Related stories:

• Source: Penn State to be hit with fines in access of $30 million
• Paterno statue removed from outside Penn State’s football stadium
• Penn State trustee resigns from post
• Paterno’s family vows own investigation of Sandusky scandal

Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections.

The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest level since 1965.

Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid begins to run out. Suburbs are seeing increases in poverty, including in such political battlegrounds as Colorado, Florida and Nevada, where voters are coping with a new norm of living hand to mouth.

“I grew up going to Hawaii every summer. Now I’m here, applying for assistance because it’s hard to make ends meet. It’s very hard to adjust,” said Laura Fritz, 27, of Wheat Ridge, Colo., describing her slide from rich to poor as she filled out aid forms at a county center. Since 2000, large swaths of Jefferson County just outside Denver have seen poverty nearly double.

Fritz says she grew up wealthy in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch, but fortunes turned after her parents lost a significant amount of money in the housing bust. Stuck in a half-million dollar house, her parents began living off food stamps and Fritz’s college money evaporated. She tried joining the Army but was injured during basic training.

Now she’s living on disability, with an infant daughter and a boyfriend, Garrett Goudeseune, 25, who can’t find work as a landscaper. They are struggling to pay their $650 rent on his unemployment checks and don’t know how they would get by without the extra help as they hope for the job market to improve.

In an election year dominated by discussion of the middle class, Fritz’s case highlights a dim reality for the growing group in poverty. Millions could fall through the cracks as government aid from unemployment insurance, Medicaid, welfare and food stamps diminishes.

“The issues aren’t just with public benefits. We have some deep problems in the economy,” said Peter Edelman, director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy.

He pointed to the recent recession but also longer-term changes in the economy such as globalization, automation, outsourcing, immigration, and less unionization that have pushed median household income lower. Even after strong economic growth in the 1990s, poverty never fell below a 1973 low of 11.1 percent. That low point came after President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, launched in 1964, that created Medicaid, Medicare and other social welfare programs.

“I’m reluctant to say that we’ve gone back to where we were in the 1960s. The programs we enacted make a big difference. The problem is that the tidal wave of low-wage jobs is dragging us down and the wage problem is not going to go away anytime soon,” Edelman said.

Stacey Mazer of the National Association of State Budget Officers said states will be watching for poverty increases when figures are released in September as they make decisions about the Medicaid expansion. Most states generally assume poverty levels will hold mostly steady and they will hesitate if the findings show otherwise. “It’s a constant tension in the budget,” she said.

The predictions for 2011 are based on separate AP interviews, supplemented with research on suburban poverty from Alan Berube of the Brookings Institution and an analysis of federal spending by the Congressional Research Service and Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute.

The analysts’ estimates suggest that some 47 million people in the U.S., or 1 in 6, were poor last year. An increase of one-tenth of a percentage point to 15.2 percent would tie the 1983 rate, the highest since 1965. The highest level on record was 22.4 percent in 1959, when the government began calculating poverty figures.

Poverty is closely tied to joblessness. While the unemployment rate improved from 9.6 percent in 2010 to 8.9 percent in 2011, the employment-population ratio remained largely unchanged, meaning many discouraged workers simply stopped looking for work. Food stamp rolls, another indicator of poverty, also grew.

Demographers also say:

—Poverty will remain above the pre-recession level of 12.5 percent for many more years. Several predicted that peak poverty levels — 15 percent to 16 percent — will last at least until 2014, due to expiring unemployment benefits, a jobless rate persistently above 6 percent and weak wage growth.

—Suburban poverty, already at a record level of 11.8 percent, will increase again in 2011.

—Part-time or underemployed workers, who saw a record 15 percent poverty in 2010, will rise to a new high.

—Poverty among people 65 and older will remain at historically low levels, buoyed by Social Security cash payments.

—Child poverty will increase from its 22 percent level in 2010.

Analysts also believe that the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 percent or less of the poverty level, will remain near its peak level of 6.7 percent.

