COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri Faculty Council has voted to recommend rescind an honorary doctorate given to Bill Cosby.
The Columbia Missourian reports the council, which is made up of elected representatives of campus faculty, voted November 5th to take back Cosby’s honorary doctorate in humane letters. Ben Trachtenberg, chair of the Faculty Council, said Tuesday that he has sent a letter with the recommendation to interim Chancellor Hank Foley and Provost Garnett Stokes.
The 78-year-old comedian is embroiled in dozens of allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted women. Cosby has not been charged in any of the cases and had denied many of the allegations, while not addressing others.
Cosby received the honorary doctorate from the University of Missouri in 1999. The university would join several other schools that have revoked degrees given to Cosby.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Authorities are trying to determine a motive for Wednesday’s deadly shootings in San Bernardino, California, which could include workplace violence or terrorism.
Police say a heavily armed man and woman dressed for battle opened fire on a holiday banquet for his co-workers. They killed 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen others in a precision assault. Hours later, they died in a shootout with officers.
Wednesday’s shooting happened at a social services center for the disabled.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan identified one dead suspect as 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook, the other as Tashfeen Malik, 27, his wife or fiancee. A neighbor says Mr Farook recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, and when he returned he was married.
The U.S.-born Farook was a restaurant inspector for the health department. The couple had reportedly dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with relatives Wednesday morning, saying they had a doctor’s appointment. The husband of Farook’s sister told reporters he last spoke to his brother-in-law about a week ago. He said he was in shock, condemned the violence, and had “absolutely no idea why he would do this.”
Federal authorities say that the two assault rifles and two handguns used in the San Bernardino massacre were all purchased legally in the United States — two of them by someone who’s now under investigation.
Meredith Davis of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives says investigators are now working to make a connection to the last legal purchaser. She says all four guns were bought four years ago but she’s not saying whether they were purchased out of state or how and when they got into the hands of the two shooters.
Davis says California requires paperwork when guns change hands privately but many other states don’t. She also says the rifles involved were .223-caliber — powerful enough to pierce the standard protective vest worn by police officers, and some types of ammo can even plow through walls.
ARMA, Kan. (AP) — Arma Mayor Buddy Bualle says the town’s police chief is on unpaid leave and plans to resign after his arrest in a single-car accident.
Pittsburg police reports say chief Jeremy Allen was arrested after his car hit a cow early Friday. The reports say Allen was arrested and booked into the Crawford County Jail after he failed a field sobriety test.
Bualle said Allen has put himself on unpaid leave and plans to resign. Bualle says he plans to present the resignation to the city council on Monday.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Junction City man was sentenced Wednesday to life in federal prison for killing a woman to stop her from giving information on his drug trafficking to federal law enforcement officers.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says Marcus D. Roberson was convicted in March 2014 of murder, and conspiracy to distribute crack and powder cocaine.
Prosecutors say Roberson shot the victim four times in central Junction City. Her body was found in her vehicle and the murder weapon was found in a pond behind a Junction City Walmart.
Prosecutors also presented evidence of Roberson’s involvement in a ring that distributed powder and crack cocaine in the Junction City area.
Seven co-defendants have been sentenced in the case.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Cabela’s, the outdoor sporting goods chain known for its elaborate in-store wildlife displays, may be seeking a buyer.
The retailer has been under pressure since late October when the investment firm Elliott Management started pushing for money-generating maneuvers from Cabela’s.
They’re considering the possible sale of its credit card unit or the entire company. Elliott owns 6 percent of Cabela’s shares and holds options to buy another 5 percent.
The company has been attempting to cut spending due to weak sales and in September it laid off 70 people, eliminating about 4 percent of its corporate workforce.
Cabela’s has its headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska a town with a population of less than 7,000. Cabela’s accounts for almost a third of that number in jobs.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police Chief Jim Peschong says his officers fired eight shots and a man they were trying to arrest fired three shots during a fatal melee outside a northeast Lincoln home.
Peschong expressed amazement Wednesday that the two injured officers weren’t killed.
Police say Officer Matthew Gilleland was shot in an arm and Officer Angela Morehouse was punched in the Sunday evening incident. Twenty-nine-year-old Zachary Grigsby was fatally shot.
Police have said Grigsby declared he wouldn’t go to jail after the officers learned he had a felony arrest warrant. He struggled with the officers and then produced a handgun.
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Army says two pilots were killed when their helicopter crashed near Fort Campbell in rural Tennessee.
A news release from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division says the two crewmembers were flying a two-seat AH-64D Apache during a routine training mission.
The copter went down at around 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency Director Jerry Buchanan told The Tennessean the helicopter was found in a river bottom and was on fire when first responders arrived.
The Army news release says the cause of the crash hasn’t been determined and is being investigated. The names of the pilots haven’t been released, pending notification of next of kin.
