The Difficulty of Being Karen Peetz

by SMSS FREEHdom Fighter

Wonder Woman or Marionette?

Joining the Penn State Board of Trustees 2 years ago as a Business & Industry peer, Karen is now chairing the embattled board. Not elected by her peers, she heroically volunteered she says.  An honor no doubt to chair, but then there’s her day job at Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

And therein lies the difficulty of Being Karen Peetz.

Is she Wonder Woman?

Peetz as a Vice Chairman at BNY Mellon runs a group that employs some 10,000 people worldwide, accounts for about one-third of BNY Mellon’s roughly $13 billion annual revenue. She travels monthly to one of 40 offices worldwide.  Karen has played a role in work with the Treasury and the Fed, and is boasting of assignments with “some very large governments outside of the U.S.”

Yet BNY remains the subject of several lawsuits and regulatory probes over its foreign exchange dealings.  BNY’s stock price is down almost 50 percent, and its shares remain close to their 2008 lows amid the financial crisis.  A crushing effort to right this listing ship.

In another committed undertaking of precious personal time and travel, she continues to chair the banks’ Women’s Initiatives Network.  Karen sits on the company’s Diversity & Inclusion Council.  Recently she was appointed as a Trustee at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and also sits on the Board of Directors for SIFMA (Securities Information & Financial Markets Association), and PEFCO (Private Export Funding Corp).

Truly a staggering work load & travel itinerary for anyone, let alone one also chairing the Board of a $4 Billion flagship academic institution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, one that has seen a tumultuous past 12 months.

The question for BNY Mellon’s own board, let alone Penn State is to consider whether she’s stretched herself too thin.  Simple physics alone predict that something has to snap in the threads of Karen’s commitments & responsibilities.  She is one of the first female Vice Chairs in the company’s history & the Most Powerful Woman in Banking, but for how long?

Surely the tiara and indestructible bracelets are tarnishing, that corset pinching & suffocating, those boots giving her blisters.

And therein lies the difficulty of Being Karen Peetz

Of particular interest now is her seat on Suncoke Energy. 

Is she a Marionette?

John Surma was on the BNYM Board of Directors until he abruptly resigned in April 2012. As Karen is an Executive, she reported to that same Board on which Surma once sat. Let’s connect the dots: Suncoke Energy is a player in the steel making process. US Steel (with John Surma as the Chairman and CEO) is a major customer of Suncoke’s product.  It is reasonable to conclude that John Surma has a huge amount of influence over Karen Peetz, both in the business world, and sitting on the Penn State Board of Trustees.

Even Karen’s advice on her ambition “to evaluate whom you work for” and “follow the money”…“It is critical to select sponsors that have power and create opportunities for you”, is very telling on their particular relationship.

Karen already had conflict of interest with a Penn State land sale to Toll Brothers, a luxury homebuilder, that BNYM’s asset management unit is a major shareholder.  Meeting minutes reveal no discussion about BNYM’s interest in Toll Brothers stock.  Karen should have recused herself from any and all discussions on Toll Bros, as she is a member of the Committee on Finance, Business & Capital Planning.  

Corporate governance experts say Karen’s exhaustive, involved, dual role presents a both a risk to BNYM and Penn State.  For her to do a poor job is probably the worst of all possible worlds.

How long will she dance for the manipulator? Will he eventually tire of using Karen as the public face of the Board and simply put her done behind the curtain?

And therein lies the difficulty of Being Karen Peetz.

Is she tangled up in Wonder Woman’s “Lasso of Truth” or by the Marionette Strings controlled by Surma?

She freely admits that the board failed spectacularly in its oversight responsibilities.  She acknowledges that each board member should “evaluate our individual paths forward”.  Karen has mused: “part of being a leader at that level is to be a risk manager and to think through what might happen”.

Karen has already shown signs of backpedaling and spin doctoring. She states the Board has never formally accepted the $6.5 million Freeh Report.  We are told they commissioned the report for the recommendations only. Not all the 119 Freeh recommendations will necessarily be implemented Karen tells us; rather they are to be used as “guidelines” that don’t need to be strictly followed.  Fellow Trustee Ken Frazier concurs by stating, “we’re following the spirit here, not the letter”.  Trustee Mark Dambly reaffirms the removal the original intended purpose of the Freeh Report as well. 

