Names In The News

In N.Y., Keith Kelly notes the JOE PATERNO bio by SI writer JOE POSNANSKI “is proceeding full steam ahead -- even though the premise behind the book has been torpedoed by the child sex-abuse allegations against a former assistant coach that also took down the legendary Penn State football coach.” Posnanski, who is “believed to have secured a $750,000 advance this spring, had remained mum on the issue” until Thursday morning. Speaking to a journalism class at Penn State entitled “Joe Paterno: Communications and the Media,” Posnanski “went to bat for the embattled coach, who was fired from the head coaching job on Wednesday after 46 years” (N.Y. POST, 11/11). Meanwhile, in N.Y., Jim Rich reports U.S. Senators PAT TOOMEY (R-Pa.) and BOB CASEY (D-Pa.), and Rep. GLENN THOMPSON (R-Pa.) in September nominated Paterno for the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But Toomey and Casey on Thursday “rescinded their nomination less than 24 hours after the Nittany Lions legend was axed by the university” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 11/11).

GET WELL SOON: In Green Bay, Pete Dougherty cites a source as saying that Packers General Counsel & VP/Administration JASON WIED’s leave of absence “is because of a non-life-threatening medical condition.” Wied has been on a leave of absence since Tuesday, when the team announced he would be gone “indefinitely” for “personal reasons.” The source said that Wied is “undergoing testing and possible treatment for the condition, and it’s unclear when he’ll be able to return to work” (GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, 11/11).

NAMES: F1 Management Chair BERNIE ECCLESTONE “complained that his ex-wife spent ‘in excess’ of [US$19M] on their daughter’s wedding this summer as he gave a German court an insight into the family life of Britain’s fourth richest man” (LONDON TIMES, 11/11)....MLB Exec VP/Baseball Operations JOE TORRE’s Safe At Home Foundation on Thursday held its ninth annual gala at Pier Sixty of Chelsea Piers in N.Y. Torre had “several former Yankees and celebrities in attendance to help raise funds for his foundation, which is dedicated to ending the cycle of domestic violence across society” (MLB.com, 11/10)....Baltimore Racing Development has “missed all its deadlines for planting trees downtown to make up for” the 198 trees cut down for the city’s inaugural Grand Prix event on Labor Day (Baltimore SUN, 11/11)....Yankees C JORGE POSADA sold his home in Tampa last week for $4.5M “after being originally listed for $7.2 million in January 2010.” Posada had dropped the price to $6.5M in September (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 11/11).