“I’ve always been the guy who could find a job. Now I’m not,” said Dale Szymanski, 56, a Teamsters Union forklift operator and convention hand who lives outside Las Vegas in Clark County. In a state where unemployment ranks highest in the nation, the Las Vegas suburbs have seen a particularly rapid increase in poverty from 9.7 percent in 2007 to 14.7 percent.

Szymanski, who moved from Wisconsin in 2000, said he used to make a decent living of more than $40,000 a year but now doesn’t work enough hours to qualify for union health care. He changed apartments several months ago and sold his aging 2001 Chrysler Sebring in April to pay expenses.

“You keep thinking it’s going to turn around. But I’m stuck,” he said.

The 2010 poverty level was $22,314 for a family of four, and $11,139 for an individual, based on an official government calculation that includes only cash income, before tax deductions. It excludes capital gains or accumulated wealth, such as home ownership, as well as noncash aid such as food stamps and tax credits, which were expanded substantially under President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

An additional 9 million people in 2010 would have been counted above the poverty line if food stamps and tax credits were taken into account.

Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, believes the social safety net has worked and it is now time to cut back. He worries that advocates may use a rising poverty rate to justify additional spending on the poor, when in fact, he says, many live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.

A new census measure accounts for noncash aid, but that supplemental poverty figure isn’t expected to be released until after the November election. Since that measure is relatively new, the official rate remains the best gauge of year-to-year changes in poverty dating back to 1959.

Few people advocate cuts in anti-poverty programs. Roughly 79 percent of Americans think the gap between rich and poor has grown in the past two decades, according to a Public Religion Research Institute/RNS Religion News survey from November 2011. The same poll found that about 67 percent oppose “cutting federal funding for social programs that help the poor” to help reduce the budget deficit.

Outside of Medicaid, federal spending on major low-income assistance programs such as food stamps, disability aid and tax credits have been mostly flat at roughly 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product from 1975 to the 1990s. Spending spiked higher to 2.3 percent of GDP after Obama’s stimulus program in 2009 temporarily expanded unemployment insurance and tax credits for the poor.

The U.S. safety net may soon offer little comfort to people such as Jose Gorrin, 52, who lives in the western Miami suburb of Hialeah Gardens. Arriving from Cuba in 1980, he was able to earn a decent living as a plumber for years, providing for his children and ex-wife. But things turned sour in 2007 and in the past two years he has barely worked, surviving on the occasional odd job.

His unemployment aid has run out, and he’s too young to draw Social Security.

Holding a paper bag of still-warm bread he’d just bought for lunch, Gorrin said he hasn’t decided whom he’ll vote for in November, expressing little confidence the presidential candidates can solve the nation’s economic problems. “They all promise to help when they’re candidates,” Gorrin said, adding, “I hope things turn around. I already left Cuba. I don’t know where else I can go.”

Dupriest pleaded not guilty to strangling 63-year-old Billy Murray.

Court documents show Murray picked up Dupriest and brought her to a motel. Dupriest says she strangled Murray after he kept trying to kiss her.

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.

This compares with the national average that has increased 4.9 cents per gallon in the last week to $3.49 per gallon, according to gasoline price website MilwaukeeGasPrices.com.

Including the change in gas prices in Milwaukee during the past week, prices on Sunday, July 22nd were 27.2 cents per gallon lower than the same day one year ago and are 6.7 cents per gallon higher than a month ago.

The national average has decreased 2.4 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 20.1 cents per gallon lower than this day one year ago.

CLICK HERE for the FOX6Now.com Gas Price Tracker.

(CNN) — The man accused of opening fire in a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, is set to make his first court appearance Monday, giving the public its first look at the suspect since his arrest in an attack that authorities say was planned months in advance.

James E. Holmes, 24, is likely to face first-degree murder — an offense that carries a possible death penalty, if convicted — in the shooting deaths, given allegations over the weekend by police that there is evidence to suggest “calculation and deliberation” in the rampage.

