cnn's casey wian is join us from missoula, montana. what is going on, casey?e in missoula are angry that the federal government is questioning their handling of sexual assault cases here however some women students in this college town say they are relieved. the justice department's decision to investigate the way police, prosecutors and university of montana officials have handled sexual assault cases in missoula is a welcome development for some students. >> the federal investigation makes me feel like something's going down now and something's happening and, like, somebody feels that they need to protect not only my safety, but the safety of others. >> reporter: the justice department is conducting a civil rights inquiry based on potential gender discrimination related to 11 sexual assault cases on campus in the past 18 months and at least 80 cases in the missoula area in the past three years. >> i was actually really relieved, in a sense, because it is such a big problem, and i am pretty confident it hasn't been handled the way it should. >> nada is friend

it's unfair to us, to the missoula police department, to the community of missoula to imply that there'shat kind of a problem here. >> how do you respond to that, stu, after what you uncovered? >> well, to be completely fair, only one of the football players, bo donaldson, has been charged with a crime. i talked to one of the alleged victims, and she says, well, you know, after the alleged assault that happened to me, i went straight to the hospital and then i went straight to the police and gave them a report. and then after that, the police department and the county attorney decided there wasn't enough evidence to file charges. so it's unclear exactly what's happening. there's clearly an issue here. but to be fair, there's only one football player charged so far. he is awaiting trial this far. >> and his name again, stu? >> bo donaldson. a running back on the football team. he was. >> bo donaldson, the running back. what more do you know about him? what have you been able to find out about him? >> i pulled the court document for that. in september of 2010, a woman alleged that bo donal

. >>> now our fifth story outfront. 80 rapes in three years for the college town of missoula.u.s. department of justice has launched an investigation. at the heart of the matter is not whether the assaults occurred but how the local police, the county attorney and the university of montana handled the reports of sexual violence. was there a cover-up? a look the oar way? missoula county attorney says he's going to cooperate but he says the federal government is overreaching its authority. >> we find it extremely ironic that the u.s. department of justice, an agency dedicated to the preservation and protection of rights of people in this country refuses to tell us what we have supposedly done wrong. >> in february the university of montana came under fire after a saudi arabian exchange student was notified he was accused of rape. he left the country before police could investigate. the mayor says the city is doing everything it can to prosecute violent crimes against women and he joins me on the phone. mayor, thank you very much for coming on the phone. i saw this headline, 80 r

for the college town of missoula, montana. so staggering that the u.s.ustice has launched an investigation. at the heart of the matter is not whether the assaults occurred but how the local police and the university of montana handled the reports of sexual violence. was there a cover-up? the county attorney said he'll cooperate but he said the federal government is overreaching the authority. >> we find it extremely ironic that the united states department of justice an agency dedicated to the preservation of protection of rights of people in this country refuses to tell us what we have supposedly done wrong. >> in february the university of montana came under fire after a saudi arabian exchange student was accused of rape. he left the country before they could investigate. they're doing everything they coto prosecute. i saw this headline, 80 rapes in a few years. i was shocked like a lot of people were. but obviously, the allegations, the reason there's a doj investigation is they're saying that the police department, the university failed to adequately

saw him but a lot of the more and a lot of them were large camps of people in places like you know missoula occupied scattered on in canada mill is remarkable out whoring and it happened very very quickly i want to get on to to space so why is it important to occupy space at all. so i don't want to just stay at home you've got your rolodex you've got your friends you've got your social networking why not just coordinate from behind the scenes isn't a bit of a waste of time to put up tents and do things efficiently. but it is it goes back to the question about why online movements may move offline until i think there is a natural human need to communicate face to face and actually it is much more profound i think working online you're sort of is about coordinating autonomous individuals to do things and you have some feeling that you're part of a community of people that feels the same thing or is concerned about the same thing but it's nothing like. you know being in a space and say to stop you know everyone is there and willing to you know wanting to talk to each other is actually recreati

