Penn State Scandal

I’m sure most of you have heard about the latest Penn State scandal that has caused quite a ruckus. NCAA has found one of its biggest scandals to be at Penn State, a university that has had barely any controversy. Since 1994 Jerry Sandusky, a major voice in Penn State football, has been investigated for inappropriate conduct with young boys. Now, 8 years later he is finally being charged with 40 counts of child sexual abuse, which 21 of them are felonies. This includes eight boys in a 15 year span. Before retiring 12 years ago, Jerry Sandusky was the defensive coordinator under the former head coach Joe Paterno. He was a beloved football coach whose name any Penn State football fan would know. According to USA Today, the punishment for each felony ranges from seven to 20 years in prison and $15,000-$25,000 in fines, and for the 19 misdemeanors, two to five years in prison and $5,000-$10,000 in fines. Along with all of this, Joe Paterno, Penn State’s head football coach for 46 years was fired over the phone by Penn State trustees. Sources have said that Paterno along with Penn State University officials knew about Sandusky’s disgusting actions from as early as 1998. There is much controversy regarding the firing of Paterno. Students are fans are outraged at the dismissing of the legendary coach. I keep hearing people who are on both sides of the story. Some say that Paterno did not know and he shouldn’t have been fired because he was going to retire at the end of the season anyways. Others say that he did know, but he reported to the Penn State officials rather than the police; he put it in their hands. Personally I think if Joe Paterno did know about these horrible actions he should definitely be fired no matter if he was going to retire at the end of the season. Any person in their right mind would do anything and everything in their power to prevent these kinds of actions to ever happen to any child. Students at Penn State went to the extreme of protesting by even flipping media vans out of rage. They lost a football coach due to the fact that he did indeed knew that a coach, who was under him, was taking part in disgusting and inappropriate acts on young boys for over 15 years. It blows my mind how something so disgusting can cause such an outrage to students my age. I feel as though if it were anyone else who was being charged in relations to a scandal like this, this story would not have gotten so much attention and students wouldn’t have reacted the way they have been. My only hope is that people realize that although he is a legandary football coach, he is just like any other person and when he knows about such horrible acts have been committed and keeps his silence, he just have to suffer the consequences, just like everyone else.

Holly Payne

The Social Media Bandwagon

It's no joke to say that social media is a serious thing to think about when starting up a business, or rebranding an already apparent business. Social media has no doubt changed the way businesses run in today's society. In an article off of PRDaily.com, 7 Tools for 2012 Communications Plans, we can see that social media and the Internet will continue to play important roles in the survival of businesses.

In the article, Gina Dietrich explains the seven ways that a business can incorporate social media in their plans for the upcoming year:

1. Consolidation. With the rapid growth of technology and social media, it is important to really look at what works, and what doesn't work. Really get in-tune with your customers to see what they really want, and do it.

2. Privacy. Always a huge controversy. Businesses need to think how their clients or customers are using the Internet. It is important to be transparent, but not too transparent. Keep your customers updated, but without sharing too much private information. You can't control what people are saying about you, but you can control what you say to the people.

3. Gamification. Make your business some sort of game with your audience. Going into 2012, playing games with your customers can appeal to a wider audience. For example, "come in today between 3-4 pm and receive 15% off" through a text message club or email blast.

4. Mobile Content. As we are moving with a technological advanced society, mobile devices are becoming more popular each day. An online website is simply not enough anymore. People are now using smartphones and tablets to view websites. Businesses need to keep this in mind when making websites, mobile websites are key.

5. Social Television. Advertising and getting the name out there is getting to be tricky. Original and different ways to advertise are more attractive to consumers. If a business simply has TV ads, a different campaign is going to be necessary for this upcoming year to attract consumers.

6. Improved Analytics. Simply use as many tools to evaluate your business. Social tools are not standardized yet, but there are many ways to evaluate results. Google analytics, Twitter searches, Facebook searches, and basically looking at feedback on customers' comments are beneficial.

7. Google Wallet. The way people think and act is becoming more and more mobile each day. Before we know it, paying for something just by touching the screen on your phone is going to be a normal thing happening all over. This is something for businesses to consider as well.


Written by: Adam Krell

I'm sure you have heard of the riots that are mainly going on in New York and in L.A. People are becoming fed up and sick of being broke and having their homes taken away while people that work in Wall Street are living comfy, cushy lives.

These riots are called the Occupy movement with people demonstrating their frustration and anger with banks, income equality and Wall Street. The campaign was actually started on Facebook by an Echo Park woman who suggested the idea to her friends and from there, the Occupy movement took off (obviously).

Whether you agree with what these people are protesting or not is not really the point in my opinion. The point is that these people have you talking, thinking, perhaps even telling friends about what is going on. This demonstration was synced with Bank Transfer Day, this is a drive to get people to switch their accounts from large banks to smaller banks or credit unions and it is working. 650,000 people have opened accounts with credit unions in the past month. This is a staggering number next to the 80,000 monthly average.
Rioters have taken over parks, actually setting up camp, portable toilets, and mini camp kitchens. These people serious and are demanding to be heard. In this picture to the left, demonstrators are in Lower Manhattan in Zuccotti Park which is a block away from Wall Street.

People are getting arrested and hurt. Police have turned to tear gas and doing everything they can (minus shooting people) to get the demonstrators to disperse but nothing is working. People are sick of losing their homes and living dollar to dollar. The protests are peaceful as well. No one is starting fires, no one is throwing bricks threw buildings. Perhaps this peaceful protest is more apt to be heard over a "loud" one.

At the Occupy L.A. organization, protesters stood outside of a Bank of America and shouted,"Banks got bailed out, we got sold out." Police stood outside of the bank and there was an actual standoff between protesters and police. Protesters also shouted, "Bank of America, fight for America!"

Who knows what will happen with these protests but people are taking a stand, and in growing numbers at that. I can only hope that congress is listening (or whoever is in charge) and changes will be made accordingly. This struggle living dollar to dollar cannot go on much longer and people are fighting for it not to. After all that is what America is "based" on right? Having opinions and having a voice and being able to exercise that right. The people are speaking, America is listening and now we just need the government to do the right thing.

By: Kamayla Hooten