Holmes is being held in connection with the early Friday morning shootings that left 12 dead and 58 wounded, and the subsequent discovery of his booby-trapped apartment, which authorities believe he rigged before leaving for the Century Aurora 16 multiplex.

Authorities have been tight-lipped about a possible motive in the case, though police spokesman Frank Fania told CNN late Sunday that Holmes has been uncooperative with investigators and requested an attorney.

Arapahoe County public defender James O’Connor has been assigned to the case. The Colorado Judicial Department declined to say whether Holmes requested a public defender. A telephone call by CNN to O’Connor’s office was not immediately returned.

Holmes’ court appearance will come a few hours before his family is expected to break their silence with some sort of statement. The family, who lives in San Diego, has not spoken publicly since the allegations were leveled against Holmes.

Lisa Damiani, an attorney representing the family, told CNN the statement would be made at her San Diego office.

Over the weekend, Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates told reporters that there was “evidence of, I think, some calculation and deliberation.”

Holmes received a high volume of deliveries over the past four months to both his home and work addresses, which police believe begins to explain how he got his hands on some of the materials used in the attack and those found at his apartment, Oates said.

Meanwhile, the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where Holmes enrolled in 2011 as a doctoral candidate in its neuroscience program, was investigating whether Holmes received any of the alleged shipments while working as a research assistant at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

University spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery would not comment on reports that authorities were looking into whether Holmes allegedly used his position to obtain materials used to booby-trap his apartment.

As of late Sunday, at least 17 people remained hospitalized — eight in critical condition — in five area hospitals.

President Barack Obama met Sunday with survivors and the families of those killed during a visit to Aurora, where thousands of residents gathered for a prayer vigil that drew state and local officials.

“I confessed to them that words are always inadequate in these kinds of situations, but that my main task was to serve as a representative of the entire country and let them know that we are thinking about them at this moment, and will continue to think about them each and every day,” Obama told reporters after the meeting at the University of Colorado Hospital.

“It reminds you that even in the darkest of days, life continues and people are strong and people bounce back and people are resilient,” the president said, after describing the recovery of some victims. “Out of this darkness a brighter day is going to come.”

Though much attention has been paid the past couple of days to the “perpetrator of this evil act,” that spotlight will fade, leaving behind just the good memories of those impacted by the tragedy, Obama said.

Aurora is bracing for another emotional week as families begin making funeral arrangements.

It was not immediately known when the coroner would release the bodies, though it was expected to occur early this week.

It also became clear that more people may have been killed if the semi-automatic rifle the gunman was had not jammed.

One survivor, Josh Nowlan, sustained gunshot wounds, but said he is happy just to be alive. He wouldn’t be, he said, if the suspect’s weapon had not jammed.

“I know I wouldn’t be here. If that gun did not jam, I am full certain that I probably would not be here,” he said from his hospital bed Saturday.

A law enforcement source, who spoke Sunday with CNN on condition of anonymity, said the semi-automatic rifle jammed because of a problem with the 100-shot magazine feeding it.

The military-style AR-15 had a separately purchased drum magazine, which can have trouble feeding bullets into the firing chamber if the gun is fired rapidly, the source said.

Investigators say the rifle was one of three guns used by the suspect, along with a shotgun and a .40-caliber pistol.

Applications are due by Aug. 1 for the fall turkey, sharp-tailed grouse, bobcat, fisher and otter seasons as wells for Canada geese in the Horicon Zone.

Hunters can apply for permits on the DNR’s website, at any authorized license agent or at DNR service centers. A bobcat permit application runs $6. Applications for the other seasons cost $3.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele unveiled Wednesday, July 11th a proposed $120 million development for the Downtown Transit Center – a 44-story hotel and apartment building, featuring restaurants, retail space and parking.

“This project will be a great addition to the Milwaukee Lakefront, bringing jobs and a strong tax base for decades to come,” Abele said in a statement.

