Former Penn State president guilty in Sandusky abuse case

    Graham B. Spanier, the former Penn State president, walking to courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa.,
    on Friday.  Credit Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Jess Bidgood reports for The New York Times:


A jury in Harrisburg, Pa., on Friday delivered a split
verdict in the trial of the former president of Penn State, convicting him of child endangerment for his handling
of a sex abuse complaint involving an assistant football coach, but acquitting him of a charge of conspiracy and
a second endangerment count.
The former president, Graham B. Spanier, showed no emotion while the verdict was read, according to media reports. Jurors deliberated about 13 hours.
The charge is punishable by up to five years in prison
and a $10,000 fine, but prosecutors declined to say
whether they would seek jail time. Mr. Spanier’s lawyer
told The Associated Press that he would appeal.
The coach, Jerry Sandusky, was convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing 10 young boys whom, prosecutors
said, he met through his charity work and drew in with
gifts or trips to football games. He was sentenced to
30 to 60 years in prison.

The revelation of the abuse — and its extent — shocked
the State College, Pa., community and upended a
university that has long revered its football program.
The fallout was swift and far-reaching, touching both
the football program and the administration. The Penn
State coach, Joe Paterno, an icon on campus and the
most victorious coach in major college football,
was forced to resign. Much of his coaching staff was dismissed.
Mr. Spanier, once a well-liked leader who oversaw a 
period of expansion, was among the several officials
harshly criticized by investigators who reviewed the university’s actions in a 2012 report. He has challenged
its findings.
He was charged along with two other former
administrators. the athletic director, Tim Curley, and 
a vice president, Gary Schultz. Both men made 
last-minute plea deals and testified for the prosecution.
In 2013, Penn State agreed to pay $59.7 million 
to 26 sexual abuse victims in exchange for an end
to their claims against the university.

The scandal was one in a series of recent cases 
sending a message that campus crimes — particularly
sex crimes — cannot be kept as quiet, or treated as
lightly, as they once were. Administrators have been
fired from several colleges and universities that failed
to report assaults or treat them seriously, including
Ken Starr, who was removed last year as president
of Baylor University. 
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Climate change? Major TV networks ignoring the story

Kate Yoder writes for Grist:

Major TV networks spent just 50 minutes on climate change — combined — last year.

That’s a dramatic, 66-percent drop in coverage from 2015 across evening and Sunday news programs airing on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, according to a new study from Media Matters. ABC, for one, spent just six minutes on climate issues in 2016.

Media Matters

The networks can’t claim there was a shortage of important climate stories to cover. Hurricane Matthew, the Great Barrier Reef’s continued slow death, record-shattering heat, and the official beginning of the Paris climate deal all took place last year.
Interestingly, the coverage drop doesn’t seem to be an election-year phenomenon. In fact, climate coverage increased by 43 percent during the previous election cycle, between 2011 and 2012.

Media Matters

Other insights from the study:
  • Together, the networks aired five segments of climate science denial from Trump and his team — without rebuttal.
  • No network covered climate change’s impact on national security or the economy.
  • And none of them aired a single segment on the effect a Trump or Clinton presidency would have on the climate — until after the election.
Great to know that TV news is taking the defining issue of our time so seriously.
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Agriculture and environment bills up for votes in Trenton


Legislative information supplied by BillTrak

The New Jersey Senate has already held its final voting session prior to the Legislature’s annual, month-long budget break.


The Assembly will meet for its final, pre-break voting session on Thursday, March 23.  


At that session, the following agriculture and environment bills are scheduled to be considered:


A-2081  Mukherji, R. (D-33); Pintor Marin, E. (D-29);
Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Holley, J.C. (D-20); Chiaravalloti, N. (D-31)
Provides for priority consideration, by DCA, DEP, DOT,
and municipalities, of permit applications for green building projects.
     
A-2463  Eustace, T. (D-38); Vainieri Huttle, V.
(D-37); Caride, M. (D-36); Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Lagana, J.A. (D-38); Lampitt,
P.R. (D-6); Mukherji, R. (D-33)
Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have
discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain
hazardous materials by rail; requires NJ DOT to request bridge inspection
reports from US DOT.
Related Bill: S-806
     
A-4580  Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Burzichelli, J.J.
(D-3); Quijano, A. (D-20)
Appropriates $2,900,000 from “2009 Farmland
Preservation Fund” for grants to certain nonprofit organizations for
farmland preservation purposes.
Related Bill: S-2989
      
A-4581  Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Andrzejczak, B.
(D-1); Singleton, T. (D-7); Downey, J. (D-11)
Appropriates $22,385,743 to State Agriculture
Development Committee for farmland preservation purposes.
Related Bill: S-2987
   
A-4582  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Mazzeo, V. (D-2);
Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Zwicker, A. (D-16)
Appropriates $32.5 million from constitutionally
dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for county
planning incentive grants.
Related Bill: S-2990
     
