Jerry Sandusky asks court for visits with his grandchildren

This post has been corrected. See the note at bottom for details.

In a motion filed at the court of common pleas in Centre County, Sandusky attorney Joseph L. Amendola asks that the conditions of his bail be modified to allow Sandusky, 67, to see his grandchildren at his home if they are accompanied by at least one of their parents.

The motion also asks that he be allowed to contact the children by mail or electronically, such as by phone or email. Each child would have to have the permission of at least one parent to communicate with their grandfather.

PHOTOS: Penn State football rocked by sexual abuse scandal

The motion was filed Friday, a day after an emotionally charged memorial service held in University Park, Pa., for former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who died Jan. 22 at age 85.

Although Paterno spoke to superiors about Sandusky’s alleged conduct after a graduate assistant told him he saw a nude Sandusky sexually molest a boy in the showers at Penn State in 2002, Paterno was widely criticized for failing to follow up or do more about the incident. Paterno, the winningest coach in major college football, was fired Nov. 9, five days after the scandal broke.

Some commentators and college football fans have said Paterno’s failure to act aggressively forever tarred his legacy. Others, especially since his death, have said Paterno should be remembered not for one bad decision but for a legacy of leading winning football teams and molding young student athletes into fine men.

FULL COVERAGE: Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal

Sandusky was arrested Dec. 7 and released on $250,000 bail the next day. He was ordered not to have contact with anyone younger than 18.

Sandusky has 11 grandchildren under 18, with another to be born in the near future. “The defendant’s minor grandchildren have expressed their sadness to their parents about not being able to visit or talk with the defendant,” the motion says.

The sexual abuse charges stem from incidents involving 10 boys. Sandusky has maintained he is innocent of the charges.

[For the Record, 1:05 p.m. Jan. 30: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the memorial service for former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was held in College Station, Pa.] 

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Photo: Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., last month. Credit: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Vatican welcomes Episcopal converts to Catholic Church

Congregations and members of the Episcopal Church — including married priests — may join the Roman Catholic Church under a new structure announced by the Vatican.

The nationwide “ordinariate,” which is similar to a diocese, will be headed by the Rev. Jeffrey N. Steenson of Houston, a Catholic convert who called the announcement by Pope Benedict XVI a “historic moment in the history of the church.”

For perhaps the first time since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, he said, a structure has been created to “assist those who in conscience seek to return to the fold of St. Peter and his successors.”

The Episcopal Church has been rocked in recent years by divisions over doctrine and the role of gays and lesbians in church life. With about 2 million members, the church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the ongoing disputes have prompted some congregations to align themselves with Anglican bishops overseas.

A moratorium on electing gay bishops was overturned at the Episcopal Church’s national convention in Anaheim in 2009; the next year, Mary Douglas Glasspool became the church’s second openly gay bishop and serves in the Diocese of Los Angeles.

Steenson, in a conference call with reporters Monday, appeared to allude to the issue when asked why he left the church. “It came down to the question of how authority is handled in the church,” said Steenson, who was ordained a Catholic priest in 2009. “Putting challenging theological questions to a vote is not traditionally how we answered questions. Every generation has its issues. We need to take the long view.”

Under the structure announced by Benedict on Sunday, members of the what is formally called the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter will be fully Catholic, while also allowed to maintain some Anglican traditions. Married Episcopal clergy will be allowed to become priests. Steenson, 59, is a father of three and grandfather of one.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, more than 100 clergy have applied for Catholic ordination and 1,400 individuals from 22 communities have asked to join the ordinariate.

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 Photo: Rev. Jeffrey Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop who was named the Ordinariate Chair of Saint Peter by Pope Benedict XVI, is greeted after a press conference at Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church Monday in Houston. Credit: AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson.

Bills would make it illegal to leave kids in car while gambling

In Pennsylvania, leaving the kids in the car while you hit the casino isn’t just a bad idea. In the future, it might be against the law too.

Lawmakers have approved measures that would make it a misdemeanor to leave children in vehicles while parents or guardians gamble at a casino.

The legislation — two bills known as H.B. 120 and H.B. 121 — were written by state Rep. Mike O’Brien (D-Philadelphia), who knows first-hand the potentially destructive influence of gambling on families.

“My father was a compulsive gambler,” O’Brien said in a statement. “I know the terror and anxiety a child can feel when left alone while his dad or mom gambles.”

The bills were approved Monday by the House of Representatives, 193 to 0. The measures now go to the state Senate.

O’Brien said that, at the Parx Casino in Bensalem alone, there have been at least 10 documented instances of children being left unattended in cars while parents gambled. In one incident this fall, three children — ages 12, 7 and 2 — were left in a vehicle by their grandparents, who went inside the SugarHouse casino near Philadelphia. The children were not harmed, and the grandparents were not charged.

For starters, the bills would prohibit any driver from leaving a child younger than 14 unattended in a vehicle on property owned, leased or controlled by a licensed gambling facility. They would also impose fines, up to $300,000, on gambling facilities that fail to report such violations.

At least in Nevada, some casinos have found ways to address kids-vs.-slots issues. Some neighborhood casinos, which cater to locals rather than tourists, provide play areas for children.

