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If you’re curious how petty the conflicts can sink on college campuses, consider some of the childish grievances called into the University of Missouri’s anonymous complaint and compliance hotline last year. Such as this one, which is still pending in the ivory towers: “Allegation that a UM System employee sent negative information to an external party about an individual’s spouse at the time when the external party was considering the spouse for a volunteer position.” Meee-OW! The Columbia Daily Tribune’s higher education reporter Janese Silvey got records of the anonymous hotline complaint reports and resolutions through a Missouri Sunshine Law request, which is probably like pulling teeth with the secretive university culture.

No action was deemed necessary on a February 2011 complaint that a UMSL employee was taking time off without accounting for it, supposedly with a supervisor’s knowledge. Nor was action deemed necessary on an April 2011 complaint that “a senior UM official regularly placed Bible quotes on email signatures, which were inappropriate given the individual’s position.” Still pending is a complaint lodged anonymously last November that “a UMSL supervisory employee made inappropriate comments and treated employees unfairly.” No names or departments are listed, so the university’s paranoid trucation of the information sadly ends up raising suspicions about all superviors at UMSL.

Politicians are scrambling and head-scratching over dual Missouri Supreme Court rulings Tuesday that shook up 2012’s elections. Filing officially opens February 28^th for the August party primaries. But where are the candidates supposed to run? In one ruling Tuesday afternoon, the black robes on the state’s highest court reversing a lower court decision throwing out legal challenges to Missouri’s new congressional boundaries. That means the challengers will get a day in trial court to argue that the districts – particularly the new 3^rd that touches suburban St. Louis and the new 5^th in the KC area – are compact enough to pass legal muster. The new lines for the congressional and state legislative districts are drawn every decade following the census to reflect population changes. As if that isn’t enough Jeff City sausage-grinding, the Supremes also struck down the new state Senate district boundaries, declaring a plan submitted by a special commission of appeals court judges violates the Missouri Constitution. You read that right – judges were deemed to have violated the constitution! What was unconstitutional? Jackson County (around Kansas City) and Greene County (around Springfield) were carved into too many separate senatorial districts. And, the Supremes added, the special commission of appeals judges violated the Constitution a second time when it tried to substitute a later map with some changes to its earlier boundaries. This means the process of drawing up new Missouri Senate districts must start all over again from scratch. Guv. Jay Nixon, who was on deck to deliver his State of the State address and budget message on Tuesday evening, is again required to name a bipartisan commission to work up new Senate boundaries. Such a bipartisan commission failed to get the job done last fall, which threw the work to the panel of judges that unconstitutionally erred.

It’s a Goliath v. David struggle: Lawyers for Catholic officials in St. Louis and Kansas City demanding depositions and thousands of pages of documents deemed private by two local SNAP leaders, David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris. But SNAP has picked up editorial support from Missouri’s two largest newspapers and the independent National Catholic Reporter. In a 2,500-word piece, the NCR opines that, “We know from too many stories of suicides and destroyed lives that it was only because of the diligence of outside watchdogs and whistleblowers that abuse in this country was taken seriously. It was only because of (SNAP’s) work that our church was forced, grudgingly, to change.”

Colbert’s super PAC ad, sponsored by “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow,” depicting GOP’s Mitt Romney in a “Stop Mitt the Ripper” has gotten outrage.It prompted Colbert to say Sunday on the ABC network he had no control over it. He has been quoted as saying he might run on a fourth or fifth party ticket.

Julia "J.J." Stupp and Karen Carroll

Shortly after her late husband, Brent Irl Greenberg - aka “BIG” – was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, his wife Robin discovered him weeping at his desk and handling some items and he said, “These are what I want buried with me.” Among them were photos of their marriage, granddaughter and of Brent with his son Jay, taken in Brazil where Jay owns property.

Lisa Gates Norwood, Rita McMillan, Charlotte Ottley, Michael McMillan

She made the promise and did so. Robin recently compiled anecdotes of hers and Brent’s dearest friends in a self-published book, “A BIG Tribute,” and dedicated it to To all those who knew and loved him.” A crowd of those who knew and loved him gathered at Roxanne’s in Clayton to toast the book’s distribution and to recollect memories of Brent. On hand for the buffet were Phyllis and Sanford Goffstein, Judy Blum, Lois Kaplan and Jay with his family who flew here from their base in San Francisco for the event. . .

Phyllis and Sanford Goffstein

That was yesteryear KMOX gm Karen Carroll chatting about her Feb. 15 climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro with heiress Julia  “J.J.” Stupp at Annie Gunn’s. Carroll still owns some Sylvan Learning Centers and has launched KCI Enterprise a private equity company. . .At Brio’s Tuscan Grill St. Louis License Collector Mike McMillan hosted dinner for his mom, Rita, Charlotte Ottley, who handles communications for his office and urges him to run for mayor and Lisa Gates Norwood. ..Restaurateur Tony Pietoso and wife, Marilyn, have agreed to disagree.

Jay and Robin Greenberg

Lois Kaplanl and Judy Blum

It’s shaping up to be a ”monster” year for aging, concert-going rock music fans. Rolling Stone magazine reports that Bruce Springsteen, The Eagles, Madonna and Van Halen will be touring in 2012. And Mick Jagger and  Keith Richards “met recently with their attorney to hash out details of how to mark their 50th anniversary together, weighing “ten nights in New York” and a few other big markets or “a full-fledged tour.”The somewhat younger crowd can look forward to concerts across the country by Adele, Radiohead, Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Keys, Mumford & Sons and the Zac Brown Band. (You can see the Stones in person, the magazine also notes that all six episodes of the Ed Sullivan Show on which the Stones appeared, from 1964-69, are now available on two DVDs “with each lion-taming act, performance and after-shave ad intact.”)

Another storm hit Joplin with the arrival of Jason Motte, Shane Robinson and Mitchell Bogg during the team’s visit there for a Q&A and discussion with students, helmed by KMOX’s Mike Claiborne.