(UPDATE) KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Investigators say a man suspected of killing four people at his neighbor’s home in Kansas is now suspected of killing a man in Missouri after fleeing the state.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says two helicopters and dozens of officers are searching for 36-year-old Pablo Serrano. The patrol says Serrano should be considered dangerous and may be armed with an AK-47.

Authorities say four men were shot Monday night at the house in Kansas City, Kansas. Serran’s truck was found Tuesday morning about 170 miles away along Interstate 70 in central Missouri.

The patrol says a 49-year-old man was found fatally shot in a rural home about five miles away near New Florence, and a witness reported seeing a man running from the property. Several schools were put on lockdown.

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Colonel J. Bret Johnson, superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, warns the public of an armed and dangerous individual in Montgomery County area.

Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino is wanted for questioning in multiple homicides.

Serrano-Vitorino’s last known location was in the vicinity of the 175-mile marker of Interstate 70, near New Florence, MO.

Serrano-Vitorino was last seen wearing a red and black flannel jacket, blue hooded sweatshirt, and possibly blue jeans. His direction of travel is unknown.

Serrano-Vitorino is considered armed and dangerous, and may be armed with an AK-47. The patrol urges you to exercise extreme caution if Serrano-Vitorino is encountered. Do not approach or attempt to contact this individual. Contact 9-1-1 or *55 immediately.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a national group dedicated to the advancement of academic freedom and shared governance, has announced it will investigate the dismissal of a University of Missouri professor who was fired for outbursts to police and student journalists during protests last year.

In a news release, Dr. Julie Schmid, executive director of AAUP, announced she had authorized a formal investigation in the case of Professor Melissa Click at the University of Missouri. In February, the board of curators of the University of Missouri system summarily dismissed Professor Click from the faculty. The release says “normative practice” among American institutions of higher education is that a faculty member with indefinite tenure—or a probationary faculty member within the term of appointment—may be dismissed only following demonstration of cause in an adjudicative hearing before a faculty body.

The investigating committee will consist of three AAUP members from other institutions who will visit Columbia, Missouri, on March 22 and March 23 to meet with administrators, board members, faculty leaders, and Professor Click. After ascertaining the facts and the positions of the principal parties, the investigating committee will determine whether the board violated several employment standards. Those include the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure and derivative AAUP-supported academic procedural standards, the institution’s own stated policies, and whether conditions for academic freedom and tenure at the institution are sound.

The investigating committee will submit a draft report of its findings to the AAUP’s standing Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. If Committee A approves publication, the AAUP will send the draft text to the principal parties (including Professor Click and the administration) with an invitation for comment and corrections of fact. After being edited to take into account the comments received, the final text will be published online and in the AAUP’s Bulletin. At its June 3–4 meeting, Committee A will determine, on the basis of the published report, whether to recommend that the Association censure the UM administration at its June 18 annual meeting. Censure can be imposed only by vote of the delegates to the annual meeting.

The censure list is published for the purpose of informing Association members, the profession at large, and the public that unsatisfactory conditions of academic freedom and tenure have been found to prevail at the listed institutions. Censure thus serves as a warning to prospective faculty members that their rights may not be respected at the university. It indicates that an administration has been investigated for a violation and was found not to be observing generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure approved by the AAUP, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and more than 240 other professional and educational organizations that have endorsed the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

A filibuster continues in the state senate in Jefferson City, as Democrats try to block action on a measure to expand religious exemptions for those who object to same sex marriage. The debate has been underway since about 4pm Monday and was still underway early Tuesday morning.

The bill sponsor, Republican Bob Onder, doesn’t think state and local governments should penalize religious organizations, clergy and businesses for refusing to conduct or facilitate same sex marriage ceremonies. He’s proposing a constitutional amendment to allow Missouri voters to decide. He denied accusations of bigotry.

“By the time you add all these groups together, you have about three million Americans,” Onder said from the dais. “And, just to attribute to all those folks, minus me, some sort of bigoted motivation, Senator, I don’t think is fair.”

Democrat Jason Holsman opposes the measure. “It’s altogether plausible that people who don’t have those same motivations to deny the services will come together with an intellectual effort to try and justify that denial,” Holsman said.

“They may say ‘it’s not that I think that gay people should be discriminated against, but if they’re going to be discriminated against, but if they’re going to be discriminated against, then let’s do it in the most legal way possible.”

The bill would bar penalties including fines or the elimination of tax-exempt status. If the Legislature approves Onder’s bill, Missourians would likely vote on the issue in either August or November.

(MissouriNet)

WICHITA, KAN. – An Arizona man who didn’t realize he was texting with a Wichita police officer pleaded guilty Monday to driving five pounds of methamphetamine to Kansas, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Mark McFarland, 31, Phoenix, Ariz., pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation in furtherance of drug trafficking.

According to court records, McFarland thought the texts he received while planning to travel with drugs to Kansas were coming from his former girlfriend. In fact, the girlfriend had been arrested in another case and a Wichita police officer had seized her cell phone.

Two days after the girlfriend was arrested, McFarland sent a text to the girlfriend’s number saying, “Hi.” The officer texted back: “Hi.” What followed was a series of texts in which they arranged for McFarland to drive to Wichita to visit the girlfriend and to deliver five pounds of methamphetamine. McFarland was arrested when he arrived in Wichita with the drugs.

Sentencing is set for July 7. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. Grissom commended the Wichita Police Department and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Treaster for their work on the case.