In a press conference following the Nov 16^th BoT meeting, Karen said the board would look into the existence of the Freeh contract documents. She said she did not have much information in this area because she “wasn’t directly responsible for hiring him”.

“It was not something the board signed on,” she said.

Pray tell us Karen, who did?

Karen continues to baffle, bamboozle & bemuse

"The first thing I want to say to the entire Penn State community is that we have been through a very difficult experience together. We have tried to do the right thing,"

"All of us, including the board, with the wisdom of hindsight could have done things differently."

"The first is change, the second is reform and the third is transparency."

"I and other members of the board will begin holding similar town hall meetings with students, faculty, and alumni later in the year. The more we learn, the more we can communicate our thoughts, the better.”

"I don't recall us promising an alumni tour," "when I said listening tour, I wasn't thinking going out to the different groups of alumni."



"Our alumni are one of Penn State's most valuable assets. As such, it is critically important for key members of the Board to meet and interact with alumni leadership."

"I think, unfortunately, there will always be people who are skeptical about what we say or how we say it. We're just telling it like it is."

“It’s time for the music to stop”.

"By the time someone gets here in 2014, it will be just a distant memory," Peetz said.

And the most priceless quote of all:

Oh Really?

And therein lies the difficulty of Being Karen Peetz

Something From the Past Between UT and PSU

The story about the first game under the lights at Neyland included Joe and Franco Harris. I had a memory of the Vols vs Penn State. Here's why the lights went up at Neyland all because of a guy named Joe.

Bob Woodruff, Joe Paterno, & the lights at Neyland

Former Tennessee AD Bob Woodruff was a crafty old dude. I had the privilege to interview him in his office during my undergraduate years at UT as part of a journalism project. I was researching the plans (that were never fulfilled) to retrofit the south end of Neyland Stadium so that the Vols basketball team could play a few selected home games there. This was the mid-1970s when Bernard King, Ernie Grunfeld and Co. were lighting up men’s hoops like a bonfire. The old Stokely Athletic Center was not big enough to hold the excitement of those days. All-night lines for student tickets were becoming commonplace, especially for the big games like Kentucky (that 103-98 war remains the best basketball game at any level I’ve ever witnessed in person).

When we started to talk, he wanted to know a few things about me and what I was doing for this class project. Of course I got into the subject of growing up a Vols football fan, and how I wished that I could have attended the night game against Penn State in 1972. Sitting in Woodruff’s office, I had yet to attend a game under the lights at Neyland Stadium. Night games were a new thing, and a very rare occurrence at that. That 1972 game against Joe Paterno’s team was the first.

I don’t really remember much else but when I read David Climer’s article in The Tennessean on Monday, it reminded me of that meeting in the AD’s office — a meeting that I have long forgotten.

In Dec 1971, Tennessee defeated Penn State 31-11. It was “Majors Family Day” for the home season finale and the game was telecast nationwide on ABC. Vol defenders were excellent, stopping a Penn State offense featuring Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell . Conrad Graham scored on a 76-yard fumble return for a touchdown. Bobby Majors returned two punts for 82 yards, one for a score, and returned two kickoffs for 113 yards.

Coming into the game, Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions were undefeated (10-0-0) and ranked #4. The Vols victory (TN was 8-2-0 and #12 going into the match) caused Paterno to look for a way out of the rematch scheduled for the following year. The 1972 game was slated for Sept, and different weather than the Dec game.

Paterno sent word that the only way he would follow through with the game was if it was played at night. Otherwise, he’d find a way out of the contract. Paterno knew that night football was considered blasphemy to many in leadership positions at UT.

Apparently Woodruff had secret plans already in the works for lights to be installed at Neyland Stadium. Just as Woodruff had kept the installation of the new Tartan Turf in 1968 under wraps, much to the chagrin of Vince Dooley, Woodruff wasn’t going to go public with the inevitably of night football in Knoxville. Paterno’s threat made Woodruff want to keep that a secret even more.