Developer Rick Barrett proposed the development for the corner of Lincoln Memorial Drive and Michigan Avenue.

“This development is going to continue to transform the lakefront. It’s an extraordinary addition to the Calatrava, Discovery World and future developments,” Barrett said.

The high-rise would include about 180 hotel rooms, 180 apartment units and retail units for the bottom floors. There would also be about 800 parking spaces, and walkways to other downtown venues.

Some County supervisors say they were never informed of the plan until it was announced to the public. They say they want to make sure residents have input on the project before it gets final approval.

The County Board committee will meet at 9 a.m. Monday, July 23rd to layout the comprehensive plan for the redevelopment of the Transit Center. 

Related stories:

• Abele unveils proposed development for Transit Center

Giving First: Supporting Victims/Families of the Colorado Movie Theater Shooting

Carey Rottman survived a gunshot to the leg. Carey called his father, Dr. Dale Rottman, a Thiensville dentist, to tell him he’d been shot.

Carey Rottman

The Rottman family hopped on the first flight from Milwaukee to Denver to be with their son.

Dr. Rottman said his son had surgery Friday morning, but should be okay.

Carey is a former Homestead High School football player. Sunday afternoon, Carey got some encouragement in the form of a phone call from Peyton Manning.

“The nurse came in and said ‘Would you take a phone call?’ And he said ‘Who’s it from?’ And she said ‘Peyton Manning.’ And he said ‘I can take that call!’” Dr. Rottman told FOX6 News over the phone.

A spokeswoman with the Medical Center of Aurora said Manning, the newly-signed Denver Broncos star quarterback spoke one-on-one with several shooting victims.

“That just perked up his day!” Dr. Rottman said.

Dr. Rottman says his son is pretty sore. A plastic surgeon will assess Carey’s leg and determine final surgery.

CLICK HERE for more Colorado shooting coverage from FOX6Now.com.

Modern technology makes it possible to instantly search billions of public records stored all over the world. That has spawned an entire industry dedicated to screening job applicants for employers. When they make a mistake, the consequences can be devastating.

For Donnie Ward, one job wasn’t enough to support the family. 

“I’m a mom, so I was thinking about trying to make extra money just to pay bills and have a decent life,” Ward said.

She looked online for a part time job to supplement her income and she found one at Boston Store at Mayfair Mall doing early morning stock.

“So I was excited. Went in for an interview, got the job,” Ward said.

Ward was barely five hours into her first shift when the human resources manager called her into the office and blindsided her.

“She told me I had lied on the application –that I had not been honest,” Ward said.

A criminal background check had uncovered a 2006 conviction in Milwaukee County for battery — a conviction she had not disclosed on her application. 

“I immediately started to cry and said, ‘That’s not true. This isn’t me,’” Ward said.

Ward has never been arrested, much less convicted of a crime, but she had a hunch what was causing the confusion.  You see, Donnie Ward has a twin brother, Don Ward, and, as tends to happen with twins, they were born on the same day — December 7, 1967.

Of course, there’s one fairly obvious difference between them. 

“I’m female and he’s male, that’s the biggest difference,” Ward laughs.

Online court records available to anyone — for free — show that the “Don Ward”convicted of battery in 2006…is indeed male.

Donnie tried telling that to the human resources manager at Boston Store, but she wasn’t having any of it.

“She said, `You need to leave now. You need to leave Boston Store now,’” Ward said.

Ward vividly remembers struggling to find an exit as she sobbed all the way to her car.

“It was very traumatic. I was embarrassed, humiliated,” Ward said.

You don’t have to go far to find a man who understands. Just across the parking lot from Boston Store is the law office of Jeffery Hynes.  He’s been helping workers all over the state fight employment discrimination for more than 20 years.

“When the system breaks down it can have devastating consequences on a person’s career,” Hynes says.

In just the past five years, Hynes has seen a steep rise in complaints about mistakes in criminal background checks.

