Missouri

Retired MU professor found slain in car trunk

Detectives from around mid-Missouri chased dozens of leads Monday in the death of a retired University of Missouri-Columbia professor, found stabbed to death in the trunk of his burning car.

Firefighters discovered the body of Jeong Hyok Im, 72, while responding Friday to a vehicle fire in the school’s Maryland Avenue parking garage. Im is the first homicide victim on the campus of the state’s largest university in 16 years.

While having checked into more than 100 leads since Im’s body was found, investigators are still trying to piece together a timeline of when the victim’s white 1995 Honda was parked in the garage, said University Police Capt. Brian Weimer.

Washington, D.C.

Missouri can’t ban KKK from litter program

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Missouri’s appeal in a long-running drive to bar the Ku Klux Klan from the Adopt-A-Highway program.

Without comment, the court let stand a lower court ruling that said Missouri had violated the freedom of speech rights of a Klan group by refusing to enroll its members in the highway cleanup program.

The Missouri case stemmed from efforts by a Klan group to join the Adopt-A-Highway program along a stretch of Highway 21 north of Potosi.

Another Klan group won the right earlier to join the state program along Interstate 55. That stretch of highway later was named in honor of Rosa Parks, a symbol of the civil rights movement.

In 2001, after the Klan group was dropped for failing to pick up trash, Missouri amended the eligibility requirements program to exclude participants with a “history of violence.”

Washington, D.C.

Government office sued for Title IX report

A nonprofit group that objects to a 2001 Government Accountability Office report on Title IX, the 1972 law that bars gender discrimination at schools receiving federal funds, has decided to sue the messenger.

The report, “Intercollegiate Athletics: Four-Year Colleges’ Experiences Adding and Discontinuing Teams,” found the number of men’s and women’s sports teams both increased from 1981 to 1999, although the rise in men’s teams was smaller. The report was a blow to critics who argued that enforcement of Title IX had encouraged colleges and universities to cut men’s programs to comply with the law.

In a lawsuit filed in 2003 and amended last month in U.S. District Court, the College Sports Council says the GAO’s methodology was flawed; the report erroneously concluded the number of collegiate men’s teams went up; and the findings have “misled” Congress.

California

School principal acts against ‘freak dancing’

Fed up with students’ racy moves, a principal has taken the unusual step of canceling the rest of this year’s school dances.

Principal Jim Bennett of Lemoore Union High School said he warned students at a winter formal dance last month to either quit dirty dancing or face the possibility of not dancing at all.

But he said the students continued “freak dancing,” a form of sexually suggestive dancing that involves grinding the hips and pelvic area.

The ban on dances includes the school’s Sadie Hawkins dance in February and the junior and senior proms in the spring, but Bennett said they could be rescheduled if students modify their behavior.

Washington

Abortion clinic fire was arson, investigators say

Fire damaged a women’s clinic where abortions are performed, and investigators said the blaze was intentionally set.

The fire early Sunday heavily damaged the roof of the Eastside Women’s Health Clinic, Olympia Fire Capt. Kate McDonald said. No one was injured.

Federal and local investigators said Monday the fire was started on the roof. The clinic was closed at the time.

Agent Scott Thomasson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimated the damage at $500,000. He said there were no suspects.