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DNA Solves 1989 Murder:  A 50-year-old Washington man has been arrested for the 1989 rape and murder of a coed.  Travis Fedschun of Fox News reports that the Thanksgiving Day rape and murder of 18-year-old Mandy Slavik went unsolved until detectives matched the DNA of a neighbor, Timothy Bass, with DNA found on the Slavik's body.  While Bass was not a suspect during the initial investigation, police later suspected that he was involved.  That suspicion was confirmed when a co-worker at local bakery gave detectives a drinking cup Bass had used which provided a DNA sample.  Mandy Slavik left her parent's house to go jogging with her dog just before 2:00 pm on November 24, 1989, in the small rural town of Acme.  Hours later the dog returned alone.  Mandy's nude body was later found along a nearby river.  Bass has been charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and rape.

Suspects Claim Bias in Stash-House Stings:  A panel of federal judges is holding hearings on claims that stings to lure drug thieves to rob fictitious stash houses, which have primarily targeted black neighborhoods in Chicago, are racially biased.  Associated Press writer Michael Tarm reports that the claim was made by lawyers representing 43 defendants charged in 12 stash house stings carried out by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  The hearings will feature a report by Columbia Law School Professor Jeffery Fagan, which found that roughly 80% of the stings were carried out in predominantly black neighborhoods, which he says proves a "pattern of discrimination."  The government's lawyers argue that stings target only criminals with violent priors who unequivocally wanted in on the robberies.  They note that the districts targeted for stings are those with the most drug trafficking and that race plays no part.  Max Schanzenbach, a professor at Northwestern who examined Fagan's data, concluded that "a straightforward comparison of the stash house defendants to reasonable comparison groups--those arrested for similar crimes, in particular a home invasion involving a firearm--finds no statistical evidence of discrimination."

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