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Plains slips past Mountain Top in District 16 baseball semifinal

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Poconos district judge allegedly viewed porn in office

<p>Once celebrated at Penn State for being one of the nation&#8217;s top defensive coordinators, Bob Shoop is claiming in a court filing that he &#8220;experienced a hostile, negative work environment&#8221; while with the Nittany Lions.</p><p>Penn State filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Shoop in June for not paying a buyout clause triggered when he left for the same job at Tennessee in January 2016. On Thursday, Shoop filed a counterclaim in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, looking for Penn State&#8217;s suit to be dismissed and for a minimum of $75,000 paid to him in damages.</p><p>PennLive first reported Shoop had answered Penn State&#8217;s suit with one of his own.</p><p>Penn State is seeking $891,856 from Shoop &#8212; 50 percent of the base pay from the two years he had left on his contract with the Lions, which he had renegotiated the previous winter.</p><p>Shoop claims that he signed that new $1 million annual contract in 2015 &#8212; a deal that came after LSU had sought to hire him away &#8212; &#8220;under duress.&#8221;</p><p>From that point, according to Shoop, his &#8220;working conditions became intolerable.&#8221;</p><p>The suit does not go into further detail about either claim.</p><p>The buyout clause was set to trigger in the event Shoop was not a head coach within a year of leaving Penn State. Shoop is still with the Volunteers, heading into his second season as defensive coordinator.</p><p>Shoop&#8217;s suit also claims that he &#8220;was constructively discharged/terminated from, or forced or compelled to leave, his employment with Penn State&#8221;</p><p>Publicly, Shoop did not express any concerns about his time at Penn State.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t plan on going anywhere,&#8221; Shoop said on Dec. 29, 2015, while preparing the Lions for the TaxSlayer Bowl. &#8220;This is really a time for our team and I&#8217;m looking forward to being out there Saturday with these guys.</p><p>&#8220;I hope Penn State will have me for forever and ever and ever. I love being a part of Coach (James) Franklin&#8217;s program. I love what we&#8217;re building here.&#8221;</p><p>Shoop&#8217;s son, Tyler, remained enrolled at Penn State after his father&#8217;s departure and is still a member of the football team.</p><p>Shoop was introduced at Tennessee on Jan. 9. Tennessee officials said then that Shoop would be taking care of the buyout clause himself.</p><p>&#8220;I want to thank coach Franklin, the Penn State players and coaches and the Penn State community for an incredible two seasons,&#8221; Shoop said at the time. &#8220;This was not an easy decision and one that I didn&#8217;t take lightly.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Lions land DB recruit</strong></p><p>Penn State picked up its first verbal commitment of the summer on Thursday, landing a pledge from Florida &#8212; defensive back Jordan Miner.</p><p>The four-star prospect checks in at 6-foot-1, 177 pounds as the No. 30 cornerback in the nation, per the 247Sports Composite rankings.<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"></p><p dir="ltr"><ins>&#65533;&#65533;&#65533;&#65533; <a href="https://t.co/7c9a5O3T9T">pic.twitter.com/7c9a5O3T9T</a>&#8212; Uno (@Jordanminer01) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jordanminer01/status/883090169947181059">July 6, 2017</a></ins></blockquote><script charset="utf-8" type="mce-mce-mce-text/javascript" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async=""></script></p><p>Miner chose the Lions over Tennessee, North Carolina and Maryland among his 29 listed scholarship offers. He had recently visited Penn State, Tennessee, Auburn and Georgia.</p><p>Hailing from the Tampa area at Wiregrass Ranch High School, Miner gives the Lions 14 commitments in the 2018 signing class, good for No. 5 nationally in the Composite.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Former assistant Bob Shoop files counterclaim vs. Penn State