Jerry Sandusky asks court for delay in sex case

In this photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, center, walks to the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot while being escorted by Pennsylvania State Police and Attorney General's Office officials on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in State College, Pa. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania's child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General via Commonwealth Media Services) (AP Photo)

  MARK SCOLFOROHARRISBURG, Pa. -- A former Penn State assistant football coach accused of molesting boys is asking an appeals court to delay the proceedings against him.

Jerry Sandusky's attorney Karl Rominger filed a petition for review and application for a stay with the Superior Court in Harrisburg on Thursday, five days before jury selection is scheduled to begin in Sandusky's child sexual abuse case. The online docket doesn't explain the nature of the petition.

Sandusky attorney Joe Amendola has declined to comment on Thursday, citing a gag order. A spokesman for the attorney general's office won't comment.

The 68-year-old Sandusky is accused of molesting 10 boys, some on campus. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Penn State's president says the university is trying hard to put the child sex abuse scandal in its rearview mirror and is healing.

President Rodney Erickson made his case before a pair of newspaper editorial boards on Wednesday and Thursday, talking up Penn State's response to the massive scandal, which tarnished its image and led to the ousters of Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno and Erickson's predecessor, Graham Spanier, whose presidency ended days after Sandusky was charged in November with dozens of sexual assault counts.

Erickson said Penn State is seeking to become a leader in the fight against child abuse, pointing out the school donated $2.6 million in bowl revenues to a group that operates rape crisis centers and to its new center for child abuse research and treatment.

"The university really has been moving ahead. Sometimes it's hard to get that message out," Erickson told Harrisburg's The Patriot-News on Thursday, adding: "It's been a difficult time, but I think in many ways we continue to heal."

A day earlier, Erickson told State College's Centre Daily Times that Penn State has created a "degree of separation" from the scandal through the academic, athletic and charitable achievements of its students and faculty.

"I think there was a time early on when the emotions ran so high that everybody wanted to put everything in the same basket," he said. "... We've done a remarkable job in spite of the matters related to the Sandusky charges and investigations and emotions of all of that, coach Paterno's passing and so on."

Many alumni were infuriated when Paterno was fired a few days after Sandusky was charged with dozens of counts of abuse, saying the university board of trustees rushed to judgment. Paterno died in January at age 85, and his family has been critical of the way the school handled the situation.

But Erickson told the Harrisburg newspaper that he has a "good relationship" with Paterno's widow, Sue Paterno, and son Jay Paterno.

"Sue and Jay have never left the fold. They have been strong supporters over many months," said Erickson, who also praised new coach Bill O'Brien's efforts to win over fans.

Erickson also said he took part in a "broad-ranging" three-hour interview with Louis Freeh, the former FBI director hired by Penn State's board of trustees to investigate the Sandusky scandal. Erickson declined to provide details of what he told Freeh. He said he isn't getting regular updates on the probe and will see Freeh's report when it is released to the public.

Erickson briefly addressed a lawsuit filed last week by Spanier, who said he wants to force the school to release emails related to the scandal so he can be better prepared to assist the Freeh investigation. Erickson agreed with Spanier's attorneys that Penn State was instructed by the state attorney general's office not to divulge the information, "so that's the position we took."

Though Erickson has been subpoenaed, he said he has not testified before the grand jury.

Sandusky was charged after a former Penn State graduate assistant said he saw him in the football team shower with a boy a decade ago.

Sandusky has acknowledged he showered with boys but says he never molested them. His trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Two other university officials are charged with failing to report suspected abuse and perjury related to their grand jury testimony.

Apart from the Sandusky scandal, Erickson also repeated a commitment to keep the 2012-13 tuition increase at or below the rate of inflation if lawmakers succeed in their effort to roll back Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's proposal to cut 20 percent from the school's annual share of state aid.

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John Edwards asks to delay trial, citing illness

(AP Photo)

  Eyewitness NewsRALEIGH, North Carolina -- Former presidential candidate John Edwards says he has been diagnosed with a medical condition that would make it difficult for him to attend his approaching criminal trial over campaign finances and is asking for it to be delayed.

In a motion filed Thursday, Edwards' lawyers asked a federal judge to delay the start of the Jan. 30 trial for at least two months. They did not disclose his illness and filed sealed records with the court.

"The Defendant has a medical issue ... that will prevent a trial of this matter during the January 2012 Criminal Term," the motion says. "The failure to grant a continuance would be likely to result in a miscarriage of justice."

Members of the defense team could not immediately be reached for comment.

Federal prosecutors filed a separate motion opposing the delay, saying they are ready to try Edwards on six felony and misdemeanor counts related to nearly $1 million from wealthy donors used to help hide his pregnant mistress during his 2008 run for the While House.