The lights went up, and The Vols beat Penn State 28-21. Oh, how I wish I could have been there. But thinking about it now, my desire made for good conversation with one of the legends of Vol football and UT athletics. I’m glad I have that memory. Many night games were to come for me soon enough.

Born into it  -  Tennessee Roots 

1946 Aconda Cout w Dad

Fort Sanders Hospital was smaller in 1946 but it was still in the same spot on the edge of campus. Alumni Hall was called Aconda Court and my parents had a corner apartment overlooking Cumberland and 17th before the Student Center was built. Mom was a Kappa Delta and a Torchbearer. She would set up my playpen in the court-yard so I could coo at coeds on the way to class.
        I’m told my first game at Neyland was in the Fall of 1946 when I was carried in at 7 months of age. The first I recall was maybe 1952 when the horseshoe end was empty to roam for kids. I remember the loss to Chatt in 1958 and seeing Moc fans tear down the old wooden goalposts.I actually saw Johnny Majors play in the single wing.

Then there was my college career watching my fraternity big brother snake my date to the 1966 Bama Game in the rain with the last second loss 10 to 11. He married her.  We fired the cannon from the big concrete UT we built on the side of the hill – 

.

D. Livingston, PSK President King ,
Me , and Lynn Safley 

The interlocking U & T behind the North bleachers was built by Phi Sigma Kappa when I was the President back in 1966. We kept the cannon firing when UT scored for 4 or 5 seasons – until someone left the coffee can full of gunpowder too near the barrel one Saturday and a spark set the entire supply off with an accompanying (mushroom) cloud of smoke and scared the pee out of a couple of Trustee’s wives thus ending the practice. 

I drove to Miami for the Orange Bowl loss to Oklahoma. To New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl win over Miami and I got to be in Tempe for the win over FSU and the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 1998 99

Barbara Newman Bozeman 3rd from right 

Plenty of memories of life on the campus but not so many as my Torchbearer mother.

Protest & Activism 40 Years On is the history of the years between 69 and 72 when campus strikes and Anti-war marches roiled the student bodies from Coast to Coast.  An interesting history of campus life in the most interesting era.  A high lottery number got me out of the draft fear but I still left for Canada when Nixon won in 72 

Freshman Class Officers 1964-65

I ended up a sound engineer and owner of MOUNTAIN SOUND - We provided tour sound for the CHARLIE DANIELS BAND --- THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND --- THE OAK RIDGE BOYS and many more during 8 years of peak Southern Rock dominance. We did all the live sound for entertainment at THE 1982 WORLD'S FAIR - But my favorite gid was providing "from the field" sound for the national anthem and half-time entertainment for the PRIDE OF THE SOUTHLAND BAND at all home games for the VOLS.  Sideline access during the games is quite a perk for a VOL FAN. 

TOY CALDWELL JIMMY CARTER
GEORGE McCORKLE MTB

The MTB and CDB raised a lot of $$ for the Carter campaign and we got to do the sound for the big inaugural ball in DC


Tough to be any more Orange Blooded than this I think.

AMAZING RHYTHM ACES

CHER - GREG ALLMAN

JESSE WINCHESTER RETURNS TO THE USA

Pittsburgh Presentation Shows Nov 2011 Grand Jury Presentment Misled the Public, Media

Last November's Grand Jury Presentment Covered Up Corbett's and Kelly's Botched Investigation of Sandusky in 2008 and Who Was Victimized due to the Botched 1998 Investigation

By Ray Blehar

The slide above shows how the November 2011 grand jury presentment made it appear as if Penn State's alleged failure to report Sandusky in 2001 resulted in the abuse of six more victims.  However, a chronological account (shown below) tells an entirely different story.

Even with the addition of victims 9 and 10, a chronology of the crimes shows that Penn State's alleged failure to report in 2001 was not responsible for the abuse of the majority of the victims.  But more importantly, it shows that the police not only didn't find victims from 2001 to 2005, but didn't find any of the victims (details here).  However, there is more to the story....

