Before its removal from outside the school's football stadium on Sunday, a statue of former football coach Joe Paterno was covered. An independent report concluded he was among top university officials who failed to act when they learned that Jerry Sandusky might be sexually abusing young boys.
Saying that the punishment is "warranted by the conspiracy of silence" among Penn State University's top leadership that turned a blind eye to former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of young boys, the NCAA just announced sanctions on the school that include:
-- A $60 million fine. The money will go into an endowment fund to support programs around the nation that assist victims of sexual abuse, NCAA President Mark Emmert said.
The death toll keeps rising and is now said to be around 100 after a series of bombings and shootings today in Iraq. More than 200 people were wounded in what appear to have been coordinated attacks in at least 13 cities. According to The Associated Press, it has been that nation's "deadliest day so far this year."
Child life specialist Kelly Schraf helps to put at ease Yoselyn Gaitan, 8, who had surgery on her cleft palate, at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Yoselyn Gaitan, an 8-year-old with a shy smile, sits quietly in an exam room at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., wearing a tiny hospital gown. She looks a little uneasy as she waits to be brought back to the operating room for the final surgery on her cleft palate.
Kelly Schraf spots her through the curtain and tiptoes into her room.
Every morning, Shannon Orley parks as far away as possible from her office in Anchorage, Alaska. And on the sprawling Providence Alaska Medical Center campus that is really far away.
"Right around 1,000 steps each way. Definitely worth it," Orley says.
We are all used to judicial nomination fights, but what has been remarkable in the Obama administration has been the molasses-like confirmation process for noncontroversial nominees, especially federal district court nominees.
More bad news for Penn State: The NCAA says it will issue sanctions Monday against the school over the child sex abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky.
The announcement came the same day the school removed the famed statue of legendary football coach Joe Paterno from outside the Penn State football stadium. Our colleague Eyder Peralta has written more about that move.
"I wish I was taller," was Elaine's caption in the 1998 episode of Seinfeld. Can it get funnier than that? You can try over on The New Yorker's Caption Contest page.
In its final season, the TV sitcom Seinfeld did a send-up of the cartoons in The New Yorker. The magazine's comics are distinctive – short, quippy, topical, understated. Simply put, they're smart.
Maybe too smart, sometimes, and that's what the character Elaine found when she got her own cartoon published in the magazine.
Yesterday was the first day of the Television Critics Association press tour, when TV reporters and critics descend upon Beverly Hills to hear about what's to come in the next six or eight months. We'll hear from all the big broadcast networks and most of the big (and not-so-big) cable outlets, but we're starting this year with PBS.
Candidly, not all the critics are showing up for PBS — not all of them write about it very much. It's a shame, though, because yesterday may have been, on the whole, the liveliest day I've ever had at press tour.
Ted Engelmann, left, helps Yamilet Ortega, 3, second from left, and Kimberly Hernandez, 7, light candles, Saturday, July 21, 2012, at a memorial near the movie theater in Aurora, Colo. where a gunman killed at least 12 people in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history.
Originally published on Sun July 22, 2012 11:12 am
The latest:
-- President Obama is headed to Aurora today to meet with the families of the victims. Obama, reports USA Today, is also scheduled to meet with state and local officials.
-- By evening, Aurora Police said that "all hazards" had been removed from the suspect's apartment. Residents in surrounding buildings were allowed to return home after law enforcement conducted a controlled detonation.
A Pennsylvania Girl Scout Troop poses with the statue of former Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., on Saturday.
Credit Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
One student had even vowed to "chain myself to that statue" if there was an attempt to remove it, but there was no attempt to stop the work Sunday.
Credit Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
The statue's sculptor, Angelo Di Maria, said it was upsetting to hear that it had been taken down. "It's like a whole part of me is coming down. It's just an incredibly emotional process."
Credit Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
Some newspaper columnists have said the statue should be taken down, while a small plane pulled a banner over State College reading, "Take the statue down or we will."
Credit Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
Anticipating the statue's removal, fans drove in from miles around on Saturday to take their photos posing with it for the last time.
Credit John Beale / AP
The famed statue of Joe Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday after top officials were accused in a scathing report of burying child sex-abuse allegations against a now-convicted retired assistant.
Credit John Beale / AP
Police formed a line in front of Beaver Stadium as workers prepared to lifted the 7-foot-tall statue off its base and move it inside.
Credit John Beale / AP
Penn State President Rod Erickson said he decided to have the statue removed and put into storage because it "has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing."
Credit John Beale / AP
But Paterno still has plenty of fans, and Penn State's decision to remove the monument won't sit well with them.
Credit Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
"I hope they don't remove it permanently or destroy it," Di Maria said. "His legacy should not be completely obliterated and thrown out. ... He was a good man. It wasn't that he was an evil person. He made a mistake."
After much controversy, Penn State President Rodney Erickson announced this morning that he had decided to remove the statue honoring the school's former football coach Joe Paterno.
Abbott and Costello's famous "Who's on First?" routine still stands as one of the greatest comedy sketches of all time. It was a feat of rapid-fire dialogue, flawless comedic timing and devastating wit.
But could you do it without saying a word?
The answer appears to be yes. After Jerry Seinfeld broke down the classic skit on the MLB Network recently, NPR's Mike Pesca wound up with a peculiar email in his inbox.
It was a link to an American Sign Language (ASL) version of the skit, sent by a friend. It was amazing, Pesca says.
The Arapahoe County Coroner's Office has released the names of 11 of those killed in Friday's mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. An additional victim was identified in a statement released by the family. Officials notified the families of all of the victims before publicly releasing the names.
This list will be updated as we learn more about each of those killed in the shooting.
Last night I took my son and a troop of teenage boys to see the last installment of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Batman trilogy. One thing that struck me about the new film was how the image of the city has evolved over the course of the series. I have been thinking a lot about urban environments lately for NPR's Cities project.