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Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images

Alabama county files largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history

Leaders of debt-hobbled Jefferson County in Alabama voted Friday to file for bankruptcy -- the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

As recently as September, county officials had approved a tentative settlement with creditors in hopes of avoiding the need for Chapter 9 protection. “This is just an agreement to agree,” Jefferson County Commissioner Joe Knight said at the time. “The devil's in the details, but we still have to get the details hammered out -- and then there will be some legislation required to make this settlement work.”

But nailing down those details proved elusive.

By a 4-1 vote Friday, the County Commission authorized the Chapter 9 filing.

“The county has negotiated extensively and in good faith with its creditors and their representatives about restructuring the county’s debts out-of-court,” commission President David Carrington said in a statement.  “Despite the county’s best efforts, those negotiations have not produced a deal that fairly treats the county and its citizens, and there is no reason to believe that further out-of-court negotiations will lead to a fair, acceptable result.”

Carrington signed the bankruptcy papers Wednesday afternoon.

Jefferson County, the state's most populous, is burdened with more than $4 billion in debt. The bills began to mount in recent years after officials borrowed to fix a broken sewer system, and then entered into some ill-advised and corruption-laced refinancing deals that backfired with the mortgage lending crisis.

In a statement, the county alluded to outside pressures that compounded the county’s own missteps: “The county’s Chapter 9 filing follows a series of significant and unprecedented financial setbacks to the county. In 2008, the county’s credit rating was downgraded for reasons outside of its control, including the downgrading of the credit ratings of the companies that insured the county’s long-term debt.”

In response to its financial troubles, the county has laid off more than 550 workers and severely cut  county programs. Officials said the bankruptcy filing would not further affect county services.

Previously, the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history was filed by Orange County, Calif., in 1994 when it sought protection after Wall Street investors insisted the county repay $1.2 billion in loans to its troubled investment pool.

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Photo: Jefferson County Commission President David Carrington signs the Chapter 9 bankruptcy papers in his office at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Birmingham, Ala.. Credit: Joe Songer/ Birmingham News

 

Magnitude 4.7 aftershock hits central Oklahoma

Yet another attention-grabbing earthquake has hit Oklahoma, the latest a magnitude 4.7 shaker near the town of Prague.

The quake hit at 6:46 p.m. Pacific time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Aftershocks to Saturday’s record 5.6 earthquake have rattled structures and nerves throughout central Oklahoma. Before Monday evening’s quake, Prague experienced a 3.0 quake Sunday and two more — of magnitude 3.3 and 3.4 — earlier Monday. The epicenters for the quakes, and the 4.7 temblor Monday evening, were all about five miles northwest of Prague, the Geological Survey reported.

Prague, a town of about 2,100 settled in the early 1900s by Czech immigrants, is located about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City.

The seismic activity is no surprise. Seismologists had warned residents to expect aftershocks, and at least 17 of magnitude 3 or greater have shaken the state.

Meanwhile, the state which has endured a year of extreme weather, was bracing Monday for storms and tornadoes.

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Sept. 11: Flight 93 remembered for bravery, heroism

 

Families came from across the country, joined by supporters and local community members. They came to a Pennsylvania field to grieve and remember.

A 70-year-old woman rode her Harley Davidson from Northern California. A hairdresser from Virginia Beach, Va., came dressed in a shirt she embroidered with names and phrases forever associated with the crash -- "Let's roll" in cursive across her collar. A third-grader came with his grandmother from the nearby town of Rockwood, Pa.

They gathered Saturday with thousands of others -– including former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton -- near Shanksville for the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial, erected in the field where the hijacked plane crashed on Sept. 11 a decade ago.

The 40 passengers and crew members were remembered as heroes who prevented even greater devastation on that day by overcoming the hijackers and forcing them to down the plane before reaching the intended target –- believed to be the U.S. Capitol. Instead, Flight 93 slammed into a reclaimed mine site and hemlock grove a few miles outside the coal country town.

"A couple more seconds and it would have hit the school," said third-grader Devin Snyder, 8.

As the ceremony began the sun broke through the clouds for the first time in a week. Father Daniel Coughlin, the chaplain of the House of Representatives in 2001, opened with a prayer. "They became willing seeds planted for freedom's harvest," he said of the passenger and crew.

The effort to build a memorial on the rural site remains a work in progress. The dedication unveiled a new granite wall bearing the names of the dead and a new 900-foot walkway allowing visitors to walk within yards of the actual crash crater -– a space considered sacred ground and still off-limits to nearly all but victims’ families.

Saying the passengers and crew “gave the country an incalculable gift,” Clinton compared them to the 300 Greek warriors who fought a massive Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae.  They were certain they would die, he said, but fought bravely and, in the end, saved their country.

The world has not forgotten what the ancient Greeks did. Clinton said that “2,500 years from now I hope and pray to God people will still remember this.”

Bush said that it will never be known how many lives the uprising on Flight 93 saved. The heroism the crew and passengers demonstrated above that Pennsylvania field ranks “among the most courageous acts in American history,” he said.

