Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been promoted, to the highest position next only to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Roman Catholic Church.

After a short two-day conclave of Cardinals from around the world, it was announced that Bergoglio was elected Pope around 8 pm Vatican City local time in  Rome. The announcement was preceded by the symbolic white smoke that emanated from the Vatican. Within that hour, it was made known to the world that he had taken the name Pope Francis.

By Local Talk Staff

INDIANAPOLIS - The National Collegiate Athletic Association came down hard on Penn State University in regards to the Sandusky scandal, with penalties that centered on one word: unprecedented.

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the sanctions July 23, in response to the findings of a report conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh. The Freeh report discovered that officials at the university, including revered head coach Joe Paterno, President Graham B. Spanier, Senior Vice President‐Finance and Business Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Timothy Curley participated in an elaborate cover up of former defensive coordinator Gerald Arthur “Jerry” Sandusky’s sex abuse and rapes of children on the Penn State campus. The four men implicated in the report were fired by the university in 2011.

Sandusky, who retired in 1999, maintained an office on the grounds of the university and used its facilities. Mike McQueary, a former PSU quarterback who served as a graduate assistant in 2001, testified that he witnessed Sandusky raping a child in a shower on campus. Sandusky was eventually convicted of sex crimes and other charges against children on June 22.

“These men concealed Sandusky’s activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities,” the report stated. “They exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky's victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and well‐being, especially by not attempting to determine the identity of the child who Sandusky assaulted in the Lasch Building in 2001” (This excerpt was in regards to McQueary witnessing Sandusky commit sexual assault in the shower.)

By Walter Elliott

NEWARK - There may still be additional police or security presence among the four "Local Talk" area movie theaters screening "The Dark Knight Rises" since the July 20 Aurora, Colo. shooting. Patrons may, however, ought to save their super hero-inspired costumes and fake weaponry for ComicCon.

That is the word from what police departments and motion picture theater owners or managers gave "Local Talk" after a round-robin telephonic survey July 25. Spokesmen from the South Orange and West Orange police departments, for example, said that some of their officers regularly patrol the respective Clearview South Orange 5 and AMC Essex Green 9 off duty.

"We had one more officer at Clearview South Orange than usual last weekend," said South Orange Police Department spokesman Sgt. Al Diesso. "We usually have several off-duty officers out there."