Sandusky Judge Allows Live-Tweeting, Live-Blogging During Trial. As pointed out by the folks at Poynter, according to the court order issued on Wednesday by the Centre County Court of Common Pleas, reporters will be allowed to live-tweet and live-blog during the trial of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on sexual abuse charges. They cannot, however, broadcast testimony “verbatim” or transmit photographs, the court order said.

For the preliminary hearing in December, Specially Presiding Judge John M. Cleland at first said reporters had to turn their phones off and that laptops could be used “solely for the purpose of note taking.” He later relaxed the rules to allow live-tweeting and live-blogging.

NBC10 will be live at the trial as it begins next Tuesday, June 5. Stick with NBC10.com, @NBCPhiladelphia on Twitter and NBC10 News on-air for the latest from Centre County.

-LD

Poynter, Centre County Court of Common Pleas

Photo: Getty Images

Will Corbett’s Handling of the Sandusky Case Hurt the Pa. Governor? The20’s @pkerkstra wrote a very interesting column this morning over at The Philly Post, where he essentially explores Corbett’s creation of the “Child Predator Unit” (a specially trained unit of investigators and prosecutors tasked with putting child sex abusers in prison) as his chief accomplishment as state attorney general, a step along his way to election as governor.

But now, amidst the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, is Corbett’s reputation at stake?

Corbett apparently first heard of the Sandusky case in March 2009 and subsequently accepted gubernatorial campaign contributions from Second Mile board members (despite turning down contributions from many state lawmakers).

From Kerkstra:

It wasn’t until January, when a new state police commissioner took office (and Corbett was sworn in as governor), that an additional seven investigators were added to the investigation….Did Corbett slow-walk an explosive investigation out of fear that exposing a scandal at the heart of an institution like Penn State football would wreck his chances to become governor?

Pennsylvania voters have generally given Corbett the benefit of the doubt, and he seems to be handling well. And on Tuesday, he signed into law a bill that expands the state’s version of Megan’s Law and brings Pennsylvania into compliance with federal sex-offender registration standards.

But if he did in-fact slow-walk the investigation, what could that do to his reputation?

-LD

[@pkerkstra, The Philly Post]

Photo: Facebook