The Freeh report, political picks, and more: letters to the editor
‘Expose the numerous defects’
I encourage Penn State’s Alumni Trustees to release immediately, with or without consent of the rest of the Board (and while making it clear they are not speaking on the Board’s behalf), the portion of their assessment of the Freeh Report that does not rely on confidential information.
The non-confidential Freeh Report itself contains enough self-contradictory arguments to expose the numerous defects of which the Board, as constituted in July 2012, would have been aware had it exercised even rudimentary diligence by reading it in detail. The Board instead stood by while then-Chair Karen Peetz affirmed it on behalf of the Board and the University without, as shown by the minutes of the July 2012 Board meeting, the Board’s approval.
It is understandable why the Board’s holdovers from 2012, along with their allies among the business and industry and agriculture factions, do not want the findings released. President Judge Dan Pellegrini (Commonwealth Court of PA, April 9 2014, Corman and McCord vs. NCAA) opined, “The majority [of the court] appears to arrive at this outcome because it is bewildered, as I am, by how the Board of Trustees of PSU could have approved or allowed to be executed a ‘Consent Decree’ involving the expenditure of $60 million of PSU funds when the Consent Decree specifically states that the matter ‘ordinarily would not be actionable by the NCAA.’”
This, and the rest of Judge Pellegrini’s opinion, comes across as a very damning assessment of the 2012 Board’s performance. - Bill Levinson, Wilkes Barre, PA
‘Change in Harrisburg’
While our current state senator plays golf, 34th Senate district candidate Ezra Nanes holds a renewable energy town hall presenting solutions to critical Pennsylvania problems. It is Ezra Nanes who will work to reduce our carbon footprint, to produce 100 percent renewable energy and incentivize the jobs that brings, end gerrymandering, retrain coal miners and protect their pensions, increase safety in schools, protect our working agriculture, bring broadband internet to rural Pennsylvania, increase health care access in rural Pennsylvania and protect our land, our air and our drinking water.
Ezra Nanes and his family have been solving problems here and actively working on their community’s issues. Ezra’s background in responsible finance leads him to commit to an on-time balanced state budget. His caring for others leads him to commit to more and better long-term treatment for opioid disease.
Ezra Nanes allows us excellent access to himself and his staff in order to hear our problems and work on solutions. We need a massive shake-up in Harrisburg. Current legislators refuse to talk to their constituents. Ezra Nanes will give us all the change in Harrisburg that I know that I need to see.
Ezra Nanes has taken the pledge to not take contributions from the oil, gas, and coal industry and instead prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits. Vote on November 6. - Nancy F Parks, Aaronsburg, PA
‘Voted straight Republican’
As a snowbird, I have already cast my absentee ballot for the mid-term election. For the first time in a long time, I have voted a straight Republican ticket.
Previously, my votes were always split, as I know a few Democrats who decently represent the best interests of their constituency and country. This year, however, in the absence of any of my local, state, or national Democrat candidates standing up for respect and decency against the violence of the liberal mob, those Democrats did not get my vote.
The likes of Maxine Waters and Eric Holder make up the new face of that duplicitous liberal party. Like the Centre Daily Times with its almost daily disgusting and disrespectful political cartoons, and its selective, unprincipled guest editorials, an era of courteous and honorable behavior is coming to an end. Almost daily diatribes exhibiting crude bias and behavior puts the Centre Daily Times and the Democrat party in the same swamp. - Fred C. Hammer, State College, PA