TASK DEFINITION: Given a document, generate a short title of the document. The title should convey the main idea/event/topic about which the document is being written. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller broke his own record this week for guilty pleas. On Tuesday  Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan appeared in federal court and admitted he had lied to investigators about his contacts with  Donald Trump's former campaign vice chairman  Rick Gates .
On Friday   Gates himself  appeared before a federal judge and confirmed that  he  is changing  his  plea to guilty.  He  had been fighting the case brought against  him  and the former Trump campaign chairman  Paul Manafort  which alleged they laundered millions of dollars and broke other laws related to their work for clients in Ukraine.
 Gates  and Manafort have not been charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by "impairing  obstructing and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes." That was the charge Mueller leveled at 13 Russians and three Russian companies he says did interfere with the election.
Or the special counsel's office could be laying down one brick in a larger structure. At the very least   Gates'  future testimony against  his  longtime business partner raises the likelihood that Manafort could be convicted of some or all of the charges  he  continues fighting.
Manafort and his lawyers know this. So one of Mueller's strategies in getting  Gates  to turn state's evidence might be to persuade Manafort to do the same and tell what he knows about other people in the Trump campaign orbit.
Or evidence from  Gates  might be what the special counsel's office needs to build a case against Manafort for conspiring in the 2016 Russian interference effort. Or  after years of working with Manafort   Gates  might have other evidence that would permit Mueller to bring new charges against Manafort.
Mueller announced a new indictment in Manafort's case on Friday evening. After  Gates  appeared in federal court Friday to enter his plea  Manafort continued to maintain his innocence and said he remained committed "to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me."

SOLUTION: The Russia Investigations: More Pleas More Charges â Any More Preparation? : NPR

PROBLEM: As school leaders try to move on   Joe Paterno  loyalists  including many university trustees  continue to fight over the coachâs role in  his  assistantâs crimes.
In July  Penn Stateâs board of trustees met to discuss the most important issues facing a school system with 99 000 students and a $5.7 billion budget. It took about three hours before someone brought up Jerry Sandusky and  Joe Paterno .
Supporters of  Joe Paterno   right  question the evidence used to conclude  he  ignored or covered up the assaults committed by Jerry Sandusky  left. (1999 photo by Paul Vathis/Associated Press)
Law enforcement officials  victimsâ lawyers and private investigators â including Louis Freeh  the former FBI director who authored a damning 2012 report that asserted  Paterno âs involvement in a coverup â say the dispute results from stubborn âPaterno-deniers â âJoebotsâ and âtruthers â for whom no evidence will be strong enough to condemn the beloved former football coach.
âThe tragedy of all of this is that it is self-perpetuated and self-inflicted â said Tom Kline  an attorney for one victim. âThey have settled on an endless assault on anyone who dares suggest that there was something that happened that was wrong and that the fault lies at the doorstep of either  Paterno  or the football program.â
But alumni trustees and supporters insist  Paterno  and the school were victims of a rush to judgment that spared other  more culpable organizations â most notably the Second Mile  Sanduskyâs charity for at-risk children â from public scorn. They point to conflicting accounts of the assault at the core of the coverup case  evidence the NCAA may have influenced Freehâs report and doubts about claims  Paterno  ignored assaults as far back as the 1970s.
According to Freeh  in 2001   Paterno  and three university administrators â president Graham Spanier  athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz â decided to conceal a report of Sandusky assaulting a boy  to avoid bad publicity for the university and its football team. The men displayed a âcallous and shocking disregard for child victims â Freeh said  as they âempowered Sanduskyâ to abuse boys for another decade.
Freehâs verdict capped an unimaginable downfall for  Paterno   who just eight months before seemed poised to retire as the winningest  most respected coach in the history of college football. In 46 years as head coach  heâd piled up 409 wins and two national championships while professing selflessness and education  fielding teams that wore simple jerseys with no names on the back  his players graduating at rates that outpaced competitors. In the venal world of college football   Paterno  built a reputation as a coach who valued integrity over winning â âSuccess with Honorâ was his motto â and now he stood accused of covering up for a pedophile to protect his public image.
In including  Paterno   Freeh had gone further than prosecutors  who would charge the administrators with crimes but said they did not believe  Paterno  participated. In defending his conclusion  Freeh cited âthe most important evidence in the caseâ: a chain of emails between the three administrators from 2001.
A newspaper with the headline rewritten was left near a statue of  Paterno  outside Beaver Stadium on Jan. 23  2012  the day after he died. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press) Freeh conceded his reportâs condemnation of  Paterno  was made without knowledge of what was said in  Paterno âs meeting with Curley. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
The emails showed the men planned to report Sandusky to child welfare authorities but changed course after Curley met with  Paterno . Instead  they banned Sandusky from bringing children to Penn State and informed the Second Mile of the incident. Sandusky was convicted of assaulting four boys after this incident.
In an email  one trustee urged then-Penn State president Rod Erickson to tear down the statue of  Paterno  outside the stadium  if it would pacify the NCAA.
Eleven days after Freehâs news conference  the NCAA announced that Penn State had entered into a âconsent decree â accepting a $60 million fine and the erasing of all of Paternoâs wins after 1998  the year Sandusky was investigated â but cleared â by Penn State police and a state child welfare agency. Freeh had concluded  Paterno  should have suspected then his assistant was a pedophile.
Penn State students protested the schoolâs handling of the Sandusky scandal. (2011 photo by Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press) Students also honored the memory of  Paterno  after  his  death at age 85. (2012 photo by Gary Cameron/Reuters)
The lawsuit also produced communications between NCAA staffers and Freehâs team that prompted some alumni to theorize Freeh catered his report â which  by including  Paterno   put the case squarely in the NCAAâs crosshairs â to appeal to a desired client.
The NCAA is only a part of why some alumni feel the school and  Paterno  took a disproportionate share of the blame  Schmidt said  before explaining theories involving a former governor and the Second Mile.