A-4583  Zwicker, A. (D-16); Conaway, H. (D-7); Land,
R.B. (D-1); Downey, J. (D-11)
Appropriates $2,988,859 from 2009 Historic Preservation
Fund and constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to provide capital
preservation grants for certain historic preservation projects.  Related Bill: S-2991
    
A-4584  Zwicker, A. (D-16); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3);
Burzichelli, J.J. (D-3)
Appropriates $7,500,000 from constitutionally dedicated
CBT revenues for planning incentive grants to municipalities for farmland
preservation purposes.
Related Bill: S-2988
     Mar 23, 2017  – Posted: Assembly
S-806  Weinberg, L. (D-37); Gordon, R.M. (D-38)
Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have
discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain
hazardous materials by rail; requires NJ DOT to request bridge inspection
reports from US DOT.
Related Bill: A-2463
     
S-2997  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Appropriates $59,532,000 from constitutionally dedicated
CBT revenues for State acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation
purposes, including Blue Acres projects, and capital and park development
projects.
Related Bill: A-4597
    
Legislative information
supplied by BillTrak


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Report lauds $3.7B potential of Marcellus liquids in Pa.

Workers install the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Washington County, PA, this year. A state report released Tuesday says that Marcellus gas liquids could spur up to $3.7 billion in investment in Pennsylvania.
CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer

Andrew Maykuth reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Production of Marcellus Shale gas liquids such as ethane and propane could fuel up to $3.7 billion in investments as well as attracting additional petrochemical and plastics manufacturing to Pennsylvania, according to a report released Tuesday by Gov. Wolf and the Team Pennsylvania Foundation.


“Pennsylvania has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to develop and implement a strategy that will cultivate a manufacturing renaissance and transform our economy across the commonwealth,” Wolf said in a statement.

 
The study, “Prospects to Enhance Pennsylvania’s Opportunities in Petrochemical Manufacturing,” was done by energy consultant IHS Markit.

Natural gas liquids are currently being transported across Pennsylvania to Marcus Hook in Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East pipeline, and also used as the raw material in a Shell Chemical ethane cracker under construction in Beaver County.


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NJ lawmakers take yet another shot at RGGI participation

Tom Johnson writes for NJ Spotlight: 


Regional effort to curb greenhouse-gas emissions could be critical, some lawmakers say, if Trump rolls back initiative to reduce power plant pollution

power plant

With a new administration in Washington pulling back on climate-change initiatives, New Jersey lawmakers are reviving an effort to rejoin a multi-state initiative to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Senate Environment and Energy Committee yesterday approved a bill that would have New Jersey rejoin a regional program to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, a venture Gov. Chris Christie pulled out of early in his first term.
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Not even its proponents believe the governor will sign the bill if passed, but they argue it is important to make clear the state’s intentions once a new executive takes office.

“The timing couldn’t be more important,’’ Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey told the committee, citing reports that the Trump administration could dismantle a plan to reduce power plant emissions adopted by former President Barack Obama as early as this week.
Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, agreed, saying the best way to implement that effort, dubbed the Clean Power Plan, is by joining the multistate effort known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. “It’s important to send a message,’’ he said.
The program has become a political football in New Jersey since Christie pulled the state out of it, calling the initiative a tax on utility customers and ineffective in its goals.
Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the sponsor and chairman of the committee, disagreed, citing reports from a consultant that claimed it’s boosted economic activity in the region, lowered customers’ bills, and returned more than $113 million to New Jersey.
“It’s a great program. I think we should never have left it,’’ said Smith, a course his latest bill would prevent. “If we are in, we’re in; we can’t pull out afterwards.’’
After Christie pulled out, the Legislature tried to get New Jersey back in, but the executive branch ignored those efforts. The matter also was litigated in the courts, with the Christie administration losing on procedural grounds, which it later corrected by adopting a formal withdrawal through a rule-making process.
The move to rejoin the regional initiative was opposed by business lobbyists yesterday, who said the state is doing a fine job reducing emissions contributing to climate change.
“We have the lowest emissions in PJM (the regional power grid stretching from the Eastern Seaboard to Illinois) from our power plants,’’ said Sara Bluhm, a lobbyist for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association. She expressed concerns that rejoining the multi-state program would increase electricity bills.
The power sector is the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, behind the transportation sector, in New Jersey. The state gets nearly half of its electricity from nuclear power, which does not produce pollution contributing to global warming.
Nonetheless, a plan put together by the state Department of Environmental Protection to achieve an 80 percent reduction in carbon pollution by 2050 identified RGGI as one of the three main components to realize that goal. The others include a program to encourage low- and zero-emission vehicle adoption in New Jersey, and steps outlined in the state’s Energy Master Plan.
The vehicle-emission program, which has been adopted in California and nine other Northeast states, is reportedly also targeted for elimination by the new administration in Washington.
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