and can't wait for more features to appear. That's all.

Here's a quick rundown on what preparations are in place for Tuesday, who the major players are, and what’s at stake:

The case

Former Penn State football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who in 1977 founded The Second Mile charity for at-risk youth, faces 52 charges that he sexually abused 10 boys between 1994 and 2009.

What is a preliminary hearing?

It's the first opportunity for the two sides to present evidence and question witnesses. The prosecution must present a “prima facie” case — basically it must show some evidence of each crime, and show that the defendant may have committed the crime.

What's at stake?

A district judge presides over the hearing. If he finds the prosecution has established a prima facie case, the case will be “bound over” to the trial court, which in this case is the Centre County Court of Common Pleas. If the district judge finds the prosecution has not established a prima facie case, the judge will dismiss the charges.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/12/132815/sandusky-case-whats-at-stake-in.html#ixzz1gLEqTGFF

Where are the smilies?


Can we comment when we start a thread in Latest Breaking News as there isn't a specific space?

HUTCHINSON, Kan. | A tea party group in Kansas says its depiction of President Barack Obama as a skunk is satire, not racism as the leader of a civil rights group alleges.

Hutchinson-based Patriot Freedom Alliance says on its website that like the president, the skunk is “half black, half white, and almost everything it does stinks.”

Local NAACP president Darrell Pope sees no humor in the depiction, which he calls a blatant statement of racism.

Local tea party supporter Chuck Sankey says former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been the target of worse insults than what's on the website



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/11/3314889/kansas-tea-party-illustration.html#ixzz1gIHCskEo

A 24-year-old Phillipsburg woman who told police she wanted to go to jail before she ended up overdosing on drugs has gotten her wish.

Last week, Richelle Denise Vanluven handed police her purse and said she had three syringes loaded with a mixture of methamphetamine, bath salts and opiates.

The Lebanon Daily Record reports officers arrested her late Wednesday on a felony drug possession charge.

Police say Vanluven told them she missed a meeting with her probation officer so a warrant would be issued, then became upset when told there was no warrant.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/11/3314482/missouri-woman-asks-police-to.html#ixzz1gGpU41r9

After nearly 40 years in public education, Patrick Godwin spends his retirement days running a horse farm east of Sacramento, Calif., with his daughter.

His departure from the workaday world is likely to be long and relatively free of financial concerns, after he retired last July at age 59 with a pension paying $174,308 a year for the rest of his life.

Such guaranteed pensions for relatively youthful government retirees - paid in similar fashion to millions nationwide - are contributing to nationwide friction with the public sector workers. They have access to attractive defined-benefit pensions and retiree health care coverage that most private sector workers no longer do.

Experts say eligible retirement ages have fallen over the past two decades for many reasons, including contract agreements between states and government labor unions that lowered retirement ages in lieu of raising pay.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/10/3312575/public-retirement-ages-come-under.html#ixzz1gF4HeQx4

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The head of Penn State University's police department who oversaw a 1998 investigation of possible sexual abuse by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky once lived three houses down from the defensive coordinator, property records show.

Chief Thomas Harmon took over leading the department just one month before a detective began looking into whether the chief's former neighbor sexually abused two 11-year-old boys in a campus shower. Harmon later ordered the case closed when the Centre County, Pa., district attorney decided not to file criminal charges.

Sandusky retired from Penn State a year later.

The personal connection between the chief and the architect of "Linebacker U" now has lawyers for Sandusky's alleged victims questioning what role those ties may have played in closing the 1998 investigation, which they argue was a missed opportunity to stop Sandusky from assaulting more children.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/10/132730/sandusky-penn-state-police-chief.html#ixzz1gDNBUbwR

WASHINGTON — If Doug McMakin's latest experiment is successful, it's going to save travelers some time and hassle at the airport someday soon.

They won't have to take off their shoes when they go through security, because a scanner will examine their feet and immediately detect whether they're security risks.

Thanks to McMakin's engineering work at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the same technology already is in use at a handful of malls around the country, where clothing shoppers can step into machines and have their measurements instantly matched with different sizes and brands.

As questions are raised overseas about the safety of full-body scanners, engineers in Washington state are touting machines that they claim are safer and could ease airport lines and spot potential suicide bombers.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/11/132592/body-scanners-finding-plenty-of.html#ixzz1gDLx0XUS

Where do we go to talk about our fur kids?

Newt Gingrich, right, dominated the Republican debate in Iowa while Mitt Romney singled himself out as a multi-millionaire by taunting rival Rick Perry with a '$10,000 bet
The Republican frontrunner Newt Gingrich came under sustained fire throughout a two-hour televised debate in Iowa on Saturday night as rivals ranged wide over his views on the Middle East, his work as a lobbyist and his sex life.

With 24 days left to the Iowa caucus and only one more scheduled debate left, time is running out Gingrich's rivals to cut into his double-digit poll leads.

His main rival, Mitt Romney, had a poor night. When everything else about this debate is forgotten it will still be remembered for Romney's extraordinary bet with Texas governor Rick Perry over a point about healthcare.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/11/gingrich-banks-10000-bet-romney