SOLUTION: Penn State six years after Jerry Sandusky scandal remains divided

PROBLEM: DAYTONA BEACH  Fla. (AP) —  Danica Patrick  kissed  her  NASCAR career goodbye with a good luck smooch from NFL star and new boyfriend Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers put his hands on  Patrick ’s shoulders and leaned in for the kiss just before  she  raced for the final time at the Daytona 500 on Sunday.  Patrick  had hugged and fist-bumped family and crew  pulled  her  hair into a ponytail and slid into  her  Chevy.
 Her  final NASCAR start fittingly came on the sport’s biggest stage — in front of 101 000 fans at the Daytona 500.
 Patrick  was in good spirits as  she  approached  her  car that had been swallowed by security  fans  media  and members of Team Danica that made it futile to find a spot near the scrum.  She  posed for pictures with Rodgers  the Green Bay Packers quarterback  who was all smiles in a tight blue T-shirt and jeans before the race and watched from the pits. The starry-eyed sweethearts brought a dose of A-list gravitas to a pit road scene that was more fitting for a red carpet.
 Patrick  opened the first leg of the ballyhooed “Danica Double” on Sunday.  She ’ll make a return in May to IndyCar and race the Indianapolis 500 before  Patrick  calls it quits on  her  racing career.
“When  she  first started at 10  I knew about two months into it  I told my wife she’s going to change racing. I could see it ” said  Patrick ’s father  T.J.
 Patrick  was a driver at peace with her decision and ready to transition into the next chapter of her life.
 Patrick  has moved on from both NASCAR and longtime boyfriend and fellow driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Patrick and Stenhouse  once NASCAR’s it couple  used to sit next to each other at the pre-race meeting. This week  the exes were kept separated on media availability schedules.
 Patrick  posted a photo on Instagram on Saturday of her and Rodgers with her family at the beach. She wrote “Doing Daytona with all the people that mean the most to  me .” The fitness fanatic and author of a workout book also posted a pic of rows of Krispy Kreme doughnuts with the caption  “pre Daytona 500 prep.”
NASCAR recognized  Patrick  in the pre-race meeting in honor of her accomplishments in motorsports.
 Patrick  never had a top-five finish for Stewart-Hass Racing. She never won another pole after her breakthrough at the 2013 Daytona 500. She never had much success but carried the flag as one of NASCAR’s only true mainstream stars. But as results sank  so did interest in funding her ride. Sponsors bailed  cash dried up and she was out of a job.
Patrick is as much a brand these days as she is an athlete. Her love life  Super Bowl ads and racy photo shoots were hot topics that generated more enthusiasm than her actual career accomplishments. She launched the clothing line “Warrior by Danica Patrick” after participating in the design process. She developed the workouts and meal plans for her book  “Pretty Intense: The 90-Day Mind  Body and Food Plan that will absolutely Change Your Life.” Patrick is still a bankable celebrity and should have her pick of any future projects.

SOLUTION:
Danica done: Patrick drives in final race of NASCAR career