“It’s not only a growing problem, but it is a gross injustice being visited upon highly qualified employees who often have spotless work records who step into my office and say, ‘Wait a minute, I have a clean record, why didn’t I get the job?’ or ‘Wait a minute, I have a clean record, why did they walk me out the door?’” Hynes said.

Hynes says many employers pay a third party to screen their applicants for them. Boston Store uses a California-based company called ‘HireRight.’

“Perfection is not possible. You’re literally dealing with thousands of different data sources,” HireRight’s Senior VP Rob Pickell said.

Ward wonders how a background check could mix her up with her brother, since she gave Boston Store her social security number.  Pickell says that’s a common misconception about criminal background checks, because most court records don’t contain a social security number.

In fact, most employers don’t even provide HireRight with the race and sex of an applicant, either.  Pickell says that’s because they worry about discrimination complaints.  He admits, however, that relying on name and date of birth alone increases the chance of an error.

When an error takes place, it’s the applicant who’s left with the burden of proving he or she is not a criminal.

“That`s the crime of it all here is that good employees are being excluded and they have minimal recourse when this occurs,” Hynes says.

After Boston Store sent her home, Ward paid to get her own criminal background reports from Milwaukee County and the state Department of Justice.  Both show no record found. She also filed a dispute with HireRight.

“Obviously when there’s situations where there’s potentially misinformation, we want to resolve it as soon as possible,” Pickell said.

HireRight eventually verified Donnie’s claim and — 13 days after it all began — Boston Store sent her an email that reads, in part, “Your record is clear.  Hope to see you soon.”

“‘No apology from anyone,” Ward complains. “No offer to reimburse me for the background checks I had to pay for, not even an apology from anyone involved in this.”

A spokeswoman for Bon-Ton — Boston Store’s parent company — begins an email to Fox 6 by saying, “We are very sorry” about what happened.

It also points out that they offered to have her “return to work.”

“I told them, ‘No, thank you.’ I would have been very nervous and uncomfortable working there. I would have been afraid of retribution. It just made me very uncomfortable to go back to that situation,” Ward said.

Ward has a new job now, anyway — and a message.

“Don’t let somebody say that you are a criminal or you’ve done all these bad things when you know you haven’t.  Don’t give up,” Ward said.

In that email to FOX6 from Bon-Ton, a spokeswoman claims they did apologize to Ward as soon as the background report came back corrected.  Ward says that’s not true.

Bon-Ton also says the store never fired Ward and that she was the one who asked to go home for the day, because she was upset.  Ward strongly objects to that characterization, insisting she was ordered to leave and given 14 days to prove their background check was wrong.

Attorney Jeff Hynes encourages job applicants to do their own criminal background check in advance. He suggests telling a potential employer about anything they may find that could be a problem.

Ward says she warned her next employer in advance about the conviction on her twin brother’s record, and got the job.

From the south side’s taco and torta trucks to the north side’s mouth-watering meat and potatoes, Milwaukee’s “mobile meal movement” continues. This summer, fans hit up the food trucks at Schlitz Park on Tuesdays, and on Thursdays, the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Food Truck Fridays targets Red Arrow Park.

As with the locations, mobile menu offerings can change from day to day, and they run an ever-expanding gamut.

Streetza Pizza’s early success helped spawn new takes on old favorites, along with flavors far from familiar, like the Fast Foodie’s “Globaco,” Hattie’s “Cheesecake Lollipop” and the Hardwood Cafe’s “Pig Candy,” consisting of coconut, chocolate and bacon.

While mobile food operators say they are making money, that’s not what drives most of them.

“Our feeling is, if you have the love and the passion for it, then it’s all good,” The Gouda Girls Tina Tonn said.

Craig and Deb Mengeling brought their Hardwood Cafe from Florida to Milwaukee. The couple says mobile units offer a relatively inexpensive way to get into food service and say they are happy to be amongst Milwaukee’s masses.

“You can’t take a truck out by itself and make any money. You have to have three to four trucks and then people come because they want the variety,” Craig Mengeling said.