The AG's presentment did it's best to mask the associations of the victims.  Nearly all of the victims abused prior to 2001 were identified by the mother of Victim 6.  In 1998, this mother told the CYS investigator that there were other children in Sandusky's circle at the time her son's alleged abuse was investigated.  CYS provided their files to DPW (Jerry Lauro) when he took over the case.  It is a tragic fact that only two children were investigated in 1998 and the other children were not sought out for investigation.  Four of the five children identified by the mother are now known as Victims 3, 4, 5, and 7.

This information about the failed 1998 investigation has been turned over to the PA Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention and to AG-elect Kathleen Kane.

Franco's Interview With Bob Costas

Franco states the truth will come out and Joes legacy will be restored.  Franco does an excellent job discussing the facts of the 1998 incident using information broken on our blog.

Franco on NBC Sports

Hit it!

Sandusky Investigation Was The Bible on How NOT to Conduct An Investigation

The OAG investigation of Sandusky ignored the DOJ's "Child Molester Investigator's Bible" and unnecessarily endangered Pennsylvania's children for nearly three years

by Ray Blehar 

When comparing the Jerry Sandusky investigation with the procedures outlined in the  U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) guidelines for conducting child abuse investigations, it is clear  that the Pennsylvania State Police and the Office of Attorney General botched the investigation from the start, never got it on track, and let it languish until Aaron Fisher threatened to walk away in August 2011.  

A task force was not established until April 2011:  The first step in any child abuse investigation is to establish a multi-disciplined task force of highly trained individuals.  In the Sandusky investigation, the well trained state police officer who normally worked the cases, Officer Patterson, was replaced by a host of state troopers who did not have the requisite training.   The police in this case had little interaction with the social service professionals, such as Mike Gillum, throughout the investigation.  And all of the victims who were brought to trial were found before the establishment of the task force. 

- For those who say "move on"...I say "move over."

Rantking    THOSE WHO WANT TO 'MOVE ON' SHOULD MOVE OVER 

another pithy scolding from the Rantking spinning out the TRUTH with an economy of words well written and to the point.

I may be on the cutting edge of stupid.

And yet....

1. If you give me 3 or 4 years, or 14 years, 1-15 investigators, 10-20 victims/witnesses...even I could get a conviction against one old pedophile. I don't get Corbett's and the AG's thrill of the stats. Besides, didn't Sara Ganim do most of the hard work?
2. Are The Second Mile, DPS, CWS, and school districts ever going to be held accountable?
3. Didn't Schultz and Curley file motion(s) for separate trials? What happened with that?
4. Matt Sandusky confessed to perjury, but has not been charged? Why?
5. What was the roll call vote on Paterno's firing? I have it at 7.
6. Cynthia Baldwin is a ninja.
7. The evidence against Surma's prejudice is overwhelming and Masser violated a standing order by not only leaking information to the press, but also by making slanderous statements regarding the accused. Neither have been forced to resign. Why is that?
8. Anybody get me that info I requested on Mark Sherburne?
9. Baldwin, Corbett, Emmert, Raykovitz, Freeh, Emmert, Mitchell, Peetz ........when I start to write this thing...it always feels repetitious. Probably because I tweet too much.
But then, I only have 23 followers...and at least 11 of them are either hookers or salespeople.

Read On at the Rantking 

Eileen Morgan''s Presentation Page

Eileen Morgan posted the presentations that were delivered at Franco's Town Hall Meeting in Pittsburgh this past Saturday. These presentations include:

• Highlights of Eileen's Critical Analysis of the Freeh Report
• Legal and evidentiary analysis of PSU's response to the 1998 incident
• Analysis of the Fall 2000 Janitor Incident (by Ray Blehar)
• Analysis of the Nov 2011 Grand Jury Presentment (by Ray Blehar)

This page can be accessed at this LINK

EILEEN MORGAN PENN STATE SEEKING THE TRUTH

The section Mike McQueary combines SMSS exclusive pictures with Ray Blehar's diagrams to give a visual representation of the events of the night of Feb 9 2001 in the Lasch Building Showers.

