SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Missouri State University is withdrawing as host of this year’s Missouri Valley Conference men and women’s track and field championships.

The championships will instead be held at Wichita State University.

Missouri State officials say it would cost about $600,000 for upgrades areas needed for the championships.

Wednesday’s announcement comes a day after Missouri State said it had formed a group to find ways to reduce its athletic department’s expenses.

The Springfield News-Leader reports the university’s goal is to reduce expenses in the athletic department by at least $750,000. Last year, the department’s budget was $16.1 million.

The move is in response to Gov. Eric Greitens 2018 budget proposal, which would provide about $90 million less in core funding to Missouri’s public colleges and universities than they were expecting.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline are calling for protests around the world as the Army prepares to greenlight construction of the final stage of the project.

The Army on Tuesday said it will allow the pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota, clearing the way for completion of the $3.8 billion project to move North Dakota oil to Illinois.

Some opponents who worry the pipeline will harm the environment have dubbed Wednesday “#NODAPL Last Stand” day, and they’re calling on social media for “emergency actions.” A list shows events planned across the U.S. and in Canada.

The call is coming from Standing Rock Sioux members. The tribe says a pipeline leak could contaminate its drinking water. Project developer Energy Transfer Partners says the pipeline is safe.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A St. Louis-area high school’s wrestling coach is on administrative leave after being accused of sexual misconduct with a female student five years ago.

St. Louis County prosecutors charged 45-year-old Conye Ausar with sexual contact with a student, a felony.

Authorities allege the student told police that she was attending Ritenour High School when she had sexual contact with Ausar in the school’s wrestling room in November 2011. Police say Ausar was a Ritenour teacher on contract through the special school district.

The district says Ausar has been a middle school teacher since 2014.

A letter to Ritenour parents from the district’s superintendent says Ausar was put on leave on Jan. 25 after the school learned of the allegations.

Online court records don’t show whether Ausar has an attorney.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two Missouri men who robbed people responding to phony Craigslist ads were sentenced to federal prison.

Federal prosecutors said 27-year-old Thomas Thorpe, of Kansas City, was sentenced Tuesday to 27 years in prison, while 23-year-old Troy Wright, of Grandview, was sentenced to 25 years.

A third defendant, 25-year-old Debvon Buckner, of Kansas City, also pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Prosecutors say Thorpe and Wright committed six armed robberies in June and July 2014. Buckner communicated with the victims.

In a July 2014 robbery, a married couple from Liberty was shot and robbed. The victims’ son had to use his bare hands to try and stop his father’s bleeding from eight gunshot wounds. The father survived.

Prosecutors say young children were present in two of the other robberies.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A civil rights advisory panel says a Kansas law requiring people to show photo ID at the polls and provide proof-of-citizenship documents to register to vote may discriminate against minorities.

It also urges the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to investigate whether the Kansas law violates federal voting laws.

The Kansas City Star first reported on the draft report from the Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights.

The Safe and Fair Elections Act passed in 2011 has been championed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as a way to prevent voter fraud.

Kobach calls concerns that the state law was written and implemented with discriminatory intent an outrageous accusation.

A Democratic lawmaker introduced a bill on Monday to repeal it based on the report.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri is launching a new Institute for Korean Studies.

Co-directors will be assistant history professor C. Harrison Kim and assistant political science professor Sheena Greitens, who is Gov. Eric Greitens’ wife.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports the institute will foster research on South and North Korea. Kim says the university has a long history of academic research on Korea but faculty members hadn’t come together to establish an institute.

Sheena Greitens says one of the institute’s goals will be to raise the university’s profile in Korean research. She has a personal interest because one of her adopted sisters is from Korea.

The institute will launch Thursday with a speech by Grace Jo, a North Korean refugee who became a U.S. citizen and advocate for human rights.

MARSHALL, Mo. (AP) — A former longtime sheriff of Saline County, Missouri, who embezzled thousands of dollars, has been sentenced to nine months in prison.

Wallace Newman George Jr. was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to stealing nearly $79,000 in state-issued checks.

The Kansas City Star reports George was sheriff for more than 30 years before resigning more than a year ago.

George, a Saline County native, joined the sheriff’s department in 1970 and was appointed sheriff in 1979, winning re-election since then.

The checks he embezzled were meant to cover the costs of extraditing and transporting prisoners from outside Missouri to the Saline County jail in Marshall, about 90 miles east of Kansas City.

Court documents indicate George deposited the checks in a personal checking account between January 2010 and June 2015.