Milwaukee’s food truck competition is described as friendly and growing.

“The past five years, it’s really grown. They said this past year it has grown the most — not only the number of trucks, but the quality of trucks,” Heatherlee Muehlius with Hattie’s Truck said.

Veteran operators warn would-be vendors there’s more to running a food truck than meets the mouth.

Jeppa Joe’s owner, Jeff Steckel, started his operation months ago. He says both the amount of time and effort he expends surprised him, as did the response.

“I got into this thinking this will be easy, work 11 to 2, no problem! It hasn’t worked out that way. It’s definitely surpassing what I expected so far. I’m busy all the time,” Steckel said.

Jackie Valent Lucca says she left a six-figure job to move into the mobile food world, with her “Fast Foodie” truck. Lucca also serves as the Founder and VP of the Milwaukee Food Truck Association.

“We wanted to work with the city from Day One, and really let them know that we want to be a part of the landscape of the city, and not be an adversary,” Lucca said.

The Association advocates on behalf of vendors as more of them move to Milwaukee and other area municipalities.

“People will say ‘I wanna hire a food truck, but where in the world do I find one?’ So this is really that one-stop-shop to do that,” Lucca said.

Milwaukee’s food trucks range in price from under $10,000 to more than $50,000. The cost of licenses varies from operation to operation.

Currently in Milwaukee, there are more than 500 food peddlers licenses.

Milwaukee’s Health Department inspects the food trucks as part of the permit process and does random checks throughout the year.

Brewers bench coach Jerry Narron says he wasn’t taught the calligraphy that appears on the Brewers’ lineup cards.

“I just started messing with it, and over the years that’s how it’s come out. I’ve had people wanting me to do wedding invitations the past couple years,” Narron said.

Narron says taking the effort to make the lineup sheets look neat, orderly and even beautiful is all about respect.

“When Ichiro came over, I saw in the stands, his name in Japanese and I just started doing it then. It’s more out of respect to the Asian players, and I think most of them like it,” Narron said.

Narron says Norichika Aoki’s name is much easier for him to do than Takashi Saito’s!

“Saito’s was very difficult. He had a lot of squiggles and lines and everything else. Aoki’s is pretty simple, but I’ve got all of them. Every Asian player in baseball, I’ve got it. So if we play somebody, I can just whip it right out,” Narron said.

Narron says it makes him feel good when the players appreciate his hard work.

“I’ve got the left-handed guys in red, and the right-handers in black, and switch hitters in green,” Narron said.

Narron says it takes him about 10 minutes to put the lineup card together.

“Just as quick as if I just slapped it all together, but it’s a lot of fun to mess with. Just trying to do the very best — no matter how small something is in life, just trying to do the very best at it,” Narron said.

Brewers’ manager Ron Roenicke said he tried to do calligraphy, but couldn’t compete with Narron.

“I looked at his and his were absolutely amazing,” Roenicke said.

bench coach jerry narron

Former Brewers utility man Mark Kotsay once asked if Jerry Narron’s work is script or Old English.

Craig Counsell — another ex-Brewers player now in the front office said I think it’s calligraphy — my mother made me try to do that. It’s not as easy as it looks.

(CNN) — Penn State University will be hit with fines in excess of $30 million as part of “significant, unprecedented penalties” expected to be announced Monday, July 23rd by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, a source familiar with the case told CNN on Sunday.

While the school’s football program will not face the so-called “death penalty” that would have prevented the team from playing in the fall, the school might have preferred a one-year suspension because of the severity of the scholarship losses, postseason sanctions and other penalties, the source said.

“If I were Penn State or any other school and were given both options, I’d pick the death penalty,” the source said, adding the range of sanctions “is well beyond what has been done in the past” and “far worse than closing the program for a year.”

The expected punishment is part of the continued fallout from the child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted in late June of 45 of the 48 counts he faced involving 10 young victims.

The news came the same day the statue of Penn State’s iconic head football coach Joe Paterno was removed from outside the campus stadium.

