Biggest Stories of 2012

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier, coach Joe Paterno and others hushed up a child sex abuse allegation against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago for fear of bad publicity, allowing Sandusky to prey on other youngsters, according to a scathing internal report issued by former FBI Director Louis Freeh (inset) in July. Paterno "was an integral part of this active decision to conceal" and his firing was justified, Freeh said at a news conference. He called the officials' disregard for child victims "callous and shocking."