Penn State

WJZ meteorologist Bernadette Woods is leaving the CBS-owned station to join a non-profit firm in New Jersey focused on climate change, she said Wednesday night. Woods, who has been with WJZ for seven years, said she will remain at the station helping with the transition for the next month. After that, she, her husband and their two children will be moving to Princeton, N.J., where she will join Climate Central as staff meteorologist. "I'm very excited about the opportunity in Princeton," she said.

For the second time in three years, the Maryland football team will play a game at M&T Bank Stadium in 2015 - this time against Penn State in what Terps fans hope will be part of a renewed rivalry between the schools. The game - scheduled for Oct. 24, 2015 - will mark Penn State's first visit to the state for a Terps game since 1993. The game was among the highlights of the Big Ten schedule released Monday. For the second season in a row, the Terps will close the regular season with a game against Rutgers.

PHILADELPHIA - The nation is going plant crazy. This year - even with a drought - the largest revenue crop in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and about 10 other states is likely to be nursery products such as begonias, pansies, petunias, azaleas, other annuals and perennials, and shade trees. And that is only part of the economic story unfolding in the back yard, a growing number of agricultural economists and trade organizations say. With the nation in the grip of quickening suburbanization and heavily influenced by the consumer behavior of plant-passionate female baby boomers, suburban land care and gardening is a multibillion-dollar industry that can be considered one of the largest U.S. farm sectors.

The Syracuse women's lacrosse team advanced to the NCAA Division I tournament final four with a 13-9 win over visiting Florida on Saturday. The fourth-seeded Orange (18-3) will make its second straight appearance, and its fourth since 2008, in the national semifinals, facing unbeaten and top-seeded Maryland on Friday at 5 p.m. or 7:30p.m. at Villanova. The Orange extended its winning streak to 13 games. The Gators end the year with an 18-3 record. "We knew it was going to be a tough game against a very good Florida team," said Syracuse coach Gary Gait.

So, an elderly man, well-known in his community, heads a charitable organization to serve young boys. Through that organization, he picks out certain boys to serve his sexual interests. His modus operandi is to give special attention to the boys he has chosen, get them alone and contrive a way to get them in a shower. A few people know of his disgraceful activities but don't have the moral backbone to speak up. Sounds exactly like a certain local judge and the Lancers boys club here in Baltimore about a decade ago. In that case, apparently, the elderly man satisfied himself just looking at the naked little boys.

Don't need distraction Chris Dufresne Los Angeles Times Yes, although it's a different case from Miami, which did the necessary thing in taking itself out of bowl consideration as part of a damage-control strategy. Current Miami players were involved in the Nevin Shapiro scandal. Penn State players had nothing to do with the Jerry Sandusky case. But several members of the coaching staff, including interim head coach Tom Bradley, were longtime associates of Sandusky.

Your wishy-washy editorial on Iran's nuclear weapons program was pretty dumb ("Iran and the bomb," Nov.11). And your conclusion that "a nuclear-armed Iran would be intolerable, but there are no easy answers" was even dumber. If an Iranian bomb is, as you concede, "intolerable," and if there are, as you lament, "no easy answers," then your editors should wise up and pick the tough answer. Ironically, your stern editorial on the Penn State child-abuse scandal that same day was not all that stupid ("Tragedy at Penn State," Nov.11)

Interim Penn State President Rodney Erickson on Thursday afternoon released through the alumni newswire email service a plea, "… to be patient, to avoid speculation and to refrain from passing judgment until the facts are known. " Mr. Erickson should have passed that sound advice to the Board of Trustees before it appeased the "holier than thou" character assassins who demanded a nationally known figure as a scapegoat. It is obvious that at Penn State, loyalty is a one-way street and that the board is comprised of cowards who crushed Coach Joe Paterno's heart, soul and personal honor.

A festive crowd of players, parents and coaches grew silent Wednesday as Calvert Hall safety Adrian Amos reached into a midnight blue bag to unveil the cap of his future school. Amos kept the choice hidden until the Nittany Lion and blue and white colors of Penn State were atop his head. Even though Penn State is one of the most storied programs in college football, the school's academics were the deciding factor for Amos. "Penn State is known for the number of student athletes who graduate," Amos said.

Double fine, preserve wins Teddy Greenstein Chicago Tribune The NCAA mostly got it right and should be commended for acting swiftly. I also applaud the NCAA for not caving to the death penalty crowd that wanted blood at the cost of harming tens of thousands of people who did no wrong. But there are two penalties I would have changed. Doubling the fine to $120 million — two years' worth of football revenue — would have benefited victims of child sexual abuse even more.