Fort Campbell is located on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, about 60 miles northwest of Nashville.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A car fleeing from police has crashed into a Kansas City apartment building and caused an explosion.
The Kansas City Star reports that the explosion occurred shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday and tore off one side of the building. Kansas City police Capt. Dan Graves said officers were investigating a burglary and followed the car to the building.
While trying to arrest the occupants, the car then attempted to flee, driving onto the grass and performing a “doughnut” on the lawn before crashing into the building.
The crash damaged the gas lines to the building, allowing gas to escape into the air. Police helped to evacuate the apartments, moving people away from the building. Utility workers and fire officials were called to the scene.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge has allowed a Missouri Planned Parenthood clinic to keep its abortion license until at least Dec. 30.
U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey on Wednesday said she’ll block the Department of Health and Senior Services from revoking a Columbia clinic’s license during a legal battle over its licensure.
Planned Parenthood sued Monday, arguing the health department unfairly tried to revoke its license without giving the clinic enough time to comply with a state law requiring physicians to have hospital privileges.
Even with a license, the clinic cannot terminate pregnancies because it has no doctor with privileges.
That’s because MU Health Care medical staff voted to discontinue in December the type of privileges the physician held amid a legislative abortion investigation.
Missouri now has only one clinic offering abortions.
UPDATE: Police say no one is in custody after a shooting at a social services facility in Southern California and they are searching for suspects.
San Bernardino police Sgt. Vicki Cervantes confirmed to The Associated Press that multiple people were shot and some were killed Wednesday. She says there are reports from witnesses of between one and three shooters.
She says it is still an active situation and authorities have not located any suspects.
As far as she knows, police are still trying to clear the complex. All the roads surrounding the shooting scene are closed off, and police are warning people about the shooting.
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1:50 p.m.
At least 10 people have been taken to hospitals for treatment after the shooting at a social services facility in Southern California.
San Bernardino County announced on its Twitter account that six people were being treated at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, which is run by the county.
A spokeswoman for Loma Linda University Medical Center says four patients were taken to its trauma center.
Spokeswoman Briana Pastorino says she didn’t know their conditions. She says the hospital expects to get three more patients.
Authorities say multiple people were shot and some were killed Wednesday at the Inland Regional Center in
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Paul Lacroix said his son was able to escape after gunfire erupted at a Southern California social services center.
Lacroix told reporters Wednesday that his son texted him and told him alarms started going off and they got word there was shooting. He said his son was sheltered with a group of people before they managed to get out.
Authorities say multiple people were shot at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Police were searching for one or more gunmen.
Lacroix said his son and colleagues were ordered to exit with their arms up and nothing in their hands.
12:40 p.m.
The president and CEO of the Southern California social services center where gunfire has erupted says the focus is on a building that houses at least 25 employees as well as a library and conference center.
Marybeth Feild of the Inland Regional Center says “the incident is in the conference area” that an outside group was renting Wednesday. She says she is not at the center, which serves people with developmental disabilities and does not know what outside group rented the center.
Feild says people served by the center also would have been in the building, which is in San Bernardino, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
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12:30 p.m.
President Barack Obama has been brought up to date on the shooting at a Southern California social services center.
The White House says he was briefed by his homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, and has asked to be kept informed as the situation develops.
Authorities say multiple people were shot Wednesday at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Police were searching for one or more gunmen.
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12:25 p.m.
Police say they are searching for one or more gunmen after a shooting at a social services facility in Southern California.
San Bernardino Lt. Rich Lawhead said Wednesday that multiple people were shot at the Inland Regional Center.
Several law enforcement agencies converged on the scene in San Bernardino, and triage units were being set up in the area.
Some people were seen being wheeled away on gurneys, and others filed out of a building with their hands up.
The facility serves individuals with developmental disabilities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
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12:15 p.m.
Terry Petit says he got a text from his daughter saying she was hiding after gunfire erupted at the social services facility in Southern California where she works.
Petit choked back tears Wednesday as he read the texts for reporters outside Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
He says she wrote: “People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office.”
Police searched people filing out of a building with their hands up before they reunited with loved ones.
Ambulances and law enforcement vehicles are racing through the area with sirens blaring.
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11:58 a.m.
A gas station manager near the site of a shooting in Southern California says there is a flood of police activity in the area.
Ana Fuentes, manager of a Shell station about a block from the scene, estimates that there are about 150 police officers flooding the area.
She said she hasn’t gotten any instructions to stay inside but that customers coming in told her about the shootings at Inland Regional Center. The center says on its website that it provides social services to people with developmental disabilities.
Dozens of people filed out of the scene, holding their hands in their air. Other people were seen being wheeled away on gurneys.
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11:40 a.m.
Police in San Bernardino, California, are responding to reports of an active shooter at a social services facility.
Lt. Rich Lawhead said Wednesday there are reports of multiple victims.
No arrests have been made.
Sgt. Vicky Cervantes says police are working to secure the scene in the inland region east of Los Angeles.