. >> missoula is a puma, born on april 11 and is the first woman to be born 22 years at the zoo. at 7-2 weeks old, she has grown to nearly 7 pounds. zoo officials have been and raising the cub and she is doing well, showing off her techniques particularly with mice. >> ever waited tables? a houston where's long devotion to his job has paid up big time in the form of a very generous tip. he has worked as a waiter in houston for 16 years. in that time, he has gotten large tips but saturday, a pair of reckless given the biggest gift of all. after overhearing that he lost his car and i fire, apparently, patrons decided to give him a $5,000 tip. what percentage that is but the amount of money surprised his boss but she cannot imagine a more deserving person. >> the sad part is i can tell you what percentage that is because broadcasters notoriously are not great mathematicians. you should have seen us in the news from trying to figure this outwe googled it. >> 18,000%. still ahead, a look at today's top stories. >> we will take a look at the area roads, we are tracking several accident

a missoula prosecutor says the allegations are false. >> i have no reason to believe that, in particulardepartment has in any way violated anyone's constitutional rights. >> justice officials say they are working to find out if the university and law enforcement have the necessary policies to protect women in the community. >>> the paster who said in a sermon that parents should punch their sons for acting girlish, is now backtracking from those words. shawn harris is the senior pastor of a baptist church in fayetteville, north carolina. here's what he said son. >> dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. man up! give them a good punch. >> harris is now apologizing for his word choice. >> if i had to do it again, would i say it differently? yes, i would. everyone in the congregation on that morning understood that there was no intent in any way, shape or form that i meant to break a wrist. >> harris says he is not backing down from the message of the sermon, saying, quote, god makes it clear that effeminate behavior is ungodly.

over the last three years that the justice department is looking into involved -- in and around missoula, not just the university of montana. i think there are only 11 cases that involve university students. >> so does it look like there's a connection, gwen, to what's happening on campus and off campus? >> reporter: well, certainly some of the students i talked to said that when they went to police they were willing to pursue rape cases which as you know are very difficult. in some cases the police said there wasn't enough evidence to pursue the cases, and in others the county attorney's office said there's not enough to go forward with prosecution. >> now the football coach though was dismissed and also the athletic director. why? >> reporter: we don't know. we would love to know. the university said only it was time for a change in leadership. >> and what about the status of the two football players accused of sexual assault and rape? >> reporter: well, one is still awaiting trial. and he has been formally charged. the other has not been formally charged. he is under a civil no contac

. >> host: chad ginn missoula, montana, thanks for holding. you're on with mark steyn. >> caller: thank you. it's been an honor and a pleasure listening to you, mark. i've been enjoying your views on liberty, fiscal responsible governments and such. and i've been wondering where do you stand on the iran phenomenon? and also why is he reviled so much in circles of conservative commentary? >> guest: well, i'm glad to have ron paul there on the stage, and ron paul there in the debates. and i think he makes a contribution. i certainly think, i enjoyed marvelously the night of in hampshire primary, mitt romney gave his usual stump speech, generalities, i believe in an america where all americans can be as american league american as americans has ever been, or whatever and ron paul comes at a star-studded told by the federal reserve and the gold standard and it's kind of an impressive in a way. and the crowd is cheering. i like, i'm all in favor of ron paul wendy's they are talking about small constitutional government, when he is hammering the fed

. >> i have no reason to believe that the missoula police department has in any way violated constitutional >> joining us on the phone is gwen who broke the story. the allegations are gut-wrenching as we find out more about the cases. tell me about the fact that gang rape was involved. >> reporter: that's how the initially started with a report from the -- we had heard allegations and the university confirmed it. a report that two female students had been assaulted by multiple male students in what the university describes as date rape is how we correctly describe them as gang rape. >> in addition to that, you were telling me about the reports of the saudi student who was accused of a sexual assault and left the school. tell me about that. >> reporter: that outraged the entire town. it happened after the initial investigation at the university where they brought in a retired supreme court justice to look at the issue of sexual assault on campus. they held public forums on campus and around town on sexual assault. after all of that, the saudi student was accused much assaulting two women in