The reality of Maryland's first season in the Big Ten became a little clearer Thursday, when the league announced the 2014 schedule for its 14 members. The Terps will play their Big Ten opener Sept. 27 at Indiana and their home opener a week later against Ohio State at Byrd Stadium. Maryland will also play at home against Iowa (Oct. 18), Michigan State (Nov. 15) and Rutgers (Nov. 29), and on the road at Wisconsin (Oct. 25), Penn State (Nov. 1) and Michigan (Nov. 22). Iowa and Wisconsin represent the two non-East Division opponents.

Down 7-3 in the fourth quarter, No. 2 Notre Dame put together a 6-0 rally to edge upset-minded Detroit in an NCAA tournament first-round game Saturday, 9-7. Matt Kavanagh, who scored four second-half goals, tied the game at 7 with 10:10 left and then put the Irish (11-4) ahead for good with less than six minutes remaining. The Titans (5-10) were able to keep Notre Dame in check during the first half as Detroit took a 5-1 lead into halftime. Brandon Beauregard led the Titans with three goals.

The Towson men's lacrosse team (10-7) withstood a rally from No. 9 host Penn State (12-4) to win, 11-10, and claim its first Colonial Athletic Association title since 2005 on Friday. The victory gave the Tigers the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. The Nittany Lions (12-4) outscored Towson 4-3 in the fourth quarter as it tried to rally from an 8-6 deficit. The game was tightly contested until late in the second quarter and into the third, when the Tigers (10-7)

No. 13 Johns Hopkins wrapped up the regular season with a 9-4 victory over Army Friday night and improved to 9-5. But the program's hopes for a 42nd consecutive NCAA tournament  appearance absorbed another sustained hit that same night. No. 2 Cornell was upended, 14-13, in overtime by No. 12 Princeton in one semifinal of the Ivy League tournament at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. The Tigers (9-5) will meet No. 14 Yale (10-4) in Sunday's title game after the Bulldogs defeated No. 18 Penn.

The six-goal explosion by redshirt freshman midfielder Ben McCarty that powered Towson's 11-8 upset of No. 15 Drexel in Wednesday's Colonial Athletic Association tournament semifinal must have shocked the Dragons, who probably did not expect McCarty to match his season total in goals in one contest. Even McCarty's coach, Shawn Nadelen, said he did not envision that performance. “I can't say I anticipated that,” Nadelen said with a chuckle Thursday morning. “I'm excited for him to do that.

In just a few hours, No. 13 Johns Hopkins will take the field at Michie Stadium in West Point, N.Y., for its regular-season finale against Army. But the Blue Jays' bid for an appearance in its 42nd consecutive NCAA tournament  suffered a blow via the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. Towson upset No. 9 Penn State, 11-10, in Friday's conference tournament final at University Park, Pa. The win secured the Tigers' first CAA tournament championship since 2007, which was also the last time they appeared in the NCAA tournament.

One of the biggest aspects of the Penn State tragedy that has been overlooked is the courage and tenacity of the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. While many details remain unclear, one thing that is apparent is that Penn State was a dominating and intimidating force in the community. No one went against them, even when there was strong, even overwhelming, evidence of significant wrongdoing. In comes 24-year-old Sara Ganim, a writer for the paper, who uncovers this story. And at her side was the editorial staff of the Patriot-News.

Sometimes, launching a book amid a brewing scandal can drive sales, but the author of a new bio of Joe Paterno is suffering from the backlash against the former Penn State football coach. As fallout from the child sex abuse scandal continues, publisher Simon & Schuster is scaling back a  book tour for author Joe Posnanski, according to the New York Times. Jonathan Karp, the publisher of Simon & Schuster, told the Times that a recent report outlining the actions of university officials had hurt the upcoming release of "Paterno.

Wednesday's 11-8 upset of No. 15 Drexel in a Colonial Athletic Association tournament semifinal put Towson one game away from achieving a pair of preseason objectives. If the Tigers (9-7) can knock off No. 9 Penn State (12-3) Friday in University Park, Pa., they will capture their first conference tournament title since 2005 and seize the automatic qualifier for their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2007. It is a scenario that has motivated the coaches and players this season.

Penn State has had a run of the neighborhood for as long as anyone can remember, from its years as the most successful independent Division I-A football program on the East Coast and a national power, to a little more than the past two decades in the Big Ten. As the Nittany Lions continue to rebuild and rebrand in the aftermath of the off-field child abuse scandal that ended the legendary career of Joe Paterno in 2011 and brought unprecedented sanctions...