BOSTON (Reuters) – Penn State’s football team will end a winning season this weekend but the university’s sex abuse scandal could make the Nittany Lions a pariah at the postseason college football bowl party.

With nine wins and only two losses going into the final game of the season against Wisconsin, Penn State would be poised in a normal year for an invitation to a lucrative, high-profile bowl game.

But former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was charged this month with sexually abusing eight boys in a 15-year period, including incidents before and after his retirement from the team in 1999, and some within the team’s training complex.

Joe Paterno, 84, the most successful coach in major college football, was fired for failing to tell police about allegations of abuse by Sandusky in the football locker rooms.

Acting head coach Tom Bradley said this week that he doubted the team would be kept out of a postseason game.

“Our administration has assured us … that’s not the case,” he said.

More likely, according to some college football prognosticators, is that Penn State could be passed over by the major bowls and end up in the postseason minor leagues.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Penn State’s football team will end a winning season this weekend but the university’s sex abuse scandal could yet make the Nittany Lions a pariah at the postseason college football bowl party.

With nine wins and only two losses going into the final game of the season against Wisconsin, and with legions of fans traditionally eager to travel to a warm spot to celebrate the New Year, Penn State would be poised in a normal year for a plumb invitation.

But former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was charged this month with sexually abusing eight young boys over a 15-year period, including incidents before and after his retirement from the team in 1999, and some within the team’s training complex.

Joe Paterno, 84, the most successful coach in major college football, was fired for failing to tell police about allegations of abuse by Sandusky in the football locker rooms.

Acting head coach Tom Bradley said this week that he doubted the team would be kept out of a postseason game.

“I have not heard that from anybody,” Bradley said. “Our administration has assured us … that’s not the case,”

More likely, according to some college football prognosticators, is that Penn State could be passed over by the major bowls and end up in the postseason minor leagues.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will kick off his television advertising campaign in New Hampshire on Tuesday with a spot attacking President Barack Obama on the day Obama visits the early primary state.

Romney discussed the campaign’s first paid television commercial ad in an interview to be broadcast on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” show on Monday. A transcript was made available in advance.

“We’ll put the ad up on Tuesday, the very day he comes to New Hampshire,” Romney said, promising that the spot would juxtapose what Democrat Obama promised as a candidate, and his record as president.

“The contrast between what he said and what he did is so stark, people will recognize we really do need to have someone new lead this country,” he said. “And then I, of course, described why I’m the right person for that responsibility.

Obama will be in New Hampshire to discuss jobs, which will be a key issue in the 2012 campaign.

Romney’s campaign has focused almost exclusively on Obama rather than on his various Republican rivals, who have surged and ebbed in opinion polls over the months.

The Obama re-election campaign has responded in kind, gearing up for a likely 2012 battle against Romney as the Republican nominee for president.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said on Friday that his recent sharp rise in opinion polls as the first 2012 primary contests approach has been “almost disorienting.”

At an appearance at Harvard University, Gingrich promised “extraordinarily radical proposals” if elected president, such as having inner city children work as janitors in their schools.

The former U.S. House Speaker, whose aspirations to win the Republican primary battle seemed almost dead in the summer after a series of well-publicized stumbles, is now a front-runner in some recent surveys.

Gingrich is rarely stumped for words but seemed taken aback that his bid had suddenly caught fire.

“I jumped by a factor of three in a month,” Gingrich told reporters after a screening of his film “A City Upon a Hill”. “I feel almost disoriented. This is a lot.”

Gingrich’s rise has been tied to strong performances in debates, struggles by candidates such as Texas Governor Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain, and conservative Republicans’ wish to have an alternative to Mitt Romney.

A Fox News poll on Wednesday showed Gingrich with 23 percent support among Republican primary voters nationally, a statistical dead heat with Romney at 22 percent.

BOSTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) – A Power Rangers “samurai mega blade” and a Godzilla figure with dagger-like attachments are some of the most dangerous toys lurking in stores this holiday season, according to a consumer watchdog group.

