another national hero.

Time passing and the facts of the case surfacing will change the narrative. Joe Pa will rightfully be exonerated and restored to his earned status as a kind, honorable role model and father figure to many.  (more)

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BEAVER COUNTY TIMES:  …Best-case scenario: Charges are never brought, and Sandusky walks away with his reputation permanently scarred. The rumors, the jokes, the sideways glances – they won’t ever stop. Paterno and Penn State do the great escape…

Never any stories about Sandusky being pursued for a high-profile job. Never any rumors about him coming out of retirement…

Initially accused in 1998. Retires in 1999. Never coaches college football again. Sandusky was very successful at what he did. The architect of Linebacker U. Helped win national championships in 1982 and 1986. Recognized as college football’s top assistant in 1986 and 1999…   (more)

CNN: -American employers substantially stepped up their hiring in January, bringing the unemployment rate down for the fifth month in a row.

Employers added 243,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reported Friday, marking a pick-up in hiring from December, when the economy added 203,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%. That is the lowest since February 2009…  (more)

By William Smith

DRUG WAR CHRONICLE: A voter survey commissioned by California’s Regulate Marijuana Like Wine (RMLW) initiative campaign suggests the initiative could win at the polls in November — if it manages to make it onto the ballot.

RMLW is one of handful of proposed 2012 California marijuana legalization initiatives, all of them ill-funded. For any of them to make the ballot, they have to come up with more than 500,000 valid voter signatures by April, a task that is considered almost impossibly to accomplish by volunteer efforts alone.

RMLW commissioned the poll in a bid to show potential funders it could win in November, and with these poll results, the campaign can now make that argument. California initiative watchers estimate that it would take between $1 and $2 million in paid signature-gathering to make the ballot.

The statewide poll of 800 likely voters conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates found support for the initiative at 62%, with 35% opposed and 3% undecided. No cross-tabs have been made available.

The poll found even higher levels of support for more general critiques of current drug laws and the level of attention California law enforcement pays to marijuana. Four out of five respondents (80%) agreed with the statement, “State and federal drug laws are outdated and have failed, therefore, we need to take a new approach that makes sense for today,” while 71% agreed that law enforcement spends too much, time, money, and resources enforcing marijuana laws.

If RMLW were to pass, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office has projected “savings of potentially several tens of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments of the costs of incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders,” as well as potentially generating “hundreds of millions of dollars in net additional tax revenues related to the production and sale of marijuana products.”

“There is no policy that is more discriminatory or wastes more tax dollars,” said RMLW treasurer Steve Collett, who hailed the poll results. “This initiative helps farmers, reduces prison overcrowding, relieves burdens on the courts, generates revenues for the state, and frees up police to work on real crimes.”

The results also encouraged Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) co-founder Jack Cole. “LEAP believes the citizens of California are far ahead of the federal government in assessing a policy that will reduce death, disease, crime, and corruption, when they register 62% support for the initiative Regulate Marijuana Like Wine,” he said.

Proponents of the competing marijuana legalization initiatives are working to set up a joint meeting, a so-called “Cannadome” in the Bay Area for mid-February. Whether these new poll results will make any difference in forging unity then remains to be seen.

The Office of the County Treasurer reports that tax revenue from the Lancaster County Hotel Room Rental Tax and the Hotel Excise Tax increased from $5,945,691 in 2010 to $5.982,631 in 2011, an increase of a scant increase of $6,940 or  0.001%.

One  hotel with 77 rooms was adaded in the fourth quarter of 2011.    Some of the  larger (over 200 rooms) facilities are not doing very well.

From the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE Editorial:

…the current Department of Public Welfare wanted to give food stamps to no one under age 60 with more than $2,000 in savings or other assets, and to no one over 60 with more than $3,250. That was way too low.

Now it wants the savings cutoff for those under 60 to be $5,500 and for those older or disabled to be $9,000 — numbers that are very close to the Post-Gazette’s proposal on Jan. 11.

Exempt from the total would be a person’s home, car, household contents, burial plot, life insurance and pension plan. Counted toward the limit would be cash, bank accounts, stocks, bonds and additional vehicles…

Click here to read the full article.

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:   One of the better-financed Republicans in the race to try to unseat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) halted his campaign Thursday, citing his failure to capture the party’s endorsement.

In announcing his decision, Tim Burns, a Washington County pharmaceutical-software entrepreneur, pointed to Gov. Corbett’s backing of a rival, but said in a statement that he looked forward to working with the governor in the future….

His departure from the crowded GOP field comes five days after Republican state committee members at their annual meeting in Hershey voted to support Malvern entrepreneur Steve Welch, largely at Corbett’s urging…  (more)

WALL STREET JOURNAL:  After years of delay, Congress took a big step toward approving new rules to ban lawmakers from trading stocks based on information they pick up in the halls of Capitol Hill—a move aimed in part at helping repair the institution’s low approval ratings…

“We will quickly review the entire bill and the amendments that were added today to ensure that public servants, whether in the legislative or executive branch, do not personally profit from insider information,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.)…

Senate approval marks a remarkable turnaround for the bill, which was unpopular with lawmakers until very recently. First introduced by two little-known House members six years ago, the Stock Act had just nine co-sponsors just a few months ago. There was no similar legislation in the Senate…  (more)

NEW YORK POST…-  The Moldovan blonde spotted with the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, on the night of the disaster, told Italian investigators she is in love with him.

“Yes, it’s true. I am in love with Captain Schettino,” Domnica Cemortan, 25, told prosecutors, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported Thursday.

Cemortan, who has joint Moldovan and Romanian citizenship, previously said she was not Schettino’s lover, saying he was faithful to his wife… (more)

EDITOR:  We recall  how an airline pilot who improperly had his children in the cockpit caused a crash.  Was Schettino showing off to his girl friend when he took the his ship off course?   There is something very much wrong with Carnival Cruise Lines that such shenanigans could take place with impunity.  We would not sail with them.  

There are so called  ‘acts of God.’   This clearly was an act of human failing.  From the various reports, clearly ‘safety first’ was not the foremost concern of the cruise company.

We recently took a cruise on a Holland American Line ship.  Every passenger was required to be at his or her lifeboat station within two hours of sailing!

From NEWSMAX:

That rule, however, exempted houses of worship and their employees, as well as other institutions whose primary purpose is to promote religious belief. Churches, synagogues, mosques and other places would not be required to cover contraceptives, it specified. Neither would religious organizations whose purpose is to promote belief, and that primarily employ and serve people of the same creed.

It was a different story for religious-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social agencies that serve the public broadly…

There is no mandate, however, to cover abortions…

Click here to read the full article.

EDITOR: People have a right to be advised of their options.   On the other hand, no one is required to participate in performing an abortionl.