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Sugar Notch councilman charged with harassment in dispute with chief

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Our view: Start of school sports season calls for common sense precautions

<p>Penn State announced Tuesday that a special meeting of the university&#8217;s Committee on Compensation will be held on Friday.</p><p>If the name of that group sounds familiar to Nittany Lions fans, it&#8217;s because it&#8217;s the same one that formally approved James Franklin&#8217;s hiring three-and-a-half years ago.</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/08/15/penn-state-james-franklin-contract-extension" target="_blank">Sports Illustrated&#8217;s Bruce Feldman</a>, the discussion will be about the coach&#8217;s long-awaited contract extension.</p><p>Penn State has posted that the purpose of the meeting, which will be held via teleconference, will be to &#8220;consider and take action on a personnel matter.&#8221;</p><p>A closed executive session will take place at 11:30 a.m. with the public session available open to listeners at <a href="http://www.wpsu.org/trustees" target="_blank">wpsu.org/trustees</a> at 11:45 a.m.</p><p>The same protocol was followed when Franklin originally arrived back in January 2014, with the school officially announcing his hiring immediately after the meeting.</p><p>Franklin &#8212; who still has three years remaining on that original deal, which pays him $4.5 million annually &#8212; has been in negotiations with Penn State since last season, even before he led the Lions to a Big Ten championship and the Rose Bowl.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been talking about this for a while, and I feel good about it,&#8221; Franklin said earlier this month at Penn State&#8217;s media day. I don&#8217;t have any concerns, but my focus is on our team and the 2017 season completely. &#8230; Once the season starts, it changes a little bit for me. I kind of put the blinders on and jump in the submarine. To me, everything that we do and I do is about getting the team ready to be successful.</p><p>&#8220;I feel good about where we&#8217;re at. I don&#8217;t have any concerns, but my focus is completely on the season.&#8221;</p><p>His accomplishments earned him bonuses that pushed him above $5 million for 2016. According to USA Today&#8217;s salary database, Franklin was the 10th-highest paid college football coach nationally, tied for third in the Big Ten with Iowa&#8217;s Kirk Ferentz and behind Michigan&#8217;s Jim Harbaugh and Ohio State&#8217;s Urban Meyer.</p><p>&#8220;I can guarantee you this,&#8221; Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said last month at Big Ten media days. &#8220;We&#8217;re 100 percent committed to James and James is 100 percent committed to Penn State. So we&#8217;re trying to get to the right place. Sometimes it can be complicated, but I have no concern about us getting there. It&#8217;s probably going to take longer than any of us thought.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">A contract extension for Penn State coach James Franklin has been long in the works, and a Friday teleconference could make it official. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_Franklin-Maryland-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>A contract extension for Penn State coach James Franklin has been long in the works, and a Friday teleconference could make it official. </caption0><photoCredit0>Chris Knight | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Report: Contract extension for James Franklin could come on Friday