“The passengers of Flight 93 set an example that inspires us all,” Bush added.

A relative of one of the victims struck a similar theme. For all the horror of that day, Flight 93 carried a message of hope, said Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93.

“It was that first victory that gave us some hope on a dark day in our history,” Felt said in an interview. Felt’s brother, Edward Felt, was killed in the crash.

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Photo: Diane McCusker, right, a flight attendant with United Airlines who had flown with the crew that died in the crash of Flight 93, stands with her husband, Charles, as they view the site of the crash in Shanksville, Pa. Credit: Associated Press.

Sept. 11 weekend begins: Remembering Flight 93

A weekend of solemn ceremonies to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will begin Saturday in a rural portion of southwestern Pennsylvania, where thousands are expected to gather for the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial.

Former President George W. Bush and Vice President Joe Biden will attend the ceremony near the town of Shanksville, along with relatives of the 40 passengers and crew members of United Flight 93, who rose up against the terrorists who had hijacked their flight.  President Obama will attend an additional ceremony there Sunday.

Across the country -- in public ceremonies and in private moments -- Americans are remembering the nearly 3,000 people who died in the attacks of Sept. 11. They will mourn their loss and praise their heroism.

The website for the Flight 93 National Memorial describes what happened after four hijackers subdued the two pilots:

"For nearly half of an hour, the passengers and crew members discussed their situation and concluded that Flight 93 was being used by the hijackers to inflict harm and destruction in the nation’s capital. They reached a collective and daring decision to launch a counter-attack against the hijackers. As revealed by the cockpit voice recorder, several passengers and crew carried on a sustained assault against the hijackers for control of the plane. Minutes later, Flight 93 violently crashed into a vast meadow in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, destroying the plane and instantly killing all aboard."

The ceremony will dedicate the first phase of the memorial project. It includes a granite wall inscribed with the names of all who were aboard Flight 93 as well as a 900-foot walkway that offers a view of the place where the plane plummeted to the ground. The area is now covered with flowers.

California architect Paul Murdoch, who designed the memorial, explained the design’s intent in an interview with the Allentown Morning Call: “We used the large scale of the open site to give a heroic quality to the memorial, creating a long, arching walkway around a Field of Honor. We used the serenity of the rural landscape to inform the memorial expression as a cemetery, while working with the severity of the site's exposure and mining history to recognize it as a battleground.”

The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. PDT. The Flight 93 National Memorial and History Channel are providing a live webcast of the event.

Later Saturday, at dusk, will be the lighting of 2,982 luminaries, one for each person killed in the attacks 10 years ago Sunday.

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Photo: Former President George W. Bush speaks to former President Bill Clinton as former First Lady Laura Bush looks on at the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pa.

More tropical storms -- Nate and Maria -- take shape

 
As thousands of residents in the South and on the Eastern Seaboard still struggle to recover from the ravages of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, Hurricane Katia continued spinning away and two more tropical storms took shape in the Caribbean and Atlantic –- Nate and Maria.

It's too soon to say whether they'll hit the U.S. mainland, but here's what we know so far:

The National Hurricane Center reports that Tropical Storm Nate, hovering over the southern Gulf of Mexico, is expected to drop 2 to 4 inches of rain on parts of Mexico’s east coast. The states of Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz might get as much as 8 inches of rain. The storm was moving slowly –- about 2 mph –- and by Friday might start moving north.

Nate had winds of 45 mph, but in an advisory posted on its website Wednesday night, the center noted: “Some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Nate could become a hurricane by Friday.”

Tropical Storm Maria, pictured above, was in the mid-Atlantic, about 1,000 miles east of the Caribbean's Leeward Islands. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat and St. Kitts and Nevis.

There's good news, however, about Hurricane Katia. Now a Category 1 hurricane, it was still swirling over the Atlantic and not expected to reach land. Whew.

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Photo: In this satellite handout from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Tropical Storm Maria churns in the Atlantic on Wednesday. Credit: NOAA via Getty Images.

Tropical storm officially becomes Hurricane Katia

 
The ever-busy weather watchers at the National Hurricane Center said it was likely. And they were right.

On Wednesday night, the center announced that Tropical Storm Katia, swirling in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, had officially become the second named hurricane of the season. It follows right on the heels of Hurricane Irene.

In an advisory, the center described Katia as a Category 1 hurricane and said, “Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours and Katia could become a major hurricane by the weekend.”

It’s too soon, however, to predict just where Katia might land, or if it will make landfall at all.

Late Wednesday night, it was about 1,100 miles east of the Leeward Islands. Those are the islands, such as Antigua, Montserrat and St. Kitts, that arc from east of Puerto Rico down to South America. Hurricane Katia had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and was traveling west-northwest at about 20 mph.

The name Katia, incidentally, replaces a more familiar “K” name –- Katrina. The World Meteorological Organization has rotating lists of storm names and deletes those of particularly deadly hurricanes. Katrina was taken off the list after that hurricane devastated New Orleans and other parts of the South in 2005.

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 Photo: Image of Hurricane Katia courtesy of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Credit: AFP / NASA / NOAA.