Obama Hanged in Effigy at Kentucky

University of Kentucky police cut down a likeness of Sen. Barack Obama that had been hanged in effigy Wednesday morning, the Kentucky Kernel reports. The likeness, which was found hanging from a tree between a parking lot and a school building between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., wore khaki pants, a blue sports coat, and a mask of a black man, according to one of the students who first saw the figure. "I was disgusted and hurt someone would deface the university and put something up of this magnitude," student A. J. Mertz said.

UK President Lee Todd said he would personally apologize to the Obama family on behalf of the university. He said he was "outraged and hurt" by the display and "personally offended and deeply embarrassed by this disgusting episode."

Federal authorities have been notified of the incident, and UK police have the effigy as evidence. Police believe it was placed in the well-trafficked area on the Lexington campus overnight and are searching for witnesses.

The incident is the second one of its kind on a college campus this fall. In September, officials at George Fox University outside Portland, Ore., discovered a cardboard cutout of Obama hanging from a tree.