The NCAA’s punishments follow an independent investigation led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, whose report held four top Penn State officials, including Paterno, responsible for failing to stop the abuse.

Everything the NCAA “needed to know was detailed in the Freeh report,” according to the source.

Monday in Indianapolis, the NCAA plans a press conference “to announce NCAA corrective and punitive measures for the Pennsylvania State University,” it said in a statement.

The NCAA last imposed the so-called “death penalty” to a football team in 1987 against Southern Methodist University’s program in the wake of a payments-to-athletes scandal.

The source says the sanctions “will really paint a picture that essentially says that leadership failure and systemic failures can’t be tolerated.”

NCAA President Mark Emmert wrote a letter to Penn State President Rodney Erickson in November that included four questions he wanted the university to answer.

According to the source, the NCAA felt the questions were answered by the Freeh report and therefore it could act before the university responded.

The source wasn’t sure if the university has been made aware of the penalties yet but says the university was not involved in the decision. It was “not a negotiated process,” the source said.

While not divulging specifics, the source said, “The penalties go well beyond the loss of a scholarship or not being able to go to a bowl game.”

The source also said the plan includes provisions to provide “leeway” and “minimize the impact” on current players who had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal.

Also Sunday, in State College, Pennsylvania, the 900-pound bronze statue of Paterno was removed. Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a statement the statue is being stored in a “secure location.”

The statue was removed exactly six months after Paterno, the winningest coach in Division I football history, died of lung cancer. Paterno had coached at Penn State for 61 years, 15 of them as an assistant. He died less than three months after he coached his last game, an October 29 victory over Illinois that gave him a record 409 wins.

Under Paterno’s 46-season tenure as head coach, the Nittany Lions won two national championships, went undefeated five times, and finished in the top 25 national rankings 35 times.

The tribute to the coach, who died in January, had become an object of contention after the child rape scandal involving Sandusky.

However, Paterno’s family said they believe taking down the statue serves no purpose.

“Tearing down the statue of Joe Paterno does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community. We believe the only way to help the victims is to uncover the full truth,” the family said in a statement.

“It is not the university’s responsibility to defend or protect Joe Paterno. But they at least should have acknowledged that important legal cases are still pending and that the record on Joe Paterno, the board and other key players is far from complete,” it added.

Dan Vecellio, a staff writer for the blog Black Shoe Diaries, said there were about 100 people who watched the statue taken down, put on a forklift and driven into the stadium through a loading-dock door.

The Freeh report found several Penn State officials concealed evidence that Sandusky had sexually abused minors. Freeh concluded that Paterno could have prevented further sexual abuse had he taken action.

“I now believe that, contrary to its original intention, coach Paterno’s statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our university and beyond,” Erickson said.

“I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse,” he added.

Sunday, Penn State employees began placing fencing around the statue, as well as a tarp. Local and university police were at the scene, and some students gathered near the football field, Beaver Stadium.

Another tribute to Paterno — the university library that bears his name — will remain as it is, Erickson said.

“The library remains a tribute to Joe and Sue Paterno’s commitment to Penn State’s student body and academic success, and it highlights the positive impacts coach Paterno had on the university,” he wrote.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called Paterno “a powerful man who acted selfishly” who “deserves no public honors whatsoever.”

“We’re glad the statue is gone but that’s just a tiny step forward,” SNAP spokesman David Clohessy said in a statement. “We as a society must learn that a good way to deter child sex cover-ups is to punish, not praise, those who instigate such cover-ups.”

Sandusky is expected to be sentenced in September. His legal team has said it will appeal the convictions.

Two former university administrators are awaiting trial for their role in the scandal, and more charges are possible as the state’s attorney general investigates what Penn State may have known about Sandusky’s behavior.

Related stories:

• Paterno statue removed from outside Penn State’s football stadium
• Penn State trustee resigns from post
• Paterno’s family vows own investigation of Sandusky scandal