WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) today released a bipartisan letter signed by 10 of their colleagues to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, & Education leaders calling for new federal funding to investigate and enforce sexual assault laws at colleges and universities.

“After being victimized by a crime as deeply traumatic and personal as a sexual assault, no young man or woman should be left to fend for themselves,” said McCaskill, a former courtroom prosecutor of sex crimes. “I fear that, like the U.S. military, we’re going to find systemic problems on our college campuses-including very low reporting due to lack of protections and resources. Our schools must provide the highest level of responsiveness to ensure that victims are protected and empowered, and that perpetrators don’t get a free pass.”

“When our young people go on to higher education, it should be an opportunity to learn, grow, pursue their dreams and prepare for their future careers,” Senator Gillibrand said. “But for one in five young women on campuses across America, the college experience becomes their worst nightmare, as victims of sexual assault. America’s colleges and universities are the best in the world. But it is simply unacceptable that they become havens for rape and sexual assault. It is time to take this crisis head on and end the scourge of sexual assault on our college campuses, hold offenders accountable, and keep our students safe.”

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education, college campuses reported nearly 5,000 forcible sex offenses in 2012. This puts college women at a higher risk for sexual assault than their non-college bound peers.

Laws covering sexual assault on campus are handled by the U.S. Department of Education, under Title IX and the Jeane Clery Act, which calls for colleges and universities to report information on crime on and around campuses, and provide victims with select rights and resources.

Each year, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) handles more than 10,000 complaints against schools over violations of Title IX, but has just half the staff it did in 1980, when OCR received a third of the amount of complaints as today. Not one position of OCR’s staff is dedicated exclusively to handling Title IX sexual violence complaints.

Worsening the problem, the Clery Compliance Team has less than a dozen staff members to enforce the law at over 6,000 colleges and universities across the country, rendering the team unable to investigate the 63 percent of schools that failed to report crime statistics in the manner required by the Clery Act. Nearly one-third of the campus sexual assault policies at 299 colleges surveyed do not fully comply with the Clery Act. From 2000 to 2013, Clery Act enforcement employees were only able to investigate and collect enough data to impose fines on just 21 colleges or universities.

To begin to get a handle on the growing crisis on campus sexual assault, Senators McCaskill and Gillibrand are working to equip the right federal agencies with the resources needed to create real accountability.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Samsung Electronics is adding two safeguards to its latest smartphone in an effort to deter rampant theft of the mobile devices.

The features announced Friday by the world’s leading mobile-phone maker will protect the Samsung Galaxy 5 S, which goes on sale next week. The models sold by wireless carriers Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular will include “Find My Mobile” and “Reactivation Lock” anti-theft options that users can activate for free.

The announcement comes as prosecutors in San Francisco, New York and law enforcement officials nationwide have been demanding manufacturers create “kill” switches to combat surging smartphone theft across the nation.

Samsung says its new measures lock the phone if there’s an unauthorized attempt to reset it.

Apple created a similar “activation lock” feature for the iPhone last year.

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A malfunctioning ATM at a bank in Maine has dispensed $37,000 in cash to man who requested $140.

South Portland police say they responded to the TD Bank branch Thursday morning after getting a call from a woman who said a man was spending an unusual amount of time at the ATM she was waiting to use. Officers found the man stuffing cash into a shopping bag.

The money was returned to the bank. Bank officials say they don’t want to press charges. But police continue to investigate. The man hasn’t been charged.

A bank official describes the problem as a “code error” and says no customer accounts were affected.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Columbia police say the death of a 16-year-old girl whose body was found in a motel room is being investigated as a homicide.

The girl’s body was found early Thursday at the Providence Inn and Suites. Police say a man called 911 and said he found an unconscious woman in his room.

The victim had been reported as a runaway. Her name was not immediately released.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — Archer Daniels Midland Co. will pay a $20,000 penalty to settle a state complaint that the company’s Columbus ethanol plant violated Nebraska air quality regulations.

The Columbus Telegram reports that the complaint was filed by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. The complaint said that ADM’s Columbus ethanol plant exceeded various emission levels at different times in 2010.

ADM agreed to the civil penalty in a consent decree filed last month in Platte County District Court.

GUNN CITY (AP) – Authorities say a northwest Missouri man died after he was found inside a well.

The body of 72-year-old Connie Dillon of Pleasant Hill was recovered from a well Thursday in rural Cass County.

Emergency personnel were called to his home Thursday evening. Rescue crews used a tripod and harness to recover Hill’s body. It was unclear how long he was in the well, which was about 30 feet deep.

Officials are investigating the cause of death but have said foul play is not suspected.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The mother of a man who was shot to death by Kansas City police is suing the officers and city officials.

Anna May Wealot alleges in a wrongful death lawsuit filed Thursday that police used unreasonable force when they shot 21-year-old Waylen Wealot in March 2013.

The Kansas City Star reports the lawsuit says Wealot threw the gun on the ground as he ran and never fired at the officers.

Police say Wealot ignored their commands to stop shooting at the van. Police officials say they don’t comment on pending litigation

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A southwest Missouri sheriff says he will reopen an investigation into a 1997 Springfield girl’s death that is linked to a man who was executed Thursday in Texas.

Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott announced Thursday he will reopen the case of Stephanie Mahaney, a 13-year-old who disappeared from her Springfield apartment in 1997. Her body was found in a Greene County pond a month later.

Arnott, who investigated Mahaney’s death at the time, says he interviewed Tommy Lynn Sells this week on death row in Texas. Sells was indicted in Mahaney’s death, one of three cases prosecutors linked to the killer.

The Springfield News-Leader reports Arnott isn’t less confident that Sells killed Mahaney, but the interview prompted him to review some facts in the case.