Penn State’s Sandusky scandal report to be released; will it answer ’who knew what and when’? STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — The results of Penn State’s internal investigation into the Jerry Sandusky scandal are due to be released in the form of a report that could answer many of the troubling questions swirling around one of the darkest scandals in sports history. A team led by former federal judge and FBI director Louis Freeh interviewed hundreds of people to learn how the university responded to warning signs that its once revered former defensive coordinator — a man who helped Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno win two national titles while touting ‘‘success with honor’’ — was a serial child molester. Sandusky was convicted on 45 criminal counts last month at a trial that included gut-wrenching testimony from eight young men who said he abused them as boys. By contrast, the Freeh report, scheduled for online release at 9 a.m. Thursday, will focus on Penn State and what it did — or didn’t do — to protect children. It remains unclear how top university officials handled reports dating back at least 14 years that Sandusky was behaving inappropriately with boys he met through his charity, bringing them on campus and forcing them into sex acts. The report also could add to what is known about the role of Paterno, who died from lung cancer in January at age 85, two months after being fired as coach following Sandusky’s arrest. ——— Biden to rebut Romney’s address during speech at NAACP convention WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden is offering a rebuttal of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney before the nation’s largest civil rights organization, defending President Barack Obama’s record before black voters. Biden is addressing the NAACP convention in Houston on Thursday, a day after Romney said he’d do more for African-Americans than Obama, the nation’s first black president. Romney was booed when he said he’d repeal Obama’s sweeping health care reform law but otherwise got a polite reception as he reached out to a traditionally Democratic voting bloc. Obama’s campaign countered that Romney’s policies would hurt working families in the black community, an argument Biden was expected to make before the NAACP delegates. Democrats said Romney had opposed the rescue of the U.S. auto industry, the health care law and the economic stimulus, which they said helped black voters. ‘‘While Mitt Romney tried to paint a picture of a president who failed the African-American community, we know that the reality is that President Barack Obama has delivered time and time again,’’ said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Obama is not speaking to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this year. He spoke to the organization during the 2008 campaign and in 2009, while first lady Michelle Obama spoke to the group in 2010. The president is scheduled to address the National Urban League in New Orleans on July 25. ——— With fundraiser and dinner, conservative favorite Dick Cheney lends some star power to Romney JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney is using his popularity with Republican conservatives to give a boost to Mitt Romney, hosting a fundraiser for the party’s likely nominee at a mountain valley resort as well as a private dinner at his Wyoming home. Romney has avoided appearing in public with Cheney or with former President George W. Bush — both are seen as divisive figures by many of the swing voters he needs to win over if he’s going to defeat President Barack Obama. The Cheney-sponsored events Thursday evening at this resort town near Yellowstone National Park represent a welcome endorsement for Romney, who is eager to win over more of the party’s base. Romney doesn’t have a close relationship with the former vice president, a veteran of five Republican presidential administrations and a huge draw for GOP donors. While Romney speaks regularly with former President George H.W. Bush, he seldom refers by name to the most recent Bush to occupy the White House. On occasion he goes out of his way not to say Bush’s name out loud and simply calls him ‘‘the predecessor’’ to Obama. Cheney has generally shied away from politicking and he remains controversial, in part because of his hawkish foreign policy stances, including his support for interrogation techniques like waterboarding. Still, Romney has embraced Cheney in the past. Last year, he told an Arizona town hall that Cheney’s ‘‘wisdom and judgment’’ would provide a model for choosing his own vice president. ——— In Cambodia, Clinton presses Beijing on rules for resource-rich South China Sea PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The Obama administration pressed Beijing on Thursday to accept a code of conduct for resolving territorial disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea, a difficult U.S. mediation effort that has faced resistance from the communist government. It has endeared the U.S., however, to once-hostile countries in Southeast Asia. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ annual conference. Sitting across from each other at a long table in a grand hall with chandeliers, Clinton stressed the different ways Washington and Beijing are cooperating. Yang spoke of building an even closer U.S.-Chinese relationship. Neither side spoke about the South China Sea while reporters were allowed in the room. Several Asian governments have expressed worry about China’s expansive maritime claims. Tensions have threatened to boil over in recent months, with a standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships and sharp disagreements between China and Vietnam. China claims virtually the entire area and has created an entirely new city to administer it, sparking deep concern from rival claimants. The sea hosts about a third of the world’s cargo traffic, has rich fishing grounds and is believed to store vast oil and gas reserves. ——— Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s ’mood disorder’ likely raising more questions about hushed absence CHICAGO (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s disclosure that he is suffering from a ‘‘mood disorder’’ still leaves many questions about his secretive medical leave and whether the Illinois congressman has satisfied mounting calls to be more open about his month-long absence. Just hours after Democratic leaders in Congress ratcheted up pressure on Jackson to reveal more information, his office released a brief statement from his doctor on Wednesday saying the Chicago Democrat was receiving ‘‘intensive medical treatment at a residential treatment facility for a mood disorder.’’ But it offered no details about Jackson’s whereabouts or even the name of the doctor, citing federal privacy laws. Several experts said that based on the doctor’s use of the term ‘‘mood disorder,’’ they believed Jackson might be suffering from depression. But the statement did not elaborate on his condition and rejected claims that the 47-year-old congressman was being treated for ‘‘alcohol or substance abuse.’’ ‘‘He is responding positively to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery,’’ the statement said. His spokesman declined to elaborate. ——— Banks place more US homes on foreclosure path in June, pave way for more bank-owned homes LOS ANGELES (AP) — Banks are increasingly placing homes with unpaid mortgages on a countdown that could deliver a swell of new foreclosed properties onto the market by early next year, potentially weighing further on home values. June provided the latest evidence of this trend, as the number of U.S. homes entering the foreclosure process for the first time increased on an annual basis for the second month in a row, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. California in particular saw a big spike in foreclosure starts, or homes placed on the foreclosure path for the first time. They increased 18 percent versus June last year, the firm said. The increase in foreclosure starts comes as banks make up for time lost last year as the mortgage-lending industry grappled with allegations that it had processed foreclosures without verifying documents. The nation’s biggest mortgage lenders reached a $25 billion settlement in February with state officials. And that’s cleared the way for banks to address their backlog of unpaid mortgages. ——— SOS call for historic ocean liner docked in Philly; SS United States launches emergency drive PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Caretakers for the SS United States, the legendary ocean liner moored on the Delaware River since 1996, are renewing and expanding their emergency distress call for the beleaguered piece of American maritime history. In an eleventh-hour reprieve that spared the ship a date with the scrap yard, a local philanthropist’s $5.8 million gift allowed the SS United States Conservancy to buy it and keep it afloat until November 2012. With that date looming, the nonprofit conservancy launched a ‘‘Save the United States’’ fundraising rally Wednesday to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the ship’s maiden voyage on July 3, 1952. The conservancy has raised about $6 million so far but needs $25 million to restore the exterior and part of the interior to house a museum, said Susan Gibbs, conservancy executive director and the granddaughter of William Francis Gibbs, the ship’s Philadelphia-born designer. The goal is to spark interest, raise public awareness and literally get investors on board. ‘‘The SS United States is America’s flagship. It symbolizes the very best that this nation has produced,’’ she said. ‘‘It is going to once again be an amazing icon for the nation to appreciate and enjoy.’’ The fundraising campaign includes a new interactive website, www.savetheunitedstates.org, which allows donors to ‘‘purchase’’ a piece of the ship for $1 per square inch for themselves or in honor of someone else. They can choose the section they want to sponsor by scrolling and zooming around a virtual model on the website, ‘‘meet’’ other donors throughout the ship, personalize and upload images and memories of the ship, and share it through social media sites. ——— Child deaths in Cambodia highlight potent form of hand, foot and mouth disease raging in Asia HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Tran Minh Giang has spent more than a third of his young life in a Vietnamese hospital, and it could be many months more before he can go home. All for a disease that in Asia is as common as chicken pox, and usually about as severe. The 20-month-old boy was sickened by a particularly menacing form of hand, foot and mouth disease that has killed hundreds of young children across the region. They sometimes suffer high fever, brain swelling, paralysis and respiratory shutdown, even though they may have been infected by people with few or no symptoms. When the strain hit Cambodia recently, doctors there had no idea what it was, and even now experts don’t fully understand why it can be so devastating. Seven months after becoming sick, Giang still breathes using a ventilator connected to a hole in his tiny throat. ‘‘It may take time, maybe years, before he can recover. When he sleeps, his lungs don’t work,’’ his father, Tran Nam Trung, said Thursday while fanning the baby. ‘‘When he first got a high fever, I didn’t think that he would be in a situation like this.’’ The enterovirus 71 strain, or EV-71, raised fears earlier this week when it was detected in some lab samples taken after 52 of 59 Cambodian children died suddenly from a mystery illness that sparked international alarm. Health officials are still investigating but say the virus is likely to blame for a significant number of cases. ——— Bob Dylan, ’History Detectives’ dispute ownership of Newport electric guitar NEW YORK (AP) — Bob Dylan and historians at PBS are in a dispute over the whereabouts of an electric guitar that the singer plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, quite possibly the most historic single instrument in rock ‘n’ roll. The New Jersey daughter of a pilot who flew Dylan to appearances in the 1960s says she has the guitar, which has spent much of the past 47 years in a family attic. But a lawyer for Dylan claims the singer still has the Fender Stratocaster with the sunburst design that he used during one of the most memorable performances of his career. If the authentic ‘‘Dylan goes electric’’ guitar ever went on the open marketplace, experts say it could fetch as much as a half million dollars. The guitar is the centerpiece of next Tuesday’s season premiere of PBS’ ‘‘History Detectives,’’ and the show said late Wednesday it stood by its conclusion that Dawn Peterson, the pilot’s daughter who works as a customer relations manager for an energy company, has the right instrument. On July 25, 1965, that guitar was more an object of derision than desire. ——— 2 officials familiar with decision: Saudis to send 2 female athletes to Olympics for 1st time LONDON (AP) — Olympic officials tell The Associated Press that Saudi Arabia will send female athletes to the games for the first time at the London Olympics. Two officials with knowledge of the decision spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Thursday because the official announcement had not yet been made. The officials say the Saudis are sending two women to compete in judo and track and field. The ultraconservative Muslim kingdom has been under pressure from the IOC and human-rights groups to end the practice of sending all-male teams. Qatar and Brunei, two other countries that have never sent a female athlete to the Olympics, are also including women on their teams for the London Games.