Boston-based World Against Toys Causing Harm (WATCH) on Wednesday issued its annual list of the 10 worst children’s toys, just in time for the shopping frenzy that typically starts in late November.

On the list were items the group said pose risks for choking, electrocution, puncture wounds and more.

Joan Siff, president of WATCH, said there have been at least 28 toy recalls representing 3.8 million units in the United States over the past year.

“Any recall is too late in the process,” she said, urging better vetting and testing of toys before they go on sale. “Testing cannot take place in the marketplace.”

The group has produced its list each year since 1973, and has been successful in getting a number of toys pulled from the shelves. It found this year’s selections at leading big-box retailers, online, and in small specialty stores.

James Swartz, a director of WATCH, demonstrated the “Z-Curve Bow,” a foam bow and arrow set recommended for kids eight and over.

BOSTON (Reuters) – A Power Rangers “samurai mega blade” and a Godzilla figure with dagger-like attachments are some of the most dangerous toys lurking in stores this holiday season, according to a consumer watchdog group.

Boston-based World Against Toys Causing Harm (WATCH) on Wednesday issued its annual list of the 10 worst children’s toys, just in time for the shopping frenzy that typically starts in late November.

On the list were items the group said pose risks for choking, electrocution, puncture wounds and more.

Joan Siff, president of WATCH, said there have been at least 28 toy recalls representing 3.8 million units in the United States over the past year.

“Any recall is too late in the process,” she said, urging better vetting and testing of toys before they go on sale. “Testing cannot take place in the marketplace.”

The group has produced its list each year since 1973, and has been successful in getting a number of toys pulled from the shelves. It found this year’s selections at leading big-box retailers, on line, and in small specialty stores.

James Swartz, a director of WATCH, demonstrated the “Z-Curve Bow,” a foam bow and arrow set recommended for kids eight and over.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve policies alone cannot restore full employment in the United States and need back-up on the fiscal side and support from greater global stability, a top Fed policy-maker said on Wednesday.

Fiscal problems “have increasingly limited the response we would normally expect in a severe economic downturn and a painfully slow recovery,” Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said in remarks prepared for a speech to the Boston Economic Club.

The U.S. economy remains at risk from financial shocks at home and abroad, he added, pointing to recent jitters in financial markets from turmoil in Greece, a country “roughly the size of Ohio.”

Rebuilding the jobs market “will take time and appropriate actions by international policymakers, U.S. fiscal policymakers, and monetary policymakers,” Rosengren said.

The speech largely avoided the economic and policy outlook and focused on what Rosengren termed misconceptions about the central bank.

He said that expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet in recent years, sometimes derided by critics as “printing money,” had not led to a spike in inflation.

Given high unemployment and lack of upward pressure on wages and salaries, “there is little reason to expect significant inflationary pressures,” Rosengren said.

BOSTON (Reuters) – It could be years before a sense of normalcy returns to Penn State after the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the campus this week, with fund-raising and sports recruiting among the activities that could feel the sting.

“From now, when you mention Penn State, the first thing people will think about is the scandal. The legacy can not help but be tainted,” said Dan Lebowitz, executive director of the Sport in Society program at Northeastern University.

The tumult began when Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, was charged with sexually abusing boys for 15 years, including incidents on team premises. Two former university officials were charged with not reporting at least one known assault to the police.

On Wednesday, Joe Paterno, who coached Penn State’s football team for 46 years, and university president Graham Spanier were removed by Penn State’s board of trustees as it sought to start the healing process.

Both had been criticized by state investigative officials for not doing more to intervene after learning that Sandusky was seen sexually abusing a boy in the locker room showers in 2002 by then graduate assistant, and now assistant coach, Mike McQueary.

Penn State University, a diverse, multi-campus state-funded college, is well into its biggest ever fund-raising drive. The “For the Future” campaign had raised $1.3 billion by April 30, toward a goal of $2 billion by 2014.

The university this week canceled or postponed several events related to fund-raising campaign, including the “President’s Tailgate” before Saturday’s home football game against Nebraska,