Edwards, a Democrat, denies knowingly violating the law and has pleaded not guilty.

The start date of the trial has already been put back once after Edwards said he needed more time to prepare his defense and attend his daughter's wedding.

Edwards appeared healthy last week at a pretrial hearing in the case.

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Postal cutbacks to delay 1st-class mail

  By HOPE YENWASHINGTON -- Utility bills are paid, legal briefs are filed and the Christmas shopping all gets done online. But for magazines, clothing catalogues and movies, the mail still matters.

For some mail-dependent businesses, quick and cheap first-class mail service from the U.S. Postal Service is still the best way to reach prospective customers and subscribers. And for many, it's still an important way to get paid.

The Postal Service, which has been losing money for five years, said Monday that it is shuttering more than 200 mail processing centers, adding at least a day's wait for many first-class deliveries. The news was met with concern and frustration from some businesses - and shrugs from others that long ago stopped relying on the post office.

"It's less of a disaster than it would have been 10 years ago, but it'll be a cash flow crunch for some companies," said Todd McCracken, president and chief executive of the National Small Business Association. "It'll be longer to get your invoice, and longer to get a check back."

First-class mail is supposed to arrive at U.S. homes and businesses in one to three days; about 42 percent of it arrives in one day. The cutbacks will back up deliveries to two to three days; periodicals could take up to nine days.

Cookie Driscoll of Fairfield, Pa., designs and sells decorative animal stickers to gift shops. She uses the Postal Service for almost all deliveries because prices are low and predictable, and delivery is fast. She also receives most of her income by paper checks through the mail.

"The trickle-down effect of this is going to be frustrating," she said. "It's not going to put me out of business but it's an irritant. Every time small businesses turn around we get hit with something else."

The change could represent an operational headache for L.L.

Bean, which mails 250 million catalogues a year to sell outdoor clothing and equipment. Now the company knows the day its catalogues will arrive in homes, and it can put on extra staff at call centers on the appointed day. It won't be able to do that anymore.

"We are increasingly concerned about any proposal that would degrade the level of service such as greater variability in delivery deadlines," said Carolyn Beem, an L.L. Bean spokeswoman.

Most Netflix customers who subscribe to the company's DVD-by-mail service watch movies on the weekends and should still be able to return movies Monday and have new ones on Friday, according to Michael Pachter, an analyst at the investment firm Wedbush. But other users will notice a delay, he said.

Netflix - one of the Postal Service's biggest customers, with expenses of up to $600 million a year - has repeatedly warned in regulatory filings that any Postal Service cutbacks that delay its DVD-by-mail deliveries will make it more difficult to keep subscribers happy. And, with encouragement from Netflix, customers are already abandoning mail service for movies delivered online.

But for many companies, the changes will have no effect. Some have already stopped relying on the Postal Service, moving online for billing or to overnight companies FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. for critical deliveries. First-class mail volume is 78 billion per year, down from a peak of 104 billion in 2001. It is projected to drop by roughly half by 2020.

The healthcare company Medco said in a statement that it did not expect the postal changes to have a major effect on its business, although the online drug distributor used the Postal Service to send most of its 110 million drug shipments last year.

Keith Ashmus, an attorney at Frantz Ward in Cleveland, said his office can now file pleadings and motions electronically, so it sends far less mail than it used to. Documents served by mail are allowed three days to arrive, which means there will still be enough time for delivery by first class even with the changes.

In some cases, magazine publishers and other bulk mailers who drop off shipments at processing centers that remain open may be able to get their materials delivered the next day.

A spokesman for the MPA-the Association of Magazine Media, a magazine trade group, said the changes may cause printing and transportation problems for weekly publications.

The service changes will almost certainly send more business activity online and to FedEx and UPS.

David Ross, a transportation analyst at investment firm Stifel Nicolaus predicts the new business from postal cutbacks will stem the losses FedEx and UPS saw in overnight document deliveries during the recession.

The 28,000 job cuts announced by the Postal Service likely won't make a big difference to the economy or job market, economists say.

Private delivery companies will probably get more business as the Postal Service cuts back.

"It adds to the fear about higher unemployment and inadequate job growth," said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse.

But when the cuts are spread over several months, in an economy with about 140 million jobs, there won't be a large impact, he said.

Postal Service employment has been declining for years. The service has cut more than 30,000 jobs in the past year, the government's Friday employment report showed.

Postal Service employment peaked at 909,000 in 1999 and has declined steadily since, falling to 612,400 last month.

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AP Business Writers Samantha Bomkamp in New York, Hope Yen and Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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