Visit Eileen's site for further information and analysis 

Different Narrative of Scandal Emerges At Town Hall

by Ray Blehar

PITTSBURGH, PA:   On Saturday, in  a small dowtown theatre in the Arts District, a different narrative of the Sandusky Scandal emerged.   Last November's grand jury presentment created the false narrative that a Penn State cover-up allowed a 14 year spree of molestation. 

That narrative was laid to rest for all in attendance. 

A chronology of Sandusky's alleged crimes (at the time of the presentment) shows not only that the majority of the crimes occurred before Penn State officials learned of the 2001 incident, but that Sandusky's abuse apparently stopped for a period of four years after PSU (and the Second Mile) confronted Sandusky.

Blehar, Morgan & Ziegler at Franco's BoT Roast

Pittsburgh Town Hall draws well as it slams the AG FREEH and the BOT. Freehdom Fighters Eileeen Morgan, Ray Blehar and John Ziegler do well. 

Franco and Ray
Team up to Support PSU 

Franco Harris, Pittsburgh Steelers legend and one of the most impassioned defenders of late Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno, took the microphone inside a Downtown theater Saturday and began his remarks with a question: "So, why are we here?"  It was clear his audience of nearly 140 people, many clad in Penn State's blue and white colors, already had the answer. Mr. Harris recalled how the late coach, for whom Mr. Harris once played, was abruptly fired by the university a year ago, his name kept off of football programs and his statue removed from Beaver Stadium.

It's all because Penn State trustees and some others, in a rush to find scapegoats so they could extricate the school from the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, "wanted us to move on. Forget about it. It's done," Mr. Harris asserted. 

One Year Ago Today - The Media Tsunami

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE 1oth OF NOVEMBER

Lest we forget the fear and the blame - unjustly derived from the Attorney General Linda Kelly who succeeded her mentor - new Gov. Tom Corbett - who served on the Board of Trustees with his cronies and appointees - who hired Louis Freeh and paid 6.5 million of your money for his indictment of lies.

On Nov 7 Linda Kelly takes the stage with her props claiming Mike McQueary "SAW a boy being subjected to anal intercourse" by Jerry Sandusky and said those words to Joe Paterno, AD Tim Curley and VP Gary Schultz.

John P. Surma's Vendetta leads to the termination of Paterno and Spanier 

One Year Anniversary - We Know the TRUTH

Significant updates concerning Cynthia Baldwin have been added to this one year anniversary post but this story needs to remain intact in order to cover that disastrous week in Nov. 2011 and the events leading up to that week. We can now refocus our efforts and reacquaint ourselves in the wake of the election with the horrible injustice done to Joe Paterno and PSU administrators by the now replaced Attorney General and the current Governor along with the Board of Trustees and Louis Freeh. Their actions should not go unchallenged and opposed.  Barry Bozeman FREEHdom Fighter  

"Joe Paterno, Tim Curley, Gary Schultz and Dr. Graham Spanier conspired to cover up allegations of child abuse by failing to report an incident witnessed by Mike McQueary in order to save the PSU football program from bad publicity." 

Remember Remember those Days Last November 

The BoT Treason and Plot 

by Barry Bozeman 

Kelly links AD Curley and VP Schultz
to Jerry Sandusky with perjury charge.  

The nature of business and political power in a our system can sometimes lead to terrible consequences. The collusion of common interests from Governor Tom Corbett and his appointed successor as Attorney General Linda Kelly, his long time acquaintance ripe for a 6.5 million dollar payday Louis Freeh, and a group of the most influential members of the PSU Board of Trustees is what we might expect it to be. Things have worked out as they have, not because these people conspired to undermine justice but by the very nature of their relationships it is simply in their best interest - selfish self interest - to behave as they have. "Enlightened" self interest is not always just and it does not lead to the truth or fairness. That's part of the conflict between corporate and business interests